28 Facts About Lot Smith

Lot Smith was a Mormon pioneer, soldier, lawman and American frontiersman.

Lot Smith became known as "The Horseman" for his exceptional skills on horseback as well as for his help in rounding up wild mustangs on Utah's Antelope Island.

Lot Smith is most famous for his exploits during the 1857 Utah War.

The Lot Smith family lived across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo, Illinois and were neighbors with Brigham Young's family.

In 1846, while the family fled the continuing persecution of Mormons, Lot Smith's mother was one of many Mormons who died and were buried in Iowa Territory.

Lot Smith amassed a quantity of gold then came back across the mountains to the Great Salt Lake and Farmington, Utah, where he married, became a military leader in the Nauvoo Legion in Utah and was distinguished in campaigns to stop Indian depredations.

In 1850, when Brigham Young called for the extermination of the Timpanogos, Lot Smith volunteered as part of the Mormon militia.

Lot Smith was sent on a special mission by Young, who hoped to delay the arrival of the troops in the hope that a diplomatic breakthrough could be reached before the troops reached Salt Lake City.

Lot Smith led a group of Nauvoo Legion rangers east across Wyoming along the stretch where the California, Oregon and Mormon Trails merge.

Lot Smith ordered the Union wagon trains of supplies to turn around but they complied only while he was in sight.

Lot Smith commanded a company of volunteer militia mustered mainly from the Nauvoo Legion that, at the request of Abraham Lincoln, guarded the telegraph line in conjunction with the US Army during the Civil War.

Lot Smith was the first sheriff of Davis County, Utah.

Lot Smith served in the Utah Territorial Legislature, serving in the lower house and upper house of the legislature.

Lot Smith was asked to help the development of the Mormon settlement along the Little Colorado River.

Lot Smith led a large group that arrived in the spring of 1876 settling Sunset, Arizona and Brigham City, Arizona near present-day Winslow.

Local Indians were befriended, Lot Smith became highly respected among the Navajo Indians.

Lot Smith established a United Order at Sunset and became the first LDS Stake President in Arizona.

Lot Smith built a home at Smith Spring near Mormon Lake and directed the establishment of a dairy, sawmill and ranching operations in the area.

Daggs and Thistle encountered Lot Smith working livestock in his corral with two young sons.

Lot Smith turned and began walking to his house to get a firearm.

Lot Smith returned with a rifle and saw Thistle's pistol and hand starting to come out from where Thistle had taken cover.

Lot Smith, respected by local lawmen, was able to appear in court for an acquittal and avoid federal arrest.

On June 20,1892, Lot Smith found a flock of sheep turned into his fenced field of new barley by Navajo sheepherders.

Horseback, Lot Smith tried to drive the sheep out but Navajos at the gate repeatedly used their blankets to shoo the animals back in.

Angered, Lot Smith returned to his cabin to get his pistol.

Lot Smith's ire kindled, Smith returned to his barley crop and again tried to drive the sheep out.

At an impasse, Lot Smith began to ride away back to his cabin.

Lot Smith died that evening, accompanied by keening mourning of a crowd of Native American friends and onlookers.