MARY SMALLMAN (WATKINS) - Godfrey Memorial Library

FIRST GENERATIONMARY SMALLMAN (WATKINS)(Mother of Rhoda Elizabeth Watkins)Mary Smallman was born in Dudley,Worcestershire (now West Midlands),England, on 5 June 1818. Her parentswere William Smallman and RhodaMason who were wed 17 February 1812at St. Thomas of Canterbury (now St.Thomas the Apostle) Parish Church,Dudley. Mary is believed to be thefourth of at least nine children born to herparents. A christening date has not beenlocated for Mary.Mary’s father, William Smallman, wasborn about 1782-1791, probably inStaffordshire or Worcestershire. Heworked as a cordwainer (shoemaker andleather worker). He may have learned histrade in the nearby city of Stafford whichThe parish register entry for William Smallman and Rhoda Mason, parents of Mary Smallman.Their signatures confirm both were literate. Joseph Baker, a witness, was likely a family friend.The other witness, Mark Bond, was probably an employee of the church.66

was famous at thattime for themanufacture ofshoes.William’s familyantecedents havenot been confirmed,but it is knownthrough MarySmallman that hehad at least twobrothers, Josepha n d J o bSmallman—at thispoint, a survey ofknown Smallmanfamilies in theSedgley area has notlocated a familywhich includes sonswith the names ofWilliam, Joseph,and Job. The closestfound to date is theA contemporary sketch of St. Thomas of Canterbury Parish Churchin Dudley, Worcestershire (now West Midlands) where MarySmallman’s parents, William Smallman and Rhoda Mason, weremarried in February 1812. This sketch was made 30 October 1815,shortly before the old and decrepit church was torn down and replacedwith a larger building. The stones from the demolished church weresalvaged to build a nearby row of cottages. Several tombstones wererecycled by the builders and incorporated as oven bottoms in many ofthe cottage kitchens; loaves baked in these ovens could be identifiedby the imprints on their undersides from the lettering and sacredsigns engraved in the tombstones.family of Joseph and Elizabeth Smallman of Old Swinford, Worcestershire, whosechildren were William, born 1782; Joseph, born 1790; Mary, born 1794; John, born1797; and Sarah, born 1799. (Is it possible there was a Job born in that periodbetween 1782-1790??)Apparently, Mary Smallman never knew the names of her Smallman grandparents;when she had their temple work performed in the LDS Endowment House in SaltLake City in July 1875, the grandparents were simply known as “Mr. Smallman” and“Mrs. Smallman.”Mary Smallman’s mother, Rhoda Mason, born about 1785, is believed to be thedaughter of George Mason and Mary B. Ives, of Northampton, Northamptonshire,England. Through a series of christenings recorded at All Saints Church in the cityof Northampton, the Mason family line can be traced back to the early 1700s.67

Dudley Castle, as it appeared in 1771. The castle was a familiar sight to theSmallmans as they traveled between Dudley and nearby Gornal. The townof Dudley was legally part of Worcestershire, but it sat uniquely like anisolated island completely surrounded by southern Staffordshire.Mary Smallmancame from aworking-classfamily. TheSmallmanslived in a regionof Staffordshiregenerally calledthe “BlackC ountry,”known as suchbecause of thepervasive coalmining activitythat darkenedalmost everylandscape.Mary’s father was exceptional in having the occupation of shoemaker, since mostemployment in Lower Gornal and Sedgley revolved around mining and the ironworks. It was usual in the local communities that the able men and older boys wouldwork in the mines while other family members stayed at home and made handmanufacturednails and fire irons to earn a necessary supplemental income. Boysarriving at the age of fourteen were old enough to join their fathers in the coal mines,and they usually did. (At least one of Mary’s younger brothers, David, was workingwith his brothers in the Sedgley coal mines by the age of seventeen.) Often, wholefamilies, young and old, worked together at the mines.It was normal for young girls of Mary Smallman’s social class to obtain work as ahouse servant by the age of twelve. As soon as Mary was old enough, she had to earnher own clothing and pay her way. By her late teens, she had gained employment asa servant with the family of William Benbow and his wife Ann. (An erroneous familytradition connects Mary’s employment with William’s brother, John Benbow, inHerefordshire; however, all the documentary evidence firmly links Mary withWilliam and Ann Benbow.) William, a farmer, had formerly lived in Herefordshire.William’s wife, Ann Bagley Benbow, may have been from the Dudley/Sedgley area.Married in nearby Worcester in 1830, William and Ann Benbow were familiar withboth Dudley and Lower Gornall, having had their first four children born orchristened in both communities as early as 1831 and as late as 1836. It is likely thatMary came into their employment during this period, and it is also likely that a good68

portion of her responsibilities revolved around the fouryoung children.By 1840, William and his wife Ann were living in the newmarket town of Hanley. Hanley was one of sixStaffordshire communities centered around Stoke-on-Trentthat comprised an area popularly known as “The Potteries.”The Potteries region was internationally famous for themanufacture and sales of quality china, crockery, andearthenware. William Benbow’s expertise, however, lay infarming and in operating a successful provision store inHanley Market Square. Market days in Hanley wereWednesdays and Saturdays and were always crowded.They were especially prosperous for William’s grocerybusiness, nestled among the open-air stalls and carts thatconstituted the market place.Sometime prior to January of 1840, William and AnnBenbow appear to have become members of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The times and69Throughout her life, despiteadversities, Mary Smallmanalways chose to maintain acheerful disposition. As aservant in the WilliamBenbow home, she enjoyedwaiting on Wilford Woodruffand other visiting Latter-daySaint Church leaders.circumstances of their baptisms are uncertain. It is possible that Mary Smallman hadalso converted to the LDS faith about the same time as the Benbows. The Benbowsand Mary Smallman became part of the Burslem Branch in Staffordshire which at thattime counted about 66 local members and met just two miles north of Hanley.In January 1840, Elder Wilford Woodruff, a new apostle in the LDS Church, arrivedin England with other Church leaders to proselyte for the new religion founded byJoseph Smith. Elder Woodruff was assigned to The Potteries, about forty miles southof Manchester. He arrived in Burslem, one of the six Potteries communities, on 21January 1840. Elder Woodruff was pleased to find an active branch of the Churchthere. The following day, on 22 January 1840, he traveled to nearby Hanley and hadsupper that evening at the home of William Benbow. Elder Woodruff recorded in hisjournal: “Brother Benbow was not at home but we were much pleased with his LadySister Ann Benbow. She was Strong in faith & manifested much interest at ourarrival to England from America.”It was sometime during this part of Wilford Woodruff’s ministry that Mary Smallman,serving with the Benbows, had the privilege of washing Elder Woodruff’s feet. Anentry in Wilford Woodruff’s diary, dated 26 January 1840, may make a directreference to Mary. Elder Woodruff spoke at a gathering in Burslem, then afterward

ecorded: “A worthy Sister wished to wash my feet. I gave her an opportunity & shedid so. I had the spirit of prophecy concerning her & delivered it unto her. ”If Elder Woodruff’s diary entry does refer to theunnamed Mary Smallman, it truly was prophetic: Marylater would meet and marry an elder in the LDSChurch, would have sons and daughters, and her sonswould indeed receive the LDS priesthood. The story ofMary washing Elder Woodruff’s feet would be passeddown among Mary’s descendants from generation togeneration, independently of knowledge of the journal.Wilford Woodruff’s missionary efforts met with richsuccess as he circulated among the various Potteriescommunities. As the weeks passed, he found himselfmore frequently staying at the William Benbow home.Mary Smallman, who always had a cheerfuldisposition, had many opportunities to serve Elder70Wilford Woodruff, about thetime of his mission to England.Woodruff, Theodore Turley, and other visiting Church leaders. Wilford Woodruffand William Benbow had several late-night discussions concerning the rise of therestored Church and the current need to gather the Saints to their new city being builton the banks of the Mississippi River in Commerce (now Nauvoo), Illinois.Within his first six weeks in The Potteries, Elder Woodruff had met with outstandingsuccess and had baptized forty new converts into the LDS Church. It was withsurprise, then, that on 1 March 1840, Elder Woodruff announced to a largecongregation in Hanley that he felt called by the Spirit to leave their fellowship andgo south to continue his missionary efforts. Immediately after his startlingannouncement, Elder Woodruff was approached by William Benbow. William urgedElder Woodruff to visit Herefordshire where William had friends and other closeBenbow relatives. William generously offered to accompany Elder Woodruff toHerefordshire and pay the transportation costs for both. On 3 March 1840, the twomen boarded an omnibus and traveled to Wolverhampton where they spent the night.The following day, they took a coach to Worcester, then walked the rest of the wayto the home of William’s brother, John Benbow, at Hill Farm, near Castle Frome,Herefordshire.

William’s brother, John Benbow,and John’s wife Jane, farmedthree hundred acres and had alarge home. They had no livingchildren. John Benbow oftenused a large room in his home tohost meetings of the UnitedBrethren Church, a local group ofabout six hundred persons. TheUnited Brethren, desiring toplace added emphasis on thescriptures, had broken from theUnited Methodist Church.Larger meetings for the groupwere held in a stone chapelowned by John Benbow, abouttwelve miles distant at GadfieldElm.In 1840, John Benbow and Thomas Kington donatedtheir United Brethren chapel at Gadfield Elm, Herefordshire,to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-daySaints. Wilford Woodruff, Brigham Young, and otherearly Church leaders preached here. The chapel wassoon sold to finance immigration to Nauvoo. It hasrecently been repurchased and restored by the LDSChurch. (Photo from Meridian Magazine.)Elder Woodruff’s teachings hadan immediate impact on the Benbows. John and Jane Benbow enthusiasticallyaccepted the LDS gospel and were baptized within two days. They placed the largeroom in their house at Elder Woodruff’s disposal to preach to the neighbors. Whathappened next is legendary. Wilford Woodruff’s preaching met with immediate andstartling success. Elder Woodruff prepared a portion of the pond on John Benbow’sfarm for baptisms and baptized 32 persons within the first five days.William Benbow stayed with Wilford Woodruff at the John Benbow farm for thefirst week, then had to return home to his business in Hanley. What William hadseen during that week, and what he knew of Elder Woodruff’s ministry before, hadapparently cemented William’s own decision to emigrate to America—within themonth, William and his family, together with Mary Smallman, would be embarkingto cross the Atlantic to join the Saints at Nauvoo, Illinois. This would be the lasttime William would visit the John Benbow Farm, and—for all he knew at thetime—it might be the last time William would see his brother or mother. WilfordWoodruff wrote in his diary for 11 March 1840: “Brother Wm. Benbow parted withBrother John Benbow & started for home in Hanley. ”71

When the ship England landed in New York on 12 May 1840, Mary Smallman (#43) and theBenbow family were listed among the steerage passengers.Wilford Woodruff remained at the John Benbow farm and baptized 160 persons overthe course of five weeks. [Within seven months, Elder Woodruff’s persistent effortswould bring over 1800 persons into membership of the LDS Church. Of the sixhundred members of the United Brethren Church living in Herefordshire, only onewould fail to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.]In the meantime, Mary Smallman helped the William Benbow family prepare for thevoyage to America. She was also able to make her own preparations. William andAnn Benbow valued Mary’s service and had included her in the reservations theyhad reserved for the sailing ship England, which was due to sail in early April 1840from Liverpool to New York.When Mary packed her few belongings and traveled to the Liverpool docks to boardthe ship, her younger brother, David Smallman, age sixteen, came to the docks andtried to persuade her to come home. Although she regretted sundering her ties to herfamily, Mary remained firm to her testimony of the gospel; she pointed out thateverything she owned had already been packed aboard the England, and she refusedto return with David. David was greatly disappointed; his last words to Mary were,“You will find the crows to be as black in America as they are in England.”Although Mary was the only one of her family known to embrace the LDS gospel,she was to find that her family, including David, were to one day follow her toAmerica. [See the Sidebar: “The Odyssey of Mary Smallman’s Parents andSiblings” following this article.]The ship England carried about 285 passengers on Mary Smallman’s voyage. It wasa 731-ton packet ship sailing as part of the Black Ball line between New York andLiverpool. A steamer pulled the ship to sea about 15 miles, and then the passengersbecame introduced to the full rigors of a sea voyage in a sailing vessel.72

Mary Smallman and the Benbow family were among the steerage passengers. Thepassenger manifest carried several inaccuracies. The manifest listed William’s wife,Ann, as “Eliza,” and reduced the true ages of the adults by ten years or more; theoldest daughter, Louisa, was listed as “Louis,” a male child. (The oldest son, JohnWilliam, age eight, was not listed, and may have been placed with relatives inEngland to come later.) The manifest, however, was reasonably accurate when listingAnn and Mary, the two youngest Benbow children at the time. Mary Smallman, thethird adult in the group, was listed immediately after William and Ann Benbow andbefore the Benbow children.Capt. Benjamin L. Waitein later years. When theship England was lost atsea in late 1844, he hadalready retired from seaservice.The England’s captain was Benjamin L. Waite, a relativelyyoung skipper, known for his fairness, who was developinga reputation for his ability to skillfully sail his ship betweenNew York and Liverpool in near-record time. In an agewhen the voyage would normally take five to six weeks,depending on the weather conditions, Captain Waite, bynavigating the northern routes, could often cut the time byten to fifteen days.After skirting the Newfoundland Banks, the ship Englandlanded in New York harbor on Tuesday, 12 May 1840.The voyage had taken five weeks. It was typical, after aone-to-three day wait, for all passengers to be examined bya medical doctor, then have their luggage prepared forcustoms inspection. Some passengers would be allowedashore, though most would sleep on board. The following day, luggage andpassengers would be transferred by lighter boats to the Custom House docks for finalinspection. Once inspected, the passengers would again load their luggage aboard thelighter boats which would deliver them to the uneasy mercies of the New YorkDocks. The docks were always full of horses and drays. Suspect draymenaggressively competed to attract each passenger’s business and would curse bitterlywhen refused. William Benbow and his entourage had to be watchful during thetransfer of the luggage from the lighter boats to the docks, since the waterfront wasalive with sharpers and scoundrels who were full of tricks to try to separate the newimmigrants from their belongings.It is likely that Benbow family and Mary spent the next few days ordering theirluggage, acclimatizing themselves to dry land, and seeing the sights of the city. Newarrivals from England were always surprised to find fresh fruit in abundance at thefruit stands, and they reveled in the taste. There was even a Mormon presence in the73

city. Latter-day Saint Church services were held Sundays and during the week in theMilitary Hall in the Bowery.Within days after leaving the ship England, William, Ann, Mary, and the childrencontinued their journey. In 1840, there were two recognized routes available forimmigrant Saints traveling to Nauvoo, Illinois. The more usual route was to take aboat to Philadelphia, then travel by train and canal boat to Pittsburgh. FromPittsburgh, accommodations could be arranged on a steamboat to travel down theOhio River to the Mississippi, then travel by another steamboat to go up theMississippi to St. Louis and, finally, Nauvoo. This route had the serious drawbackof exposing the passengers to constant cholera outbreaks all along the way.The second option, less practiced, was to take one of the one hundred steamboats thenplying the Hudson River and travel from New York to Albany. Albany was the linkbetween the Hudson River and the Erie Canal, which was the engineering marvel ofits time. The canal began at Albany and ended 364 miles westward at Buffalo on theshores of Lake Erie, linking the Hudson River with the Great Lakes and theburgeoning western territories. Its completion in 1825 enabled trade and immigrationbetween the western states and the eastern seaboard to multiply beyond belief. TheErie Canal was the primary reason that New York City was becoming the trade centerof the world. The canal also provided an attractive alternative for travelers whowanted to avoid the miserable overland routes of the day and the disease-riddentowns along the Ohio River. Additionally, the canal boats allowed travelers to largelyignore adverse weather conditions. Upon completion of the canal route at Buffalo,travelers could board a Great Lakes steamboat which would take them along theshores of Lake Erie to Cleveland; or they could continue onward through Lake Huronand Lake Michigan all the way to Chicago, Illinois. From Cleveland, the Ohio andErie Canal offered a quick and easy access to the Ohio River, where riverboats couldtake travelers to the Mississippi River and then to Nauvoo, Illinois.William chose to take his family and his servant Mary Smallman along the ErieCanal/Cleveland route. William would take careful notes along the way; later, hewould write to his brother John Benbow in England and brief him on what to expecton such a journey and which routes to follow; six months later, John Benbow wouldfollow exactly the same New York to Buffalo route. (John Benbow’s advanceknowledge helped him to know just what to anticipate all along the way; however,John would eventually incur the jealousy of his fellow travelers because of hisuncanny ability to continually obtain the best accommodations or provisions for theuse of his traveling party.)74

The William Benbow party, including Mary Smallman, rode the entire 364 mile length of the ErieCanal, from Albany to Buffalo. The canal linked the Hudson River with the Great Lakes andopened access to the western territories of America. It also became a popular leg for the journeyfrom New York City to Nauvoo, Illinois.It is possible that Mary Smallman also wrote to her family after passing throughAlbany and gave the city a favorable description—her younger brother, David, wouldmake his home in Albany immediately after his own immigration later in the 1840s.Travel to Nauvoo by the Erie Canal route first involved leaving New York by HudsonRiver steamboat. After boarding and settling in, passengers could idle until lateafternoon; then they would watch and listen with fascination as their steamer andseveral dozen neighboring steamboats began stoking their boilers almost in unison.At 5:00 p.m., there came an unforgettable sight as their own steamboat and amultitude of others would leave their moorings at virtually the same instant and churninto the harbor, the absurdly high smokestacks of all of the boats spewing showersof sparks and smoke. (The chimney sparks were truly dangerous, as sparks andcinders from one steamboat had twelve months earlier accidently set fire to a goodportion of a large upriver town named Hudson.) Each steamboat, whistles sounding,bells clanging, and paddle wheels churning, had to vie with the others for its turn toenter the upstream channel of the Hudson River.As their steamboat crept upriver into the dusk, some passengers would find places tosleep, usually on deck, while others, more restless, would remain where they couldwatch the continually unfolding riverside scenery and drank in by moonlight theirearliest images of America. Those who sought sleep would be lulled by the constantsound of the steamboat’s churning paddles. The following dawn, the immigrantswould eagerly crowd the railings and gaze with untiring appreciation at the springsplendor of the Hudson River Valley. Thick forests in first leaf and high hills withsteep cliffs would be interspersed with pleasant hamlets, farms, and villages whichshouldered the riverbanks. Periodically, the steamboat would pull ashore to restock75

firewood. Probably late in the evening, the steamer would arrive at Troy, New York,which, like Albany, was a transfer point for those traveling westward by the ErieCanal. The Canal would be the next leg of the journey to Illinois.Typically, the passengers would sleep on board the steamboat overnight, thendisembark early in the morning. After a period of haggling with the canal boatproprietors—invariably, passengers found the canal rates to be more costly thanpromised—they would transfer their belongings to the waiting boats. By midafternoonor a little later, the horses or mules would be hitched up, and the canal boatwould be on its way.Canal boats were not built for comfort: Baggage would typically fill most of theavailable space, and passengers might laze or sleep on their luggage. If thepassengers were lying topside, they would often have to climb down to allow theloaded canal boat to venture through the low arches of the town bridges.Unobservant passengers were known to suffer injuries if they were too slow vacatinga topside seat after the boat operator’s warning call, “Low bridge, everybody down.”As teams of horses or mules pulled the hired canal boats along the miles of waterway,there would be opportunities to walk alongside and occasionally bargain with localresidents for food or goods. If the passengers were unfortunate enough to miss thegrowing season, food might not be available, and the passengers would be restrictedto whatever provisions they had already provided for themselves. Sunday wasseldom a day of rest for either the canal boat operator or his passengers; however,when opportunity provided, passengers would wash up (an opportunity many had nothad since leaving England), or idly explore the pleasant countryside. As the daysprogressed, city and hamlet would appear alongside the waterway and then passbehind. About the fourth or fifth day into the journey, the Benbow party passedthrough Palmyra, where the Prophet Joseph Smith lived as a youth and where hereceived the metal plates that he translated into the Book of Mormon. There was noopportunity to pause and sightsee, however, as the horses pulling the canal boatcontinued their plodding gait toward Rochester without interruption. The followingday, the canal boat passed through Lockport, where the water locks raise the canallevel sixty feet. It was probably that same day, in the early evening, when MarySmallman and the Benbow family finally arrived at Buffalo.Buffalo was a boom town, its prosperity built on its location as the ultimate end of theErie Canal and its position as the crossroads for all traffic that interchanged betweenthe western territories, the Great Lakes and the eastern seaboard. It was also a resortstop for those who wanted to view the great Niagara Falls just a short distance away.76

The canal boat operators always considered time to be money, and would chide theirpassengers to unload as soon as possible in order to free their boats for the returnjourney. The passengers, in the meantime, either had to store their baggage at extracost or immediately transfer the luggage to one of the waiting steamboats that weredocked on the shores of Lake Erie. These steamboats regularly plied the cities alongthe shores of the Great Lakes, from Buffalo, New York, all the way to Chicago,Illinois, a thousand miles distant.William Benbow and his entourage boarded one of the Great Lakes steamboats andjourneyed along the verdant shore of Lake Erie for a day and a half before arrivingat Cleveland, Ohio, 175 miles from Buffalo. Prior to their arrival in Cleveland, thewiser steamboat passengers would prepare their luggage for disembarking: Oncelanded, there was always a scramble among the passengers to be first to hire horsesand wagons or to get tickets for the Ohio and Erie Canal boats and have their luggagetransferred.Cleveland, in those years, was a still developing village, but growing rapidly, fed bythe trade and commerce the Ohio and Erie Canal made possible. By 1840, the Ohioand Erie Canal had transformed the economy of Ohio and other western states inmuch the same way as the Erie Canal had in New York. Produce and other farmgoods could be shipped by canal to or from eastern markets for one fifth the price ofoverland freight. Passenger rates were cheap: William Benbow paid about $1.75 perperson to travel by canal from Cleveland down to the city of Portsmouth, located 308miles southward on the banks of the mighty Ohio River. The canal voyage fromCleveland to Portsmouth entailed passing through 146 water locks which would raiseor lower the water level along the way a total of over 1200 feet. Yet, the entire routewould take only eighty hours to traverse.For Mary and the other passengers, there was always something new to look at alongthe way. The canal route offered a series of scenic variations. The canal passengers,used to passing under bridges, would sometimes be amused to find their canal boatbeing pulled along over a stone bridge constructed to hold the water of the canal atan elevated level as it passed over a road or crossed another canal. There were timeswhen a canal boat would enter a reservoir or lake and the familiar towpath used bythe horses pulling the canal boat would entirely disappear. In such cases, theenterprising canal builders had constructed floating towpaths so the horses or mulescould continue their progress unabated. Where steep cliffs denied construction of thetowpath embankment, the builders had blasted a stony towpath into the sides of thecliffs. More familiar along the canal route were the series of enticing shopfront77

Mary Smallman and the William Benbow family traveled by canal boat from Cleveland to the OhioRiver in late May of 1840. The Ohio and Erie Canal linked Lake Erie with the Ohio River,traversing 308 miles and 146 water locks between Cleveland and the city of Portsmouth. The canaltransformed the economy of Ohio and other western states in the 1840s. (Photo:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ohio_Canal.)streets facing the canal in almost every village; the canal boat captains, however,seldom relented to the entreatments of passengers to stop: Time was money, after all,and a schedule is a schedule.When the canal boat hired by William Benbow reached Portsmouth, William, hisfamily, and Mary Smallman, transferred to a steamboat headed downstream on theOhio River. Along with the Mississippi River, the Ohio was one of the most majesticand important waterways of America. It was the east-west artery of the country andthe key to enable the settlement of the western states. Mary Smallman and theBenbow family rode the steamer on the Ohio River over four hundred milesdownstream to the mouth of the Mississippi River, then traveled upstream almost twohundred miles to St. Louis. Whether the Benbows and Mary changed steamboats atthis point is unknown; however, after traveling another two hundred miles up theMississippi, they reached their destination of Nauvoo, Illinois, by June.The 1840 U.S. Census for Hancock County, Illinois, was probably taken sometimein August or September of that year. It confirms that Mary Smallman and theWilliam Benbow family had indeed settled in or near Nauvoo by that time. William’senumerated household included one male aged 30-40 (William); one female aged 30-78

40 (Ann); one female aged 15-20 (almost certainly Mary Smallman); two femalesaged 5-10 (Louisa and Ann); and one female under 5 (Mary).In late November of 1840, William Benbow was joined in Nauvoo by his brother,John Benbow, their nephew, Thomas Benbow, and their respective families. Johnand Thomas were also accompanied by some other near relatives from England.From the very beginning, John Benbow had been willing to back his commitment tothe LDS faith with both his person and his money. (Wilford Woodruff later creditedJohn Benbow’s generosity as the primary assistance that allowed 40 converts fromHerefordshire to emigrate to America that same fall.)The Benbow clan, including both William and John, acquired some farmland outsideNauvoo. With their usual industry, they worked together, forming a family enclave,and built their settlement into a prosperous concern. Wilford Woodruff, shortly afterhis own arrival in Nauvoo from England in early 1842, paid a visit to the Benbows.Elder Woodruff was pleased to see the admirable beauty and bounty of the Benbowfarm, and afterward noted his impression of their diligence: “30 [January 1842]Sunday. I rode to Br John Benbow’s on the prairie 6 miles from Nauvoo & preachedat his house & spent the night. This was the first time I had been to his house sincemy return to Nauvoo. I spent the time very pleasantly. While there his farm lookedalmost like the garden of Eden. I never had seen more work done in one year on aprairie farm than on his. He had surrounded it & crossed it with heavy ditches &planted thorn hedges. His dwelling, barns, sheds, garden yards, orchards, &c wereall beautifully arranged. It much resembled some of the farms of old England. It willbe a pleasant retreat for a summer’s ride from Nauvoo. “By this time, however, William Benbow’s dedication to the LDS Church hadundergone a disappointing transformation. Elder Woodruff reported: “The littleNeighbourhood now consists of five families from England all well united, exceptingWm. Benbow who has denyed the faith & is a family by himself.” [By 1844, Williamand Ann Benbow were to leave Nauvoo and move to Yorkville, Racine County,Wisconsin, and acquire a farm. William and Ann eventually had second thoughtsabout the LDS faith and decided to come to Utah with their family in 1854. Theybrought with them provisions and furnishings for resale. William bought a largefarm, but remained in Utah only two years before removing to southeastern Iowa,where he and his wife Ann lived until their respective deaths in the 1880s.]In spring of 1842, an LDS Church census found Mary Smallman still residing withthe William Benbow family within the boundaries of the Nauvoo Third Ward. (Marywas enumerated with William and Ann and their children.) Mary was rebaptized into79

the LDS Church on 11 April 1842. Mary’s continued dedication to the LDS gospelmay not have pleased the disaffected William Benbow.A tradition has been passed from generation to generation among Mary Smallman’sdescendants that after arriving in Nauvoo, the Benbow family had been cruel to Mary.As the stories go, Mary was forced to go barefoot in the snow during the winter. Shesupposedly never had a bed, but slept on a trunk with only her coat to cover her. Shewasn’t allowed to eat with the family, but ate her meals out of a tin wash basin. Manytimes, she allegedly went without food. At times, her only sustenance was the milkshe was able to furtively obtain from some of the cows she was assigned to herd.Mary’s adult age at the time (she was 21 at the time of her emigration) suggests thatsome of these stories may have possibly become exaggerated, or perhaps the eventsplaced in Nauvoo actually occurred during the hardships of the trans-Atlantic voyageand the subsequent journey to Nauvoo. It is indisputable, however, that Mary wasapparently ill-treated in some respects, and she would quit the service of the WilliamBenbow family under less than friendly terms.One wintery night, she was sent to the fields, ill-dressed and underfed, to search forBenbow cows. A neighboring farmer, Benjamin Wilcox, observed her neglectedstraits. Filled with dismay and concern, Benjamin escorted Mary to his house andmade arrangements with his wife, Mary Wilcox, to have Mary Smallman remain asa permanent houseguest with the Wilcox family. [The Wilcoxes had a son, Hilan D.Wilcox, who was six years old at the time—as an adult in later years, Hilan wouldmeet some of Mary’s children and grandchildren in Utah and share his personalrecollections concerning Mary’s “rescue” by his parents; Hilan’s stories paralleled theabove account.]Mary’s service with the William Benbow family ended on 1 March 1843 (possiblyat the time the Benbows moved to Wisconsin). According to later testimony, WilliamBenbow owed Mary considerable back wages at the time, amounting to $162.William apparently told Mary that he was unable to pay her then, but promised tomake restitution later on. Afterward, Mary made several attempts to collect herwages from William, but was met either by excuses or outright refusals.In the meantime, Mary’s destiny changed. In April of 1842, a young convert namedRobert James “Jimmy” Watkins had arrived in Nauvoo from Herefordshire, England.Robert’s wife and an infant child had taken ill during the difficult journey and haddied within days after their arrival in Nauvoo. Robert had been left alone with a smallfour-year-old daughter to care for. When he met Mary Smallman (still staying withthe Wilcox family), Robert had been coping with the challenges of being a widower80

father for more than a year. Robert felt prompted to consult with President JosephSmith concerning his situation, and the Prophet advised Robert to take Mary for hiswife. LDS Apostle John Taylor officiated at the ceremony when Robert and Marywere married on 18 August 1843 in Nauvoo . Mary was 25, and Robert was 34.Robert Watkins and Mary made their home in the Nauvoo Third Ward. At that time,according to records, Mary and Robert were living in a home on the northwest cornerof the intersection of Hotchkiss and Granger Streets, on block 99. (The home is nolonger there, and the property is now part of a corn field.)Mary’s new husband assumed the responsibility of collecting Mary’s back wagesfrom William Benbow. Each of Robert’s approaches to William who was far awayin Wisconsin, however, met with the same stubborn refusals to pay. Robert and Marywent to the local court in Nauvoo as their last resource. On 11 March 1844, Robertand his lawyer, Jason H. Shuman, filed suit in the Nauvoo Circuit Court againstWilliam Benbow. The complaint stated that Benbow owed Mary Smallman $162 inpast wages for the time she worked for him prior to her marriage. William allegedlypromised to pay her in the future, but later refused. Robert and Mary were nowasking $300 in damages.State of Illinois } Of the May Term A.D. 1844Hancock County } Of the Nauvoo Circuit CourtRobert Watkins and Mary his wife by their Attorney complain of William Benbow incustody etc. of a plea of trespass on the case on promises. For that the said defendant,whilst the said Mary was unmarried, to wit on the first day of March AD 1843, at the Countyand State aforesaid, was indebted to the said Mary in the sum of one hundred and sixty-twodollars for work & labor of the said Mary by her before that time done, and performed forthe defendant, and at his special instance & request, and being so indebted, he the defendant,in consideration thereof, afterwards, and whilst the said Mary was sole and unmarried, towit, on the day & year aforesaid, at the County aforesaid, undertook and promised the saidMary to pay her the said sum of money when he should be thereunto afterwards requested.Yet the said defendant (although often requested) has not paid said sum of money or any partthereof to the said Mary whilst she was sole & unmarried, or to the plaintiffs or either ofthem since their intermarriage, but so to do has hitherto wholly neglected & refused to thedamage of the said plaintiffs the sum of three hundred dollars, & therefore they bring suitetc.J.H. ShumanP.L.The lawsuit was accompanied by an affidavit affirming the claim:Robert Watkins& Mary Watkins his wife (hitherto81

Mary Smallmanvs.William BenbowRobert Watkins, plaintiff above mentioned being duly sworn & deposed says that the sd.William Benbow , the sd. above defendant, is justly indebted to him in right of his wife in asum exceeding twenty dollars, to wit, in the sum of one hundred and sixty two dollars, forwork & labor performed by his wife for said Benbow before her marriage with affiant andthis affiant further saith that the said William Benbow is not an inhabitant of this State, butin what State he lives, this affiant knows not. Affiant further states that he believes the saidBenbow owns real estate within this State.Sworn to and subscribed } Robert X Watkinsbefore me this 11the day of }March AD 1844B. Backenstos ClkBy D E Head DepyRobert Watkins and Jason Shuman also filed a writ of attachment against forty acresowned by William Benbow in the prairie approximately six miles out of town. Acourt date of 21 May 1844 was set for the case to be heard at the Hancock CountyCourthouse in Carthage. Acting on the writ of attachment, Sheriff WilliamBackenstos placed a lien on William Benbow’s prairie property identified as “thesouthwest quarter of the north eastern [quarter] of Section Eleven Township SixNorth, Range Eight West of the fourth principal meridian, March 11 th 1844.” (Theproperty today sits just a short distance southwest of the community of Powellton,Illinois.)By 7 May 1844, a list of prospective witnesses had been prepared, and SheriffBackenstos was ordered to serve summonses to John Scott, Benjamin and MaryWilcox, and Jane Benbow (the wife of John Benbow and sister-in-law of William).The sheriff was able to serve three of the witnesses, but could not locate JaneBenbow. Jane did not appear in court by the appointed date of 21 May; however, herlocation must have been identified, for the following day, a new summons wasprepared, and the day after, Sheriff Backenstos found Jane and was able to read thesubpoena to her.Unfortunately, the existing court record is silent on what happened to the lawsuit afterthis point. It is unknown whether William Benbow finally paid Mary’s back wages,whether the William Benbow land was sold by the sheriff to recover the damages, orwhether the case was dismissed or dropped. It is likely that the lawsuit was nevercontinued, submerged and forgotten in the wake of larger events overtaking the82

members of the LDS Church in Nauvoo. The following month, on 27 June 1844,President Joseph Smith, the revered and maligned prophet of the Church of JesusChrist of Latter-day Saints, was murdered by a mob at Carthage Jail.Robert and Mary had enjoyed friendship and close acquaintance with both Joseph andHyrum Smith. When the bodies of the martyrs were returned from Carthage bywagon, Robert and Mary viewed the bodies. The next day, Robert and Mary joinedthe thousands of mourners who filed through Joseph’s Mansion House to view themartyrs’ bodies in their caskets.Thereafter, mob violence against the Saints in Illinois steadily increased; houseburnings, shootings, threats, and other violence were targeting the inhabitants ofseveral Mormon settlements outside Nauvoo. Whole civilian militias, composed ofthe roughest frontier elements armed with guns and cannons, were daily threateningto attack Nauvoo itself.It was during this atmosphere of uncertainty that Mary’s first daughter, RhodaElizabeth Watkins, was born in Nauvoo on 12 September 1844.As mob violence intensified against the LDS citizens of Nauvoo and the outlyingareas, the leaders of the LDS Church made plans to evacuate the city and move to anundisclosed place westward. The movement westward began in early February of1846. In late February, a hard chill completely froze the surface of the MississippiRiver which was nearly a mile in width at the Nauvoo crossing. Mary and Robert,with the child Catherine and the infant Rhoda, crossed the ice with their possessions,then traveled seven miles further to Sugar Creek where the majority of the Camp ofIsrael, nearly two thousand strong, was gathering. Here, the Watkins family campedwith minimum shelter in the bitter cold and wet weather. This was the first stage ofwhat would become an arduous winter trek across Iowa exceeding three hundredmiles.More chilling rains and freezing weather accompanied the refugees as they continuedwestward, alternately fighting hub-deep mud, frozen ground, and flooded rivercrossings. The privations and exposure suffered during what became known as theWinter Exodus caused Mary to develop a crippling form of rheumatism that wouldaffect the mobility of her limbs for years afterward.After a toilsome journey which eventually brought them to the east bank of theMissouri River, Robert and Mary helped found a settlement called English Grove,located about 20 miles below the Iowa border in Missouri. They were joined in83

English Grove by Robert’s sister, Catherine “Kitty” Watkins Mantle and her husband,Llewellyn Mantle, and family. On 8 January 1847, Mary gave birth to her secondchild, Sarah Ann Watkins.Shortly after, Robert Watkins was called by Brigham Young to leave English Groveand move to Highland Grove, one of the Mormon settlements in Iowa, to manage theraising of crops needed to feed the Mormon refugees and supply the wagon trainsheaded westward to the Great Basin. President Young promised that if Robert stayedbehind for now, he would ensure that Robert and Mary received good land in Zionwhen it was their turn to come. It was to be a four-year calling.Mary Smallman sometime after her arrival in Utah.The effects of her rescue of Sarah Ann from thefireplace are evident in the now elevated hairlineand the scar on the right temple.While Robert managed the plantingand harvesting of the Church crops,Mary tended to her householdchores and the raising of her babies.Each day, she had to challenge thedisabling arthritic condition of herhands. On one occasion, Mary wassitting at home in front of thefireplace, holding her infant SarahAnn in her lap to feed her. SarahAnn gave a sudden squiggle andtumbled out of Mary’s crippledgrasp right into the blazingfireplace. Rather than ineffectuallytrying to paw the little body fromthe burning hearth, Maryinstinctively fell to her knees, thrusther head directly into the hotflames, and pulled the child outwith her teeth. Two neighbor boyshappened to be passing by andheard Mary’s distressed cries. Theyhelped her roll the baby in flourdough and treated Mary’s burnswith the same pioneer remedy.Baby Sarah Ann recovered; other than some residual scarring, she seemed little theworse for the experience. Mary was burned and scarred high above her forehead andon her right temple and lost a deal of hair in the burned area which never grew back.84

Mary delivered her third child, Mary Matilda Watkins, on 8 January 1849, and afourth daughter, Martha Jane Watkins, in Highland Grove, on 26 October 1851.Finally, in early 1852, Robert Watkins received word that his family would betraveling with the Isaac Bullock Company to the Great Salt Lake Valley.Accordingly, the Watkins family settled their affairs in Highland Grove, Iowa, andcrossed the Missouri River to Florence, in Nebraska Territory. Florence was thepioneer “jumping-off” area, where wagon trains were organized and the journeywestward began. The Bullock Company left Florence on 4 July 1852. Mary’sstamina, with her disabled limbs, was constantly tested. She had the care of Martha,eight months old; Mary, age three and a half; and Sarah Ann, age five. These wereallowed to ride in the wagon. The older girls, Catherine, fourteen, and Rhoda, seven,were expected to walk alongside the wagons the entire distance. It was a full onethousand miles from Florence to the Great Salt Lake Valley.Their trek west faced the usual hardships, but moved quickly. Cholera struckmembers of at least one family in the company within the first few weeks. Along therest of the way, the immigrants saw many Indians, ate buffalo, and had to ford ademanding series of waterways. Thankfully, the Bullock company was blessed withgenerally good weather, and the company members arrived in Great Salt Lake Cityon or near 21 September 1852.After a greeting by local Church leaders, the Watkins family and the wagons of othercompany members were directed to the Mill Creek encampment located on a formerChurch pasture, near present-day 3300 South and State Street. Robert and Maryconverted their wagon for use as a permanent shelter. With their four daughters,Mary and Robert lived out of the sheltered wagon bed for over eighteen months,enduring two winters and a summer. It was while living in the Mill Creekencampment that Mary and Robert had their first son, Joseph William Watkins, bornon 26 March 1854.Shortly after Joseph’s birth, Mary and Robert moved to Mountainville, Utah.(Mountainville was soon renamed Alpine.) Here, Robert would became a relativelyprosperous farmer, growing produce, raising horses and cattle, and selling meat. Hefirst built a rough two-room log house, then two years later, built a more substantialtwo-story, four-room adobe house which was at that time part of the originalcommunity fort. (The Watkins home in Alpine has outlasted all other homes builtwithin the fort and still stands today at 45 North 100 East.) Mary and Robert’s lasttwo children, Robert James Watkins, born 13 July 1856, and John Reuben Watkins,born 20 July 1858, were born in Alpine.85

The home Robert James Watkins built for his wife, Mary Smallman Watkins, in Alpine, Utah.Built in 1857, it remains today as a lasting heritage of pioneer times. (Photo taken 2004.)Despite her physical disabilities, Mary Smallman Watkins never avoided anyresponsibility. Sundays were always an occasion for Mary, as children,grandchildren, and other family members would drop in for relaxed conversation andan expertly prepared dinner. Mary remained active in the Alpine LDS ward. On 29October 1869, the first LDS Relief Society in Alpine was organized. Mary by thattime was a widow, but with her older daughters, she remained active in theorganization and served in various callings. Mary is believed to have served as thesecond counselor in the initial organization of the Alpine Relief Society.In April of 1869, Mary’s beloved husband Robert “Jimmy” Watkins was caught ina blizzard while retrieving the Alpine City mail from the American Fork post office.Robert contracted a cold, then, after a prolonged illness, died of pneumonia on 23April 1869. He was buried in the knoll that overlooks the Alpine cemetery. At home,the widowed Mary still had children to raise: Martha Jane (who married thefollowing October); Joseph, fifteen; Jim (Robert James), thirteen; and John, ageeleven.During the year following “Jimmie” Watkins’ death, the city of Alpine organized itsland records and gave Mary official title to at least four properties in the Alpine area:86

they were described as“Lot 1, Block 1; Lot 12,Block 4; and Lots 10 and20, Block 5.” In lateryears, Mary would turnthese properties over toher children. In the caseof Lot 1, Block 1, Marygave the property in 1890to her daughter-in-lawFannie Nielsen Watkins,the widow of Mary’s son,Robert who had died in1888. (Mary may alsohave had title to otherAlpine properties.)On 21 July 1875, MarySmallman, her sister-inlawCatherine WatkinsMantle, and her sonThe 1863 hall in Alpine, Utah, where Mary attended churchand met with the Relief Society. It is now the Relic Hall forthe Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. Portraits of Mary andRobert Watkins hang inside, and one of Mary’s scarfs isamong the displays.Robert “Jimmie” Watkins and Mary Smallman Watkins posein a Utah photo studio in the 1860's.Joseph traveled to the Logan Temple and performed ordinances in behalf of Mary’sparents and other deceased members of the Smallman, Watkins, and Mason families.Mary had never lostconcern for the familymembers whom she hadleft behind in England.Some of her brothers andsisters had accused Maryof abandoning her familyand her native country totravel to a new land whichwould have nothing moreto offer than she alreadyhad. Mary never forgot87her brother David’sdoleful prediction that shewould “find the crows inAmerica to be as black asthe crows in England.”

Ironically, Mary’s parents andalmost all of her living brothersand sisters would themselvesemigrate to America withineight years of Mary’s departure.Her brothers Joseph and SamuelSmallman led the way whenthey emigrated with theirfamilies to New York City in1844; they were followed in1848 by Mary’s parents and hersiblings Hannah, Sarah, andReuben, and other relatives. Bythat time, Mary’s brother Davidhad apparently traveledseparately and establishedhimself in Albany, New York.David would establish a thrivingdry goods business in Albanyand raise his family there. Mostof the other brothers and sisterswith their families would moveto Brooklyn where severalDespite her physical frailties, Mary was to becomean active founder of the pioneer town of Alpine, Utah.generations of Smallmans would grow and prosper with mixed success. [See theSidebar at the end of this article.] None of the New York state Smallmans, however,had become members of the LDS faith.In September 1885, Mary Smallman’s son Joseph and members of the Mantle familytraveled again to the Logan Temple and performed ordinances for more of Mary’sfamily, including some of her brothers and sisters now deceased. Additionally,ordinances were performed in behalf of other members of the Watkins family. Mary’slove for her parents and siblings, though they had been long separated, had continuedthrough the years.Through her widowhood, Mary had the continued support of her children. Mary’sson, Jim (Robert James Watkins), lived with Mary until his marriage in 1882.Afterward, Mary’s youngest son, John Reuben Watkins, continued to stay with her.John married in 1891; afterward, John and his wife Anna lived with Mary in theadobe house in Alpine and helped care for her.88

Mary had becomecrippled at a comparativelyyoung age.As she advanced inyears, she oftenwalked only with thehelp of two canesand at times wasforced to crawl. Yet,she was alwayswilling to helpothers, and shesuccessfully raisedeight children—fivegirls and three boys.In spite of herphysical challenges,she maintained acheerful dispositionand had a smile foreveryone. She alsohad that particularquality of pioneertoughness thatdisdained complainingabout things thatcouldn’t be helped.Instead, shefrequently voiced herthankfulness tofamily and friends forthe many blessingsshe had received.Mary Smallman Watkins in her later years. Despite adversities,she was no complainer, but always counted her blessings. Shepassed away in her beloved town of Alpine, Utah, in 1900 atthe age of 82.In her declining years, it became too difficult for Mary to attend church meetings, butshe remained a faithful Latter-day Saint until the end. Mary Smallman Watkins diedin Alpine, Utah, on 11 December 1900 at the age of 82. She was buried beside herhusband “Jimmie” atop the Alpine cemetery knoll that overlooks the community theyhelped to found.89

Children of Robert James Watkins and Mary Smallman1. Rhoda Elizabeth WATKINS, born 12 September 1844, Nauvoo, Illinois;married 16 February 1862, Ezekiel PRICE; died 30 September 1912,Tremonton, Utah.2. Sarah Ann WATKINS, born 8 January 1847, English Grove, Atchison,Missouri; married 17 January 1863, John Riley MCDANIEL; died 2 January1884, Alpine, Utah.3. Mary Matilda WATKINS, born 8 July 1849, Highland Grove, Iowa;married 16 February 1869, Ephraim HEALEY; died 11 February 1907,Alpine, Utah.4. Martha Jane WATKINS, born 26 October 1851, Highland Grove, Iowa;married 18 October 1869, John Riley MCDANIEL; died 16 November 1923,Alpine, Utah.5. Joseph William WATKINS Sr, born 26 March 1854, Mill Creek, Utah;married 9 September 1877, Dorthea Maria BECK; died 26 March 1888,Alpine, Utah.6. Robert James WATKINS, born 13 July 1856, Alpine, Utah; married 22November 1882, Fannie NIELSEN; died 15 October 1888, Alpine, Utah.7. John Reuben WATKINS, born 20 July 1858, Alpine, Utah; married 15January 1891, Anna Mathilda J. JACOBSEN; died 22 March 1913.An affectionate view of Alpine, Utah, as painted by Alpine’s former mayor, Samuel Brown, about1888. Brown pictured Utah Lake (far background) much closer than is fact. In this detail fromthe painting, Mary Smallman Watkins’ home sits directly in the center. (Original painting inpossession of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and displayed in the Alpine DUP Relic Hall.)90

SIDEBAR: THE ODYSSEY OF MARY SMALLMAN’S PARENTSAND SIBLINGS—STAFFORDSHIRE TO NEW YORK(William Smallman and Rhoda Mason Smallman and their children)Until very recently, virtually nothing has been known about what happened to MarySmallman’s parents and her brothers and sisters after Mary emigrated from England.Recent research by Arleen Price Bjorn found that Mary’s parents and siblings alsoemigrated to America in the 1840s and became an integral part of the immigrantfabric of New York City and Brooklyn, New York. The new information presentedhere was obtained while following up on Arleen’s research. NOTE—not allrelationships identified here have been absolutely confirmed; some links are basedon the most probable relationships. Research into the family names is complicatedby the fact that it was common to refer to an individual by one name (either given ormiddle) in public records, but the same person would be known by another namewithin the family. Thus, “Joseph Smallman” may be known as such in one context,but called “Solomon Smallman” in another. This practice was common among bothmales and females. Some additional information concerning these families can befound within the family group sheets in the appendix of this volume.William Smallman and Rhoda Mason SmallmanMary Smallman’s parents, William Smallman and Rhoda Mason, were married 17February 1812 in St. Thomas parish church, Dudley, Worcestershire, England. Thetown of Dudley, complete with a ruined castle, was officially part of Worcestershire,but had the peculiarity of sitting as an isolated geographical island surrounded bysouthern Staffordshire. Many of those born in nearby Staffordshire communities,such as Lower Gornal, Sedgley, or nearby West Bromwich or Handsworth, mightoften afterward refer to Dudley as their birthplace. William Smallman made hisliving in Staffordshire as a cordwainer, making shoes and working leather.William Smallman probably learned his craft in nearby city of Stafford, famous forits shoe manufacturing. Shoes, however, were not a priority in the families of theeconomically challenged inhabitants of this region. Most workers in Sedgley and theother adjoining industrial communities were poor. At the change of shifts duringearly morning and late evening, the paved streets of the coal mining communitieswere filled with the overwhelming clatter of wooden shoes and clogs worn byhundreds of workmen with no money to spare for leather shoes.91

Rhoda Smallman found themselves working the mines with their peers.Although William and Rhoda were conscientious about christening their two oldestchildren soon after birth, others, including Sarah, David, Reuben, and Silas, wereapparently not christened until years afterward: Sarah was fourteen, David twelve,Reuben nine, and Silas six, when, together, all four participated in a joint christeningat St. James Church (also known as the “Pepperbox” chapel) in Lower Gornal,Staffordshire, on 22 January 1836. There are no known records of christenings forHannah, Mary, or George.The English Census of 1841 provides a quick snapshot of the family of William andRhoda Smallman, then residing in the small village of Lower Gornal, a suburb ofSedgley, located about 3 miles northwest of Dudley. Both William and Rhoda wereshown to be 50 or older; their oldest son Joseph, 25, and son David, 15 (actually 17),were both registered as coal miners. Others listed in the household were Hannah andSarah, each aged 20 (according to the census), and Reuben, thirteen, and Joseph, two.Living next door to William and Rhoda were their second son, Samuel, age 25, alsoa coal miner; his wife Phebe (Phoebe), 20; and their daughter Hannah, age one.By the time of this 1841 Census, William and Rhoda Smallman’s daughter, Mary, hadconverted to the LDS Church and had already emigrated to America in the companyof her employers, William and Anna Benbow, of Hanley, Staffordshire.Mary’s departure may have inspired the rest of her family. In late 1844, Mary’s twoolder brothers, Joseph and Samuel, took their wives and other family members andemigrated from Liverpool to New York City aboard the ship Remittance, arriving 7December 1844. Almost all the rest of the William Smallman family followed in1848, arriving in New York on 3 October 1848 aboard the ship Marmion, masteredby Captain Thomas F. Freeman. The Marmion passenger manifest included Mary’sparents, William and Rhoda Smallman, and Mary’s siblings, Hannah, Sarah, andReuben, who were all to settle in New York. The sixth member listed with the familygroup was another Joseph Smallman, age eight—this was most likely the son ofMary’s brother George and George’s wife Ann. (George and Ann were not knownto leave England.)At some point prior to 1850, Mary’s brother David also emigrated and settled inAlbany, New York; however, the time of David’s immigration has not beenidentified. It is possible the resourceful David may have worked his passage acrossand was not listed on any ship’s passenger manifests.93

Mary Smallman’s mother Rhoda began to fail in health shortly after arriving in NewYork, and she died of heart disease on 8 October 1850. Rhoda Mason Smallmanappears to have been born between 1790 and 1793, but her death certificate indicated1780. (The US Census of 1850 listed the ages of both William and Rhoda as 68.)William Smallman presumably had resumed his occupation as a shoemaker, but hepassed away in New York on 1 August 1852. His age was given again as 68,although William may have been born as early as 1782 or as late as 1791. (Theearlier date is more likely). Both William and Rhoda were buried in Green-WoodCemetery in Brooklyn.* * * * *THE KNOWN CHILDREN OF WILLIAM SMALLMANAND RHODA MASON1. Joseph Solomon SMALLMANWilliam and Rhoda Mason Smallman’s oldest son, Joseph Solomon Smallman, waschristened 23 May 1813 at All Saints parish church in Sedgley, Staffordshire,England. Although official documents throughout his life referred to Joseph by hisfirst name, those within the family often called him Solomon—it was common amongSmallman family members to be familiarly known by their middle names whiledocuments carried only their first names. (Joseph Solomon Smallman is sometimesreferred to in more recent family records as Joseph Mason Smallman.) By the timeof the 1841 British Census, Joseph was living with his parents and family in LowerGornal, near both Sedgley and Dudley. Joseph’s age was listed as 25 and hisoccupation was coal miner. [Note: Census ages above 15 were generally roundeddown to the nearest five-year increment; thus, an age of 28 would be listed as 25.]Also enumerated with the family was a younger Joseph, age two. It is likely that theyounger Joseph was the son of Joseph Solomon Smallman by a wife who had died orwas separated. This wife was probably Esther (“Ester”) Bengie. Ordinancesperformed at the LDS temple in Logan, Utah, in September 1885 by Mary Smallmanand her family indicate almost without question that Esther was Joseph SolomonSmallman’s first wife. The ordinance records show that Esther was born in Dudley,Worcestershire/Staffordshire, in 1818; Esther Bengie was regarded as an aunt byMary Smallman’s children, but their records do not offer a marriage or death date.The ordinance records also do not mention Joseph Solomon’s documented secondwife, Mary Eliza Phibbs, whom Mary Smallman may not have known before leavingEngland in 1840.94

Joseph Smallman appears to have married Eliza Phibbs [or Fibbs] sometime between1841 and 1844. Eliza was likely a close relative of William Phibbs and Joseph Phibbs,both of Tipton, Staffordshire, who in 1844 married Joseph’s two younger sisters,Hannah and Sarah. (The surname of Phibbs, while uncommon anywhere else, wasfairly common in the community of Kingswinford, just west of Lower Gornal,Staffordshire; likewise, the name of Smallman seemed more common in Kingswinfordthan in other surrounding communities.)In October/November 1844, Joseph Solomon Smallman and his new wife Eliza andfamily emigrated aboard the ship Remittance. Accompanying them were Joseph’sbrother Samuel and Samuel’s wife and family. They sailed from Liverpool andlanding at New York harbor 7 December 1844. The Remittance passenger manifestincluded Joseph, age 31; Eliza, age 30; and three children: Mary, age five; Joseph (Jr),age four; and Ruth, age three. [Mary and Ruth were not mentioned in the 1841 Censusof the William Smallman home and thus may be Eliza Phibbs Smallman’s children bya previous marriage.] Joseph’s brother, Samuel, age 29, was also listed on the manifestwith Samuel’s wife Phoebe, 25.In late July 1849, Joseph’s wife, Mary Eliza Phibbs, died during a cholera epidemicin New York. Although no death dates have been found for her children Maria andRuth, it is possible both may have also died by this time, since no furtherdocumentation of them is found after 1844.By 1850, Joseph, age 36, was living in New York City’s Fifth Ward with his parentsand other family members. Joseph, according to census and city directories, wasworking as a waiter. The crowded Smallman household which listed Joseph as thehead included his brother Samuel, age 35; Samuel’s wife Phoebe, 33; and theirchildren, Anna,10; Rachel, 3; and Joseph’s brother Reuben, age 25. Also enumeratedwith the Smallman household were Joseph’s children: Joseph (Jr), age 13; Solomon,age 5; and Elizabeth, age 1. Another child listed in Joseph’s household, Gilbertina,age 3, was undoubtedly a close relative, the daughter of an otherwise unidentifiedRobert Smallman.About 1851, Joseph married again, to an Irish immigrant named Sarah Jane Wasson.Sarah appears to have been about 15 years younger than Joseph, possibly born about1828. Sarah Jane bore him five children: Sarah, born 1852; Rhoda, born 18 February1854; Jane, born 1858; Samuel, born 4 October 1861; and Joseph James, born October1862. Sometime in the 1850s, Joseph moved his family to Brooklyn, in Kings County,New York.95

On 22 October 1856, Joseph Smallman received his papers as a naturalized Americancitizen in Kings County Court. His younger brother Reuben witnessed thenaturalization.Joseph’s enterprise gained him at least three properties in the Brooklyn area, includinga bone boiling business in Flatlands, just east of Brooklyn. Although hardlyglamorous, the bone boiling endeavor enabled Joseph to provide for his family andwas prosperous enough to allow Joseph to hire his brothers Samuel and Reuben towork for him, as well as extended family members, including a favored nephew namedafter Joseph.At the age of fifty, Joseph contracted pneumonia; on 8 July 1864, he made his will,leaving his business to his wife; if she should die, the business was to be dividedbetween his nephew Joseph Smallman (son of George and Ann) and his son Solomon(who was still serving as a soldier in the Union Army). Joseph was careful to specifythat Gilbertina (identified as his “stepdaughter”) was to be regarded in every way asa co-inheritor of the rest of his estate with his other biological children.Joseph’s will is interesting and verifies many family relationships:UNITED STATES//INTERNAL REVENUEIn the name of God AmenI Joseph Smallman of the Ninth Ward of the City of Brooklyn, Bone Boiler,being of sound mind, memory and understanding, but being sick in body, domake, publish, and declare this to be my last Will and TestamentFIRST I nominate and appoint my beloved Wife Sarah Smallman and myNephew Joseph Smallman executors and Trustees of this my last Will andTestamentFIRST I direct them to pay all my just debts and funeral expensesSECOND I will and devise unto my said Executors and Trustees all my estatereal and personal to them and their heirs for ever in Trust for the followinguses and purposes, that is to say:FIRST To Suffer and permit my said wife to have hold possession and enjoy myreal estate situated on the Clove Road in the County of Kings and standing inmy name of Record in the Registers Office of said County during all the termof her natural life with power to lease any part of it during said term that shemay think proper for the purposes of a home, for her and my children, and fortheir maintainance and support, she to pay the annual taxes and charges96

whatever there may be upon the same, and in the event of her dying before myyoungest child [Joseph James Smallman, born 1862] arrives at the age oftwenty one years, then the same is to be conducted by my said Nephew and hiswife, should he marry, until my youngest child arrives at the age of twenty oneyears, when the said property is to be leased out by my surviving Trustee andthe taxes and charges upon the same, including repairs, are to [be] paid out ofthe rents issues and profits thereof and the balance remaining is to be dividedequally among my children or their legal representations share and share alike.And I authorize and empower my said Executors and Trustees to takepossession of my real estate and Bone Boiling establishment at Flatlands in theCounty of Kings and conduct the same in all aspects as if I were pursuing mysaid business & may said Nephew to receive for his full pay and conducting thesame one half of the profits of said business, the other half to be retained andkept by my said wife for the support of herself and family, and in the event ofthe decease of my said wife, and of my son Solomon returning from the War,then he is to conduct my said business in conjunction with my said Nephew asbefore directed settlements of said business, and division of said profits to bemade once every month or two weeks at the obtion [sic] of my said Trustees.My Step daughter Gilbertina Smallman to have an equal right with my childrenand to be considered one of my wife’s family, should my wife die, my Nephewabandoning the business and my son be unable from any cause to conduct it forsaid family purposes, then I direct that my said property and business inFlatlands be sold and the nett [sic] proceeds thereof be divided to and amongmy children, My Nephew above named, and my Step daughter Gilbertina inequal shares, share and share alike, after my decease I direct my Trustees tosell and dispose of all my personal property except that which may benecessary for the carrying on of my said business and apply the same to thepayment of my just debts as far as it may go, and should there be any overplusthen it is to be divided as hereinafter mentionedI give, devise, and bequeath to my said Executors and Trustees my realestate and improvements situated on Classon Avenue in the Ninth Ward of theCity of Brooklyn to have and to hold said property and to take and receive fromthe City of Brooklyn whatever amount may be awarded to me for the same bythe Commissioners of the Prospect Park or by the Court and authorizing themto give proper receipt or discharges for said monies when received to the Cityof Brooklyn and I direct my said Executors and Trustees out of the money soreceived to pay unto George Coleman the balance of money due to him for thepurchase of my Flatlands propertySECONDLY To pay out of the same unto my son Solomon Smallman one Eighthpart which may remain for distribution after the p0ayment of any costs &charges and of the money to be paid to said George Coleman, said portionhowever not to be paid to him but to be deposited in a Savings Bank and the97

interest only to be paid until he shall arrive at the age of twenty one years andthen the principle to be paid at the discretion of my Executors and TrusteesTHIRDLY To pay over unto my Nephew aforesaid one Eighth part of saidmoniesFOURTHLY To pay over to my Step daughter Gilbertina one Eighth partFIFTHLY To pay to my sisters Hannah and Sarah Phibs [sic] the sum of onehundred dollars to be equally to be divided between themSIXTHLY To pay over to my brother David’s children the sum of one hundreddollars to be equally divided among them, the remaining five parts to beequally divided between my remaining children and my wifeTo the children of my brother Reuben fifty dollars, all the rest of mypersonal Estate I bequeath to my wifeWITNESS my hand and Seal this 8 th day of July 1864,[signed] Joseph Smallman [seal, “IS”]Signed, Sealed, published and declared by the above named Joseph Smallmanthe testator, to be his last Will and Testament in our presence,C. [Charles] J. Jack, 337 Fulton St., BrooklynJohn Kemble, 337 Fulton St, BrooklynDavid Smallman, 237 South Pearl St., Albany[Will proved in Kings County, New York, Surrogate Court, 18 August 1864]Joseph died in Brooklyn on 21 July 1864. He was buried in Brooklyn’s Green-WoodCemetery. Joseph’s will and probate action were recorded 18 August 1864 in KingsCounty Court, New York (Liber 28, pg. 422). Joseph’s widow, Sarah Jane, apparentlykept the bone boiling business; she afterward married Thomas Chadwick, a young manseveral years younger than herself, who took over the business operations. Joseph’sfavored nephew [the son of George and Ann] became a wagon driver; Joseph’s sonSolomon returned from the Civil War to become a fisherman, then later built asuccessful ice business.In 1885, Joseph Solomon Smallman’s grandnephew, Joseph W. Watkins, conductedtemple work in behalf of Joseph at the LDS temple in Logan, Utah. At that time,Esther (“Ester”) Bengie, born 1818 in Dudley, Staffordshire, was sealed to JosephSmallman as his wife.Those tentatively identified as the children or stepchildren of Joseph SolomonSmallman include:1. Joseph SMALLMAN (Jr), born about 1837-1838, of Staffordshire,98

England. Joseph is listed with Joseph Solomon Smallman’s household in the1841 census and emigrated with Joseph Solomon and Eliza Phibbs to New Yorkin 1844. He and appears in the 1850 Census at age 13 with Joseph SolomonSmallman’s household, but is unknown after that. He is likely the son of Ester(Esther) Bengie.2. Maria SMALLMAN, born about 1838-1839, of England. Maria was notlisted in the 1841 census with Joseph (Solomon), and thus may actually be thedaughter of Eliza Phibbs by a previous marriage. Maria emigrated with JosephSolomon and Eliza Phibbs to New York in 1844, but is not known afterward.3. Ruth SMALLMAN, born about 1841-1842, England. Like Maria (above),she was not included in the 1841 census in Sedgley, Staffordshire, with JosephSolomon Smallman’s family, and accordingly may actually be the daughter ofEliza Phibbs by an earlier marriage.4. Solomon Robert SMALLMAN, born 15 April 1845, New York City, NewYork, the son of Joseph Smallman and Eliza; Solomon enlisted at age 18 in theUnion Army, 3 October 1863; served as a private in I Company, New York 13 thHeavy Artillery Company; assigned to Naval Brigade, Army of the James, fromJuly 1864 to end of the Civil War. Solomon’s unit participated in battles foughtat Days Point, VA, in November 1864, and at Blackwater, VA, in March 1865;Solomon was mustered out in Norfolk, Virginia, on 28 June 1865. It was arelatively quiet war for Solomon—throughout the Civil War, his company losta total of five men to combat. Immediately after the war, Solomon returned toBrooklyn and apparently declined or sold his share of his father’s bone boilingbusiness; instead, he became a fisherman. About 1865, Solomon married EllenConnors, born June 1845, in New York. Solomon became the father of about10 children. While helping to raise his family, Solomon left fishing andoperated an ice house that became a family business: For several years, manyBrooklynites bought their ice from ice wagons owned by Solomon and hischildren. Solomon’s health failed about 1913; he finally died of nephritis inBrooklyn 16 August 1918. His widow afterward filed for a Civil War pension.Ellen Connors Smallman died 23 March 1927 in Brooklyn.5. Elizabeth SMALLMAN was born about 1849 in New York. She isprobably a daughter of Joseph Smallman by Eliza Mary Phibbs; however,nothing is known of Elizabeth beyond her inclusion in the Smallman householdin the 1850 Census.6. Gilbertina SMALLMAN was born in New York City on 12 March 1848.Gilbertina’s parentage is uncertain; her death certificate filed in Queens, NewYork, in 1923, names her father as “Robert Smallman” and her mother as“unknown.” Both were apparently born in England. There is some speculation99

that “Robert” may have actually been Reuben Smallman, however, the 1864will of Joseph Solomon Smallman which names Gilbertina as his“stepdaughter” (undoubtedly not meant literally) clearly seems to differentiateGilbertina from Reuben’s children, and if she were a true niece, the will wouldlikely have referred to her as such. Then also, if Gilbertina was born in NewYork in 1847 or early 1848, as all available documents attest, this wouldpreclude Reuben Smallman from being her father, since he did not emigratefrom England until late 1848. No documentation for a Robert Smallman inNew York in the late 1840s has been found, and the true identities of RobertSmallman and his unnamed spouse remain unsolved. [This search might takea new turn if it were shown that Gilbertina was actually born in Staffordshire,England.] Almost immediately following her birth, Gilbertina was raised as aninformally adopted “stepdaughter” in the household of Joseph SolomonSmallman. After the death of Joseph in 1864, Gilbertina, was placed under thelegal guardianship of Joseph Solomon Smallman’s trusted nephew, also namedJoseph Smallman (the son of George and Ann Smallman of Staffordshire). Theguardianship papers filed in the New York courts in 1865 affirm that Gilbertinaturned 17 on 12 March 1865. About 1867, Gilbertina married Walter Trimmer,an English immigrant. They had at least eight children, all born in Brooklyn7. Sarah SMALLMAN was the first of five children of Joseph SolomonSmallman and Sarah Jane Wasson, born in 1852 in Brooklyn, New York; shemarried in 1880-1881, William Huffmire, Jr. William was a fisherman andoyster dealer who lived next door to the Solomon Smallman family. They hadat least three children. Sarah died 8 July 1930 in Brooklyn and was buried inEvergreens Cemetery, Brooklyn.8. Rhoda SMALLMAN was born to Joseph Solomon Smallman and SarahJane Wasson on 11 February 1854 in Brooklyn. She died of a measles attack18 June 1858 in Brooklyn. She was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery inBrooklyn.9. Jane SMALLMAN was born to Joseph Solomon Smallman and Sarah JaneWasson in 1858. (No further information available.)10. Samuel SMALLMAN was born to Joseph Solomon SMALLMAN andSarah Jane WASSON on 4 October 1861 in Brooklyn, New York. Samuel diedof the whooping cough on 12 September 1863 in Brooklyn. He was buried inGreen-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.11. Joseph James SMALLMAN was born October 1862 to Joseph SolomonSMALLMAN and Sarah Jane WASSON in Brooklyn. He married Elizabeth“Eliza” Talbert in 1884-1885; they had at least one known son—John JosephSmallman, born 7 October 1885. Joseph James Smallman died 24 September100

1911 in Brooklyn.SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR JOSEPH SOLOMON SMALLMAN:Christened 23 May 1813 in All Saint’s Church, Sedgley, Staffordshire, England; died21 Jul 1864, Brooklyn, Kings, NY.Joseph married: (1) abt 1837, Esther BENGIE (born abt 1818, of Staffordshire, England;died probably before 1841, Staffordshire); probable child:1. Joseph SMALLMAN, born abt 1838, of Sedgley, Staffordshire; diedunknown after 1850, probably New York City, NY.Joseph Solomon Smallman married: (2) about 1841-1844, Mary Eliza PHIBBS (born about1814, of Staffordshire England; died 21-28 Jul 1849, Brooklyn, Kings, NY); known children:1. Maria SMALLMAN, b. abt 1839, of Staffordshire; died unknown after1844, probably New York City, NY.2. Ruth SMALLMAN, born abt 1841 (early 1842?) of Staffordshire; diedafter 1844, probably New York City, NY.3. Solomon Robert SMALLMAN, born 15 Apr 1845, New York City, NY;died 16 Aug 1918, Brooklyn, Kings, NY; married: (1) abt 1865, EllenCONNERS (born 1846, New York City, NY; died 23 Mar 1927, Brooklyn,Kings, NY(; known children:1. Joseph SMALLMAN, born 15 July 1866, Brooklyn, Kings, NY; died 22August 1867, Brooklyn.2. James F. SMALLMAN, born abt 1868, of Flatlands, Kings, NY(policeman); died 18 September 1908, Brooklyn; married abt 1896,Annie GILOOLY, born 4 Apr 1874, Ireland; died 28 Feb 1932,Brooklyn, NY (two known children).3. Robert SMALLMAN, born abt 1870, of Flatlands, NY; died after1927.4. William SMALLMAN, born 1872, of Flatlands, NY; died 29 Jan1885 (age 12, of hydrophobia).5. David SMALLMAN, born Mar 1873, Brooklyn, NY (icebusiness/bayman on yachts); died after 1930; married MaryHOLLINGER (grocery store proprietor, born abt 1877, of Brooklyn,NY).6. Joseph, SMALLMAN, born Nov 1877, Brooklyn, NY; died 26 Oct1901, Brooklyn, NY.7. Thomas J. SMALLMAN, born Aug 1880, Brooklyn, NY; died 21Dec 1928, Brooklyn, NY; married 25 May 1904, Flora ArbellBENNETT (born 25 Aug 1884, Carnesie, Kings, NY; died after 1930);eleven children.8. John SMALLMAN, born May 1884, Brooklyn, NY (farm laborer);died 1 Jun 1930, Brooklyn, NY; married 24 Jun 1914, Hannah _____(born abt 1890, Ireland; died 19 Jan 1955); six known children).9. Sarah, SMALLMAN, born Jun 1886, Brooklyn, NY; died aft 1900,NY.10. Robert H. SMALLMAN, born 26 Nov 1890, Brooklyn, NY101

(fisherman, owned own business); died after 1930, Islip, Suffolk, NY;married: 1910, Mary L. _____ (born 1891, NY; died after 1930 ); oneknown child, Ellen L. SMALLMAN, born 10 Jun 1909).NOTE: Solomon Robert Smallman is also suspected to be the father ofEliza SMALLMAN, born 7 Mar 1874 or 1875, Flatlands, Kings, NY;died 30 Dec 1922, Brooklyn, NY; Eliza’s death certificate indicates shewas the daughter of “Robert SMALLMAN” and “Mary MCCUE”[Ellen Connors??]; Eliza married 1893/1894 Isaac S. DAVIS(oysterman/ice wagon driver, born Oct 1872, of Brooklyn, NY; died aft1922); seven known children. For years, the Isaac Davis family livedalmost next door to the Solomon Robert Smallman family, with somefamily members working at Solomon’s ice business.4. Gilbertina SMALLMAN (adopted), born 12 Mar 1847, New York City,NY to Robert SMALLMAN (otherwise unidentified) and “unknown” mother;died 16 Apr 1923, Brooklyn, NY; married abt 1867, Walter TRIMMER(government weigher, born 1848, England; died 6 Apr 1921, Queens, NY);known children:1. Reuben TRIMMER, born 29 Oct 1867, Brooklyn, NY; died 17 Jun1922, Brooklyn, NY; married (1) ABT 1890, Sarah CARR (eightknown children; (2) Donna _____.2. Robert TRIMMER, born abt 1872, Brooklyn, NY; died 9 Sep1934, Brooklyn, NY; married Susan _____(four known children).3. Gilbertina TRIMMER, born May 1875, Brooklyn, NY; died 6 Apr1921, Queens, NY; married 31 May 1893, William LawrenceCONLEY (four known children).4. Eliza TRIMMER, born Apr 1877, Brooklyn, NY; married 24 Nov1897, George H. HAMLIN (eight known children).5. Emily “Emma” TRIMMER, born Oct 1878, Brooklyn, NY;married _____ PHILIPS.6. Lillian TRIMMER, born Jan 1882, Brooklyn, NY7. Walter TRIMMER Jr, born 3 Oct 1884, Brooklyn, NY; died 1 Feb 1920,Brooklyn, NY; married Mabel E. AMETRANA8. Unknown child, name, sex, or dates unknown.5. Elizabeth SMALLMAN, born 1848/1849, New York City, NY; diedunknown.Joseph married: (3) abt 1851, Sarah Jane WASSON (born abt 1828, of Ireland; diedaft 1870, of Brooklyn, Kings, NY); known children:1. Sarah SMALLMAN, born 1852, Brooklyn, NY; died 8 Jul 1930, Brooklyn,NY; married 1880/1881 William HUFFMIRE Jr (oyster fisherman anddealer, born abt 1848, New York; died aft 1930, Brooklyn, NY); knownchildren:1. Eva Maud HUFFMIRE, born 5 Dec 1884, Flatlands, Kings, NY;died before 1910? (May actually be Jennie Maud, below.)2. Jennie Maud HUFFMIRE, born abt 1885, Flatlands, NY; diedafter 1910 (may actually be Eva Maud, above?); married 26 Jan 1924,102

Louis PETERS of New York City, NY (born 1882/1883, Philadelphia,PA).3. Maria Louise HUFFMIRE, born 12 Apr 1889, Flatlands, NY; died17 Dec 1889, Flatlands, NY.2. Rhoda SMALLMAN, born 18 Feb 1854, Brooklyn, NY; died 18 Jun 1858,Brooklyn, NY.3. Jane SMALLMAN, born 1858, Brooklyn, NY.D. Samuel SMALLMAN, born 4 Oct 1861, Brooklyn, NY; died 12 Sep 1863,Brooklyn, NY.4. Joseph James SMALLMAN (milk company/motorman/driver); born Oct1862, Brooklyn, NY died 24 Sep 1911, Brooklyn, NY; married 1884/1885Elizabeth or Eliza TALBERT (born Mar 1862, Brooklyn, NY); known child:1. John Joseph SMALLMAN (silversmith), born 7 Oct 1885; married24 Jun 1914 Margaret T. GILL (born abt 1887, NY); four knownchildren).2. Samuel Henry SMALLMANSamuel was christened 14 May 1815 at All Saints Church in Sedgley, Staffordshire, theson of William and Rhoda Mason Smallman. Like most young men of that locality,Samuel entered the coal mines at an early age. On 2 October 1837, Samuel marriedPhoebe Hartshorn in St. Thomas church, in Dudley, Worcestershire/Staffordshire.Phoebe Hartshorn was the daughter of Enoch and Sarah Hartshorn (also known asWilliam and Phoebe Hartshorn). By 1841, Samuel and Phoebe were living next doorto his parents in Lower Gornal, Staffordshire. The known children of Samuel andPhoebe include Anna (or Hanna), born 5 March 1839/1840, of Lower Gornal; Rachel,born October 1848; Dianah Elizabeth, born May 1854; and Sarah, born about 1857.In 1844, economic prospects in the coal-mining “Black Country” in Staffordshire werebleak. Samuel left Lower Gornal and traveled to New York City aboard the shipRemittance with his older brother Joseph and Joseph’s family. They arrived fromLiverpool on 7 December 1844. Samuel’s daughter Anna was not included in thepassenger manifests of the Remittance, but was likely aboard. Both Phoebe and Annawere present with Samuel for the 1850 Census in New York City. By then, Samuel andPhoebe had a second child, Rachel, born in New York about 1848.In 1850, Samuel and his family were living with Samuel’s parents and other familymembers in New York City. Samuel was taking any job he could find, working as aporter and laborer. By 1860, Samuel and Phoebe were living in Brooklyn. Samuel wasworking as a porter and assisting his brother Joseph in the bone boiling business. Bythis time, Samuel and Phoebe had two additional children, both born in New York:Deanah E. Smallman, age six, and Sarah Smallman, age two.103

Samuel died 5 May 1860 in his home on Clove Road in Brooklyn and was buried inBrooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Samuel’s widow, Phoebe Hartshorn Smallman,remarried within the next year to Joseph Redfern, a gardener and farmer living inBrooklyn’s Flatbush section. Joseph Redfern was born abt 1820, in England orCanarsie, New York. Phoebe had at least one child by this second marriage: JosephRedfern Jr, born 29 April 1862. Joseph Jr married Mary _____. By 1880, SamuelSmallman’s daughters Hanna, age 38, and Elizabeth, age 24, were also staying withPhoebe and their stepfather. Phoebe was widowed a second time when Joseph RedfernSr died 2 November 1882 in Flatlands. Their son, Joseph Redfern Jr, died in Brooklyn23 May 1900. In the 1900 US Census, Phoebe Hartshorn Smallman Redfern indicatedthat she had delivered 13 children in her lifetime, only three of whom were still living.SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR SAMUEL HENRY SMALLMAN:Christened 14 May 1815, Sedgley, Staffordshire, England; died 5 May 1860, Brooklyn,Kings, NY; married 2 Oct 1837, St. Thomas Church, Dudley, Worcestershire, England,Phoebe HARTSHORN (born 1818 or 1820, Staffordshire; died 21 December 1901,Kings Co., NY.); children:1. Hanna or Anna SMALLMAN, born 5 Mar 1839/1840, of Sedgley,Staffordshire, England; died 4 Jun 1917, Brooklyn, NY; not known to havemarried.2. Rachel A. SMALLMAN., born Oct 1848, New York City, NY; died 23Nov 1922, Brooklyn, NY; married (1) abt 1870 George W. WHITE (born abt1845, Albany, NY; died probably 27 September 1877, NY.); known children:a. William Henry WHITE (telegraph operator/packer), born 1 Oct1871, Brooklyn, NY; married abt 1890 Adelaide M. _____; threeknown children.b. George Walter WHITE, born 21 Nov 1873, Brooklyn, NY; diedbef 1900.Rachel, widowed, worked as a servant in the household of William S. Haskell,then married (2) abt 1882 John WORNER (painter, born abt 1840, of Holland(born at sea); died 15 Mar 1886, Gravesend, Kings, NY, after a fall from aladder). Children:a. Unknown child (name, sex, and dates of birth or death unknown;may possibly belong to first marriage).b. Charles S. WORNER, born Dec 1885, Brooklyn, NY (telegraphclerk/Christian minister); died aft 1930; married (licensed) 19 Jun 1909Edith C. BOWEN (telegraph operator, born abt 1885, of Brooklyn,NY); four known children.NOTE: Although they never married, Rachel established a close relationshipwith Edward A. BEDELL, a railroad gateman, born Dec 1837 in New York.In the 1900 US Census, Edward was enumerated as a boarder with the widowRachel. By the time of the 1910 Census, Edward is listed as the head of housewith Rachel as his spouse. Edward’s death on 28 Nov 1910, however,confirmed that the two were not married—Edward’s will named his “good104

friend” Rachel as the executrix and sole inheritor of his estate.3. Dianah Elizabeth SMALLMAN, born May 1854, New York City, NY;died 26-30 Dec 1926, Brooklyn, NY; married 1891/1892 William H.CORNELL, (railroad flagman, born Apr 1836, NY; died 17 Dec 1903,Brooklyn, NY). Dianah “Dinah” was generally known in adulthood asElizabeth. In later years, she and her sister Rachel kept house together at 2117Fulton Ave. in Brooklyn and made a living tagging clothing. At her death,Elizabeth’s nephew, William H. WHITE (Rachel’s son) made arrangementsfor Elizabeth to be buried in the Canarsie (Kings County) Cemetery. Noknown children.4. Sarah SMALLMAN, born 1857, of New York City, NY; died aft 1870, ofBrooklyn, NY.5-13. Probably eight additional unknown children (names, sex, and datesunknown). [NOTE: In 1885, several ordinances were performed at the Logan,Utah, LDS temple for members of the Smallman clan, including a RebeccaSmallman, whose birth was given in temple records as simply “of New York,”with a death date of 24 August 1851. Although Rebecca’s birth and parentswere not identified, it is possible she was one of Samuel and Phoebe’s manychildren who died early and were otherwise unidentified. Another possiblechild is James Smallman, born about 1851 in New York, who was living in July1860 with the family of Martin and Mary White, of New York City’s 22 ndWard.]3. Hannah SMALLMANHannah was the first daughter born to William and Rhoda Mason Smallman; she wasborn in or near Dudley, Worcestershire/Staffordshire, probably about 1816. Hannahmarried William Phibbs in St. Martin’s parish church in Tipton, Staffordshire on 17July 1848. William was a coach maker and the son of Richard Phibbs, a “whitesmith.”Hannah’s younger brother, Reuben, was a witness to the wedding with Isabelle Phibbs.Both Hannah and her husband signed the wedding certificate with their marks.Hannah’s marriage was surprisingly brief; she had been married less than six weekswhen she emigrated, already a widow, with her parents and other family on the shipMarmion, arriving in New York City 3 October 1848. Exactly what happened toHannah’s husband William, by now deceased, has never been determined; however,Hannah afterward referred to herself as a widow and never remarried. At the time ofthe US Census of 1850, Hannah was residing with her parents and other familymembers in New York City. Afterward, Hannah and her sister Sarah, also widowed,maintained a household together in Manhattan. Hannah undoubtedly was an influencein helping to raise Sarah’s daughter Margaret.Hannah took in washing and ironing as a livelihood until her death on 3 April of 1872105

at her home, 45 Norfolk Street, in Manhattan. She was buried two days later in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. (On 21 July 1875, Mary Smallman arranged for hersister Hannah to be posthumously sealed as a wife to Mary’s husband, Robert Watkins,in the LDS Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah.)SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR HANNA SMALLMAN (PHIBBS/FIBBS):Worked most of her life as a washerwoman. Born 20 May 1816, Dudley,Worcestershire/Staffordshire, England to William and Rhoda Mason Smallman; died3 Apr 1872, New York City, NY; married 17 Jul 1848 William PHIBBS (born abt1816, of Tipton, Staffordshire; died before Sep 1848); no children.4. Mary SMALLMANMary was born 5 June 1818, Dudley, Worcestershire/Staffordshire, England; died 11December 1900, Alpine, Utah; married 18 Aug 1843, Robert James “Jimmie” Watkins;seven children. (See previous section for Mary’s full story.)5. Sarah SMALLMANSarah was born in 1821, of Staffordshire, England, to William and Rhoda MasonSmallman. It is possible that Sarah may have been a twin, sharing a birth date with herbrother George. For unknown reasons, Sarah was not christened until she was about15 years old; at that time, Sarah and three younger brothers were christened as a groupon 22 Sep 1836 in St. James Church in Lower Gornal, Staffordshire.Sarah married Joseph Phibbs, a coffee mill maker, in St. Martin’s parish church inTipton, Staffordshire, on 17 January 1848. Joseph was the son of Joseph Phibbs, alsoof Tipton, also a coffee mill maker. Sarah’s husband Joseph apparently died underunknown circumstances within a few months after the marriage. Exactly six monthsafter Sarah’s marriage, Sarah’s older sister, Hannah Smallman, would marry anothermember of the extended Phibbs family in the same church—in an extraordinarycoincidence, Hanna’s new husband, William Phibbs, the son of Richard Phibbs, wouldalso die within several weeks of his marriage.The widowed Sarah was with child by her deceased husband when she decided toaccompany her parents and other family members (including her just-widowed sisterHannah) on their emigration voyage from Liverpool to New York. They arrived inOctober 1848 aboard the ship Marmion. Sarah’s daughter, Margaret, was born in NewYork on 8 February 1848.By 1850, according to US Census information, Sarah (now using the last name spellingof “Fibbs”) was living with her parents and other family members in New York with106

one-year-old Margaret. Sarah raised Margaret as a single mother, having the live-inassistance of her older sister Hannah who also did not remarry. (Like Sarah, Hannahalso used the spelling of “Fibbs.”) Sarah and Hannah would share households untilHannah’s death in 1872. In the 1870 US Census, Sarah’s daughter Margaret, age 20,was still living on with Sarah and Hannah on Norfolk Street in New York City. Sarahappears to have died afterward sometime before 1880.Sarah’s daughter Margaret is not known to have married. In 1882, Margaret had aninjury to her leg; it became infected, and on 8 November of that year, she died ofgangrene. Margaret was buried near other family members in Brooklyn’s Green-WoodCemetery.SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR SARAH SMALLWOOD (PHIBBS/FIBBS):Born 1821, of Staffordshire, England; died after 1870, New York City, NY; married17 Jan 1848 Joseph PHIBBS (born abt 1820, of Tipton, Staffordshire; died bef Sep1848); one child:1. Margaret FIBBS, born 8 Feb 1848 (death certificate says 1847); died 8 Nov1882, New York City, NY; no known marriage or children.6. George Mason SMALLMANGeorge was born to William and Rhoda Mason Smallman about 1820-1821, possiblyin Dudley, Worcestershire/Staffordshire, England. It is possible he was a twin to hissister Sarah (above). Although a recent family record filed by a member of theSmallman family with the LDS Church indicates George died as an infant in 1821,other evidence shows that George lived to adulthood and married a wife named Ann,who bore George a son, Joseph, born in Staffordshire in May 1841. Nothing furtheris known of George or his wife Ann.In 1848, George Smallman’s son, young Joseph, emigrated to New York with hisgrandparents William and Rhoda Smallman and other family members. There is nocontemporary mention of George and Ann, suggesting they may have been deceasedby this time or remained behind in Staffordshire. George’s son is probably the JosephSmallman enumerated in the 1850 US Census who was living with his uncle DavidSmallman in Albany, New York. Young Joseph afterward moved to Brooklyn withother family members and on 25 October 1860, became a naturalized US citizen; hisuncle, Reuben Smallman, witnessed the naturalization. Joseph may have found asurrogate father in another uncle, Joseph Solomon Smallman (George’s oldest brother),who gave his younger nephew and namesake a job in the bone boiling business. Theolder Joseph prominently named Joseph as an heir and executor in his will before dyingin 1864. Young Joseph later forsook the bone boiling business to become a teamster.In 1865, he was named as the legal guardian of Gilbertina Smallman (although Joseph107

was scarcely six years older than the seventeen-year-old “stepdaughter” of his deceasedUncle Joseph). About 1869, young Joseph married Margaret Brady, an Irishimmigrant, and went on to sire seven children. Joseph died on 24 July 1909 inBrooklyn and was buried in Holy Cross [Catholic] Cemetery. Joseph’s death certificateconfirmed the identity of his parents as George Smallman and Ann Smallman.SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR GEORGE MASON SMALLMAN:Born abt 1821, Staffordshire, England to William and Rhoda Mason Smallman; diedunknown; married abt 1840 Ann _____ (born abt 1821); known child:1. Joseph (or John?) SMALLMAN, born May 1841, Staffordshire (teamster);died 24 Jul 1909, Brooklyn, NY; married 1869/1870 Margaret (or Jill?) S.BRADY (born Aug 1844, Ireland; died 20 Dec 1923, Brooklyn, NY); sevenchildren (only two lived beyond 1900):1. Edward David SMALLMAN, born 29 Mar 1871, Brooklyn, NY(letter carrier); died 30 Dec 1911, Brooklyn, NY; married abt 1893Mary Teresa O’BRIEN (born 25 Oct 1870, Brooklyn, NY; died 2 Sep1932, Brooklyn, NY); six known children.2. Elizabeth “Lizzie” SMALLMAN, born Apr 1874, Brooklyn, NY;died 5 Oct 1926, Brooklyn, NY.3. Ellen Ann SMALLMAN, born 13 Sep 1876, Brooklyn, NY; died3 Aug 1877, Brooklyn, NY.4. Joseph SMALLMAN, born abt 1878, Brooklyn, NY: died 26 Oct1901, Brooklyn, NY.5. John SMALLMAN, born Sep 1879, Brooklyn, NY; died abt 6 Jan1930, Brooklyn, NY.6. Unknown child (name, sex, and dates unknown)7 .Unknown child (name, sex, and dates unknown)7. David SMALLMANFamily records in Utah indicate David Smallman was born to William and RhodaMason Smallman on 10 September 1823 in Dudley, Worcestershire/Staffordshire,England. He was not christened, however, until 22 January 1836, at St. James Churchin Lower Gornal, Staffordshire. In April of 1840, the 16 year-old David followed hisolder sister Mary to the Liverpool docks and tried to dissuade her from emigrating toAmerica. Mary had converted to the LDS faith and planned to join other Mormonsgathering to Nauvoo, Illinois. When Mary refused to reconsider her decision, David’smemorable last words to her were, “You will find the crows in America to be as blackas the crows in England.”Ironically, David himself would later emigrate to the United States, along with hisparents and virtually all of his living brothers and sisters. By the time of the 1841British Census, the seventeen-year-old David he was a veteran coal miner in Sedgley,108

Staffordshire, and had begun to realize with other family members that the future heldlittle hope in Staffordshire. The date and means of David’s emigration is not known,other than he must have left England sometime in the 1840s. By the time of the USCensus of 1850, David had already settled in Albany, New York, and was working asa clerk—a “white collar” position that was a far cry from laboring in the grimy anddangerous coal mines of Staffordshire. David’s literacy was unusual in the Smallmanfamily: most of his older brothers and sisters signed their names with a mark. The 1850census indicated that David’s nephew, Joseph Smallman (probably the ten-year-old sonof David’s brother, George—see above), was living with David at that time.About 1853, David married a daughter of Irish immigrants named Elisia (often called“Eliza.”) Elisia’s maiden surname may have been Ashley, but more likely was Jordan.She was born in England or New York and was about ten years younger than David.By 1860, David was working as a salesman in Albany. At that time, he and Elisia hadtwo children: James, age five, and Elizabeth, born in February 1860. Their householdincluded Esther Jordan, age 66, who was probably Eliza’s mother, and Fidelia Ashley,age five, who may have been a niece of Elisia. In July 1864, David was visiting inBrooklyn and witnessed the will of his dying older brother Joseph Solomon Smallmanwho included David’s children in the will’s bequests.When the Census of 1870 was taken, David Smallman was operating a dry goods storein Albany. His age was given as 48; Elisia as 37. The five children were enumeratedas James, 16; Elisabeth, 10 (born March 1860); George, eight; Silas, five, and Harriet(“Hattie”), two. Esther Jordan (or “Jourdan”), 77, was still with the household. Davidand Elisia were to have two more children: Charles, born about 1870, and Mary, bornabout 1872. It is interesting to note that David named two of his sons George andSilas, after his two brothers who had apparently died in England.At the relatively young age of 52, David became seriously ill. In July of 1875, he madethe following will:The Last Will and Testament of David SmallmanI, David Smallman of Albany City & county New York state, — being ofSound & Disposing mind & memory & understanding, do make, publish &declare this to be my last will & testaments, & writing in the nature of last wills& testaments by me here tofor madeI give devise & bequath all of my estate, real Personal & mixed of whichI shall be seized & Possesed, or to which I shall be entitled, at the time of mydecease, to my beloved wife Elisia Smallman & I do nominate & appoint my said109

Wife Elisia Smallman to be the sole Executrix of this my last will & testament.In testimony whereof, I the said David Smallman, have here subscribedmy name & affixed my seal, the twenty second day of July, in the year of ourLord one thousand eight hundred & Seventy five.[signed] David Smallman [seal]Signed, Sealed & declared by the said David Smallman to be his last will &testament, in Presence of us who at his request, & in his Presence havesubscribed our names as witnesses hereto in the Presence of Each other —Robert ScottJohn Ashley [possibly a relative of Elisia?]Joshua M. GoodrichDavid died in Albany on 1 August 1875. He was buried in the Albany Rural Cemeteryin Menands Village, Albany County, New York, not far from his home at 256 SouthPearl Street, in Menands Village, a suburb of Albany.David’s will was proved 8 February 1876 in Albany County, New York, SurrogateCourt (Albany New York Wills, Vol. 25, pp. 432-434). With family help, David’swidow Elisia (“Eliza”) continued to operate the dry goods store in Albany for severalmore years.SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR DAVID SMALLMAN:Born 10 Sep 1823, Dudley, Staffordshire, England (dry goods dealer); died 1 Aug 187,Menands, Albany, NY; married abt 1853 Elisia “Eliza” A. ASHLEY or Jordan (bornabt 1832, England, died after 1891); known children:1. James SMALLMAN, born abt 1854, Albany, NY (dry goods dealer,janitor); died after 1930, Highland Falls, Orange Co., NY; married (1) abt 1876Jane ROBINSON (born abt 1858, NY; died before 1890); known children:1. Sarah SMALLMAN, born abt 1877, of Highland Falls, NY.2. Susan SMALLMAN, born Nov 1879, Highland Falls, NY.3. Darl SMALLMAN, born May 1884, of Highland Falls, NY.James married (2) 1890 Eliza FEATHERLY (born Sep 1857, of Highland Falls, NY,died after 1930, of Highland Falls, NY); known children:1. James SMALLMAN Jr (pharmacist, Brooklyn), born Nov 1890,Highland Falls, NY; married 2 Jul 1917 Nina Estelle JORDAN (bornabt 1844, Lynn, Essex Co., MA).2. Robert Scot “Ruben” SMALLMAN, born 12 Dec 1892, HighlandFalls, NY; died May 1978, Santa Cruz, CA; married 4 Dec 1919Elizabeth Elsa PLORANSKY or PLORAWOSKY (born 22 Aug1895, Hungary, died Jul 1976, Santa Cruz, CA).3. Edwin Flood SMALLMAN (mailman, Manhattan), born 22 Nov 1895,Highland Falls, NY; died Oct 1968, New York, NY; married 4 Jan 1919 Ethel110

Martha Wade (born 18 Nov 1892, NY, died Feb 1891, New York, NY); twoknown children.2. Elizabeth M. SMALLMAN (clerk) born Mar 1860, Albany, NY; died after1920; no known marriage (lived in her later years as part of her sister Harriet’shousehold).3. George SMALLMAN (manager, retail clothing) born Sep 1862, Albany,NY d. aft 1900; married 1887/1888 Grace _____ (born abt 1865, of Albany,NY); children:1. Mildred SMALLMAN, born Jul 1896, Albany, NY.2-4. Three other children (names, sex, and dates unknown).4. Silas SMALLMAN, born 1864/1865, Albany, NY; died before 1880,Albany, NY.5. Harriet “Hattie” SMALLMAN, born 1868, Albany, NY; died after 1930;married 1902/1903 Frederick CLARK (painter, born abt 1873, of Albany,NY).6. Charles D. SMALLMAN (coal merchant) born 1870/1871, of Albany,NY; died after 1891; married Anna M. _____ (of Albany, NY); knownchildren:1. Charles F. SMALLMAN, born 1898/1899, Albany, NY.7. Mary F. SMALLMAN , born 1871/1872, of Albany, NY; died after 1891.8. Reuben Michael SMALLMANReuben Smallman was born abt 1826-1832 in Staffordshire or Worcestershire,England. He was the eighth child and fourth son of William and Rhoda MasonSmallman. For reasons unknown, Reuben was not christened until 22 January 1836when he and three siblings, Sarah, David, and Silas, were all christened at the sametime in St. James Church in Lower Gornal, Staffordshire. Reuben’s birth year wasgiven in the christening register as 1826. Reuben acted as a witness to the marriage ofhis sister Hannah to William Phibbs in Tipton, Staffordshire on 17 July 1848. Aboutsix weeks later, Reuben accompanied his parents and other members of his familywhen they emigrated aboard the ship Marmion from Liverpool, arriving in New Yorkharbor 3 October 1848.Reuben was still living with his parents and other family members during the USCensus of 1850. Possibly about 1854, Reuben married Mary Peterkin, then of NewYork City, but probably born in Scotland. It appears that by this time, he was livingin the Brooklyn/Flatlands area. About 1856, Mary gave birth to a daughter, LizzieSmallman. On 19 October 1856, Reuben became a naturalized American citizen inKings County Court, New York, with a friend, Charles T. Stuart, acing as witness.Three days later, Reuben acted as a witness in the same court for the naturalization ofhis older brother, Joseph Smallman. Reuben’s second daughter, Mary, was born about1859. A Brooklyn city directory for 1859-1860 indicates that Reuben was then111

working with his older brother, Joseph Solomon Smallman, in Joseph’s bone boilingbusiness. On 25 October 1860, Reuben acted as a witness in Brooklyn City Court forthe naturalization of his nephew, Joseph Smallman (probably the son of George andAnn).The 1860 US Census for Brooklyn includes a Michael Smallman, age 28, who isprobably Reuben. His wife Mary’s age is given as 24, with children Eliza, three, andMary, one. On 6 March 1863, Reuben’s wife Mary gave birth to a son, Reuben Jr,probably in Brooklyn.By the time of the birth of his son, Reuben apparently had enlisted in the Union Armyand perhaps left it again. Civil War records indicate Reuben Smallman, age thirty,enlisted as a private on 23 August 1862 and was assigned to Company F in the 139thNew York Infantry Regiment. By 27 December 1862, after little more than threemonths’ service, Reuben was recorded as “deserted” from his regiment which wascurrently training and on duty in the area of Fort Monroe, Virginia. Reuben’s generalhealth during that period may have been questionable and may have been the cause ofleaving military service. That he actually deserted is not likely: his name was notincluded among later official listings of deserters from Brooklyn and he afterward wasaccorded “honorable” status for his Civil War service.Following Reuben’s return to his Brooklyn home, his health failed completely, and on12 March 1864, Reuben Sr. died of liver disease (“dropsy”) at the age of 36. He wasburied in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.In July 1864, Reuben’s older brother, Joseph Solomon Smallman, made his own willand included a bequest of $100 to be shared equally among Reuben’s children(unnamed).Reuben’s wife Mary may not have long survived her husband. All of Reuben’schildren appear to have been orphaned and literally “farmed out” by 1870. Twoprominent farming families, each owning farms both in Flatlands, Brooklyn, and in112

M ontgomeryTownship,Somerset County,New Jersey, tookresponsibility forthe Smallmanchildren: ReubenJr, age seven, wasliving on the farmo f LawrenceVanderveere inMontgomeryTownship;Reuben SmallmanJr’s sisters, Lizzieand MarySmallman, were St. Martin’s Parish Church (nicknamed “Pepperbox”) in Lower Gornal,living on a farm Staffordshire, England, just a few miles from Dudley. On 22 January 1836,in Flatlands, four of the Smallman children were christened here at the same time. TheBrooklyn, with christening was unusual, since Sarah (age 15), David (age 12), Reuben (aget he Robert about 9), and Silas (about 6) were all well beyond the normal christeningage. Silas, the youngest child of William and Rhoda Smallman, died atMagaw family.age 9 and was buried 20 January 1839 in St. Martin’s churchyard.By 1880, Maryappears to have been working as a servant, either in Brooklyn or in Orange County,New York.No further information concerning Reuben Michael Smallman’s wife, Mary PeterskinSmallman, nor their two daughters, Lizzie and Mary, have been located. Reuben Jrwould later return to New York. At the age of 27, Reuben Jr married a Swedish-bornimmigrant, Mathilda Wilson, daughter of Pehr Wilson and Anna Olafsen, in Manhattanon 25 August 1890. (Mathilda, born 27 September 1864, had arrived in New Yorkwith her older sister Johanna aboard the ship Italy on 5 December 1881.) Reuben andMathilda had at least one child, Paul DeWitt Smallman, born in Manhattan on 13February 1893; unfortunately, baby Paul died 15 March 1893. Any subsequent historyof Reuben Smallman Jr and Mathilda, or their descendants, is unknown.SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR REUBEN MICHAEL SMALLMAN:Reuben worked as a laborer and bone boiler and was a veteran of the Civil War. Bornabt 1826-1828, of Staffordshire, England, to William and Rhoda Mason Smallman;died 12 Mar 1864, Brooklyn, NY; married abt 1854 Mary PETERKIN (born abt113

1835, probably of Scotland; may have died before 1870); known children:1. Lizzie SMALLMAN, born abt 1856, of Brooklyn, NY.2. Mary SMALLMAN, born abt 1858, of Brooklyn, NY.3. Reuben SMALLMAN Jr, born 6 Aug 1863, Brooklyn, NY; married 25Aug 1890, Mathilda WILSON (born 27 Sep 1864, Norrkoping, Ostergotland,Sweden); known child:1. Paul Dewitt SMALLMAN, born 15 Feb 1893, New York City, NY;died 15 Mar 1893, New York City, NY.9. Silas SMALLMANSilas was born to William and Rhoda Mason Smallman in 1829, of Staffordshire,England. He was among the four Smallman children who shared a belated christeningat St. James Church in Lower Gornal, Staffordshire on 22 January 1836. Silas died atthe age of nine in January 1839 in Lower Gornal and was buried 20 January 1839 inSt James Cemetery, Lower Gornal.SUMMARY OF EVENTS FOR SILAS SMALLMAN:Born 1829, Staffordshire, England; christened 22 Jan 1836, St. James Church(“Pepperbox”), Lower Gornal, Staffordshire; died Jan 1839, Lower Gornal; buried 20Jan 1839, St. James Cemetery, Lower Gornal, Staffordshire, England.In conclusion, it is interesting to compare the history of Mary Smallman with her sevensiblings who followed her to America and settled in Brooklyn and Manhattan. WhenMary left England in 1840 to follow her LDS faith, her family in Staffordshire weresure she was making the mistake of her life to desert England. It is true that Mary wasforced to flee mob violence in Nauvoo, Illinois, and suffered many severe hardships inthe journey across the frozen Iowa plains, yet she was still able to face with fortitudethe thousand-mile trek to Salt Lake City and find a new life in an undeveloped land.She and her husband, “Jimmie” Watkins, together built a home and created a generallyprosperous farm in the mountain valley of Alpine, Utah. By resourceful enterprise anddespite physical disabilities, she raised a family of seven, all of whom survived tosuccessful adulthood. Before she died at the age of 82, Mary lived to divide somemodestly substantial property among her children. Mary’s refusal to abandon her newreligious faith and her subsequent endurance of many trials ended in a kind of triumph,after all. Through all of it, she maintained an abiding affection for her distant brothersand sisters who had removed from England to New York state.The Smallman families in New York were to contribute in many ways to the growth ofAlbany, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. The Smallmans arrived just as these cities wereentering a time of unimaginable growth. Competition with other immigrant familiesfor an advanced quality of life was fierce. City life, unfortunately, was not always114

healthy, especially in New York City. Lack of proper sanitation combined withcrowded tenements often promoted disease and death.The Smallmans in Brooklyn and New York City worked hard and were alwaysrespectable; yet economic prosperity, by present-day standards, somehow seemed toelude most family members. In Utah, Mary Smallman Watkins lived to the advancedage of 82 and all of her seven children reached maturity; by contrast, Mary’s brothersand sisters who emigrated to New York survived only to an average age of 48—Mary’soldest living sibling, Hannah Smallman Phibbs, died in Manhattan at the ripe age of 56after a toilsome career as a washerwoman. Less than half of all the children born toMary’s brothers and sisters survived their parents.It is true that these harsh living conditions were consonant with the times and werecommon to many others in that age and place; indeed, they were actually a major stepabove what they would have found had they remained in the begrimed mining townsof Staffordshire—yet, it has to be suspected that all of Mary’s brothers and sistersmight have shared a common pang of envy if they could have, but once, been able toview Mary’s mountain valley in Utah. Perhaps then, they would have understood theserenity of her faith and the scope of her fortitude.Resource:Personal research of Arleen Price Bjorn (her research of Smallman immigrationrecords was invaluable.)“Mormon Immigration Index,” Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints“A Historical Study of Alpine, Utah,” by Vern W. Clark, June 1963“Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, Vols 1 &2, edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature BooksPersonal records of Ruby Price Klenk“Early LDS Membership Data,” LDS Collectors Library, Infobases, Inc. 1995Family records of Ralph Williams Price“Ezekiel Price and Rhoda Elizabeth Watkins Price,” compiled by Scott PricePersonal records of Dr. Kevin Patrick Stiles (especially regarding the Nauvoo Courtlawsuit and information on William Benbow’s Utah visit)Family records of Elsa Vernice Watkins Terry“Joseph William Watkins Day Book,” edited by Elsa Vernice Watkins TerryTimes and Seasons, 1 March 1841, Vol 2, No. 9“Biography of Mary Smallman Watkins, Pioneer of 1852,” by Ethel Ross Watkins, forthe Snow Spring Camp of Daughters of Utah Pioneers of North Utah County,Lehi, Utah“Mary Smallman,” written by Oscar Paul Watkins115

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