Mary Eleanor Smith(a Triplet) was the daughter of William Reed(Read) Smith and Mary Elizabeth Ricks Smith. She married William Charles Smith Sr. 12 Jan 1882 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Ut.

A Short Sketch of the Life of Mary Ellenor Smith Smith, composed by her daughter Mary Smith Steed Porter: Mary Ellenor Smith, eldest child of William Reed and Mary Elizabeth Ricks Smith, was born September 14, 1858, in Centerville, Davis County, Utah. She was one of three, the other two being boys, were dead at birth, due to an accident two months previous. Being pre-maturely born, she weighed about two and one half pounds. She was carried on a pillow and fed from the tip of a spoon for sometime. She received her early education at the Centerville Public School, where she showed a marked and unusual ability in spelling, reading and pronunciation. She took a special course in penmanship under Professor Joseph Phelps for which she recieved top honors as a penman. At the age of sixteen, mother taught her first school in a small building in North Centerville. She later taught in South Centerville. Then to further qualify herself as a teacher she attended the University of Deseret in Salt Lake City during the school year of 1878 and 1879 after which she was assigned to teach in West Kaysville school, thirteen miles north of her home. She boarded at the home of John S. Smith where she met their eldest son, William Charles Smith. They were later married in the Endowment House, Salt Lake City, January 12, 1882, thus ending her school teaching career. Father and Mother resided in Kaysville for a year or more. Their oldest son, Seymour Bicknel Smith was born November 3, 1882, at the home of her mother Mary E. Smith, in Centerville, Utah. Soon after they moved from Kaysville to Layton, Utah, where their second son, William Charles, Jr. was born, May 24, 1884. In the spring of 1885 they moved to a ranch on the Portneuf River four miles southwest of Chesterfield, Idaho. While there five more children were born to them: John Sivil, Frank Reed, Mary, Jane, and Thomas Archie. Many were the hardships mother endured while there. Each birth was accompanied with long hours of labor and suffering with only the care of a mid-wife. Then the many household tasks that must be done such as making butter, soap and candles, all the clothing for children and cooking and caring for hired men. Her children were subject to croup with every cold which caused her many wakeful nights in caring for their needs. The school facilities there were so inadequate for their young family that our parents decided to move to Kaysville for the winter months. They built a brick home in West Kaysville near father Smith's old home in the fall of 1894. She returned to the Idaho ranch each summer to care for her family there and the haymen. Soon after settling there mother was called as president of the West Kaysville Primary. This brought her in close association with the Stake Primary President, Aurelia Spencer Rogers, who organized the first primary of the church. While residing in Kaysville two other children were born to her, James Ricks and Harold Vivien. In 1898 a law was passed closing the Indian reservation near Chesterfield, Idaho, as a grazing land for white settlers. This necessitated all the stockmen looking elsewhere for ranges for their cattle and horses. Many reports came to them of the rich prairie lands with its abundance of grass in Southern Alberta, Canada, so father went to investigate it. He was so impressed with his findings he filed on two sections of choice land in the foothills of Mountain View, Alberta. He returned to Idaho and sold out his ranch and started his cattle and horses on their long trek to Canada in the early summer of 1900. Two son, William, Jr. and John, accompanied the hired men on horseback on this long northern journey. Mother felt that as their interests were now in Canada, she should be with her husband and older sons. The Kaysville home was rented, the furniture shipped, and on February 11, 1901, she left by train for Canada with her six youngest children--the baby Harold being only six months old. She arrived there in the heart of a severe winter and took up pioneering in a new country. In spite of the many hardships and severe weather she experienced, she never regretted having made this move as she felt there was no better place in which to rear her family. Mother soon became an active member of the Mountain View Ward; first holding the position as teacher in the Primary Organization. She was also called as a teacher of the older members of the Sunday School by James S. Parker who was superintendent. It was during this time that the great need of parental guidance was felt. Mother and Uncle John F. Parrish were called to make an outline for a course of study to meet this need. Thus the first Parent's class in the Church came into being. The outline was called "Parent and Child." We well remember all the books and magazines about during the making of this outline. Our first introduction to "Heredity," "Pre-natal Care," "Importance of Environment," "Responsibilities of Parents," etc., came while other prayerfully and diligently sought information for this course of study. The outline was completed and Mother and James S. Ferrell were called to teach the class. Mother continued to teach that class over a period of years. She acted as an aid on the Alberta Stake Relief Society Board for twenty-five years, travelling to the widely scattered wards by team to fill her assignments as well as attending Relief Society Officer's meetings once a month in Cardston, twenty miles distant. She was also on the Sunday School Stake Board so had to attend their union meeting at Cardston once a month. She carried on with her ward teaching as well. In the early years of her Stake Relief Society work, the General Board furnished no outlined course of study so the Stakes were all asked to make one and try it out. Mother was asked to act on a committee with Rose Hyde Woolf and Eunice Harris to formulate this new outline. Again there was much research, many books and magazines about, and trips to Cardston one day a week to meet with the other two women on the committee. The traveling was still done by team, but so long as duty called no road was too long, too rough, too muddy, or too heavily drifted with snow to discourage her from performing her assignments. The outline was completed and used to the satisfaction of all Relief Society ward members in the Alberta Stake. Since that day the Relief Society has had an outlined course of study added to and changed as the years have gone by. When the Canadian Temple was dedicated at Cardston, August 26, 1923, Mother was called as a worker. She acted as councilor to matron Armenia W. Lee and continued on there faithfully until the spring of 1935 when father's health made it necessary for her to give up the work she loved so much. In all her activities she was ever ready to give unstinted measure of service, regardless of people's attitude or lack of appreciation. In fact, her sense of duty was sublime. The easy never appealed to mother. She went straight to her goal even when doubt and numerous obstacles precluded her vision and halted others. In January 1914, Mother joined her son John in Chicago, Illinois, where he had just been released from a three and a half year mission. From there they went to Ontario, Canada, the Province in which her father was born. Here they visited several small towns in search of genealogy. They then journeyed to Saratoga Springs, New York, where they met and visited with five of her father's nieces. Mother met for the first time some of her father's people. She and John formed a deep and lasting friendship with these ladies and their families. They also gathered some very valuable information to assist them in their genealogy. Mother acted on the Old Folks Committee in the Mountain View Ward for many years--a time when hot dinners were served to the whole ward with no conveniences. She was always foremost in Planning, donating, and working for the success of the reunion. How well we remember the preparation days ahead--then the baskets of food, tubs of dishes, long white linen table cloths, and whatever was needed went forth to those dinners at the Ward Church. Then there were the hours of clearing away after wards. In those days when hospitals were seventy-five miles away, the nearest doctor twenty miles distant, it was necessary for the women of each ward to care for the ill and the dead. In this Mother was one of the foremost to go where help was needed. Mother and father, being of generous nature, concerned themselves about the temporal needs of the poor and less fortunate. The many boxes and baskets of food, sacks of flour, yes, and cuts of choice meat and warm clothing went forth wherever they were needed. Through the years Mother entertained crowds; no matter who came they did not go away hungry. She cooked the year around for hired help. How well we remember the extended table spread with the red tablecloth and the loads of food that were set on it day after day. She did anything that needed doing outside as well as in--milked cows, helped plant, weed and harvest the garden. During the winter of 1917 and 1918 Mother and Father filled a short mission in Southern California. In addition to this they have sent four sons and two daughters on long term missions. Eleven of their grandchildren have fill honorable missions--an influence carrying over. Two sons filled the office of Ward Bishop, one son served in the bishopric, one son in the Stake Presidency and High Council; two grandsons served as Bishops, and one as a Stake President. After nearly a year of failing health, Mother passed away April 9th, 1936 in Centerville, Utah, at the home of her daughter Mary. A very large and impressive service was held at the Centerville First Ward Chapel, April 12. Her body was shipped back to Cardston, Alberta, where another service was held on April 16th after which she was laid to rest in the small cemetery in Mountain View by the side of her youngest son, Harold, conforming to her wish. Mother's standards and scruples were exceptionally high, she was a Christian seven days a week, honest, clean in mind, kind, charitable, a tireless worker and a messenger of mercy to the sick, the distressed and those in need. She was truly a disciple of the lowly Nazarine. She was a born teacher and she put forth every effort to qualify herself for every subject to be presented. Her policy and teachings were that finances are only a means to an end and honesty more valuable than property and that property held without honesty would not be worth the keeping. Throughout her life, Mother maintained her lovely womanhood--a helpmate, a wife, and a mother. She didn't let the common or petty things obscure her vision of interfere with her morals or religious scruples. Those standards stood in the clear blue, well defined, and above everything else and her eyes were definitely fixed upon them. She had a will of steel insofar as duty was concerned and one uncompromising objective--"The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness."
- Eileen Illum