Almera Woodard Johnson Smith Barton (1812-1896)

Almera Woodard Johnson Smith Barton

Birth

12 Oct 1812

Westford, Chittenden County, Vermont, USA

Death

4 Mar 1896 (aged 83)

Parowan, Iron County, Utah, USA

Burial

Parowan City Cemetery

Parowan, Iron County, Utah, USA Show Map

Plot

83-04-23

Memorial ID

View Source

Also listed as Almera "Woodward" was a daughter of Ezekiel and Julia Hills Johnson and a plural wife of the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith.

After Joseph Smith's death, on Nov. 16, 1845 she married Reuben Barton with her brother Joel Hills Johnson officiating. Together they had five daughters. Their third daughter, Lois, (the only one who lived to adulthood) was mentally impaired. Feeling responsible for her child's condition, "Almera wondered if it was punishment because she remarried."

In 1861 Almera and Reuben, who had become disaffected with the Church, separated and Almera traveled to Utah and settled in Parowan where for three more decades she would care for Lois.

On Aug. 1, 1883 she stated:
"...the Prophet Joseph Smith taught me the principle of celestial marriage including plurality of wives and asked me to become his wife...

"On a certain occasion in the spring of the year 1843... I went from Macedonia to Nauvoo to visit another of my sisters, the one who was the widow of Lyman R. Sherman, deceased, at which time I was sealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith…

"After this time I lived with the Prophet Joseph as his wife, and he visited me at the home of my brother Benjamin F. at Macedonia.

"...I had many conversations with Eliza [Louisa?] Beaman who was also a wife of Joseph Smith, and who was present when I was sealed to him, on the subject of plurality of wives, both before and after the performance of that ceremony.

"And also that since the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith I was married for time to Reuben Barton of Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Ill., by whom I have had five daughters, one only of whom is now living."

Within their journals her brothers Joel and Benjamin refer to her as Almera "Woodard" not "Woodward." Joel named one of his own daughters Almera Woodard.