Eldred J Smith

ELDRED JOHN SMITH--Seventh child of John Thomas Smith

Eldred was born in Beaver, Utah August 18, 1917.

When Eldred was six years old he had a bone infection (osteomyelitis) in the shin bone of his leg. That year he was in the L. D. S. Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah for nine months and he missed much of the first grade in school but he was allowed to pass to the second grade. This disease affected Eldred later and required a number of operations and was a problem to him for years, but it hasn't kept him from working hard and achieving his objectives. The summer after he was out of the fifth grade (1928) he had to again enter the hospital for the summer.

The family moved up to the Bradshaw farm when he was in the sixth grade so he became a farm boy and did his share of work on the farm and had the extra distance to walk to the Belknap and Beaver High Schools.

He graduated from the Beaver High School in the spring of 1935 and that fall he went to Logan, Utah and enrolled at the Utah State Agriculture College to learn more about farming.

After completing the school year he went back home and helped put in the crops, and then went looking for work to help him get back to school. He went to Milford, Utah and got work with his uncles Richard and Ambrose Bradshaw and stayed there until February 14, 1937. He then went to Imperial Valley, California and worked as a carpenter apprentice until May 1937. He then hitch hiked back to Beaver, Utah and then on to Utah Valley where he worked at various jobs and hoped to enroll at the Brigham Young University in the fall. While picking fruit in Orem, Utah, he had a ladder tip with him and he bumped his bad leg which started up the infection again. He had another operation and his leg was put in a cast for nine months and he missed another year of school.

He was determined to get back in school so shortly after his cast was removed and while he was yet on crutches, he left home and hitch hiked to St. George, Utah where he worked for his board and room and enrolled at the Junior College there.

When school was out he went to work on the St. George Temple Cottages and when this job was completed he went back to Beaver, Utah for a visit. When he arrived in Beaver his brother Elmer was there and was on his way back home to Seattle, Washington and Eldred decided to go with him to get work. He worked in Seattle three months and then in October 1939 he went to Alaska to work for the Government as a carpenter and carpenter foreman. He had a good job and worked hard and long hours. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Dec. 1941 he decided to come back to Utah and headed for Beaver and then to Santa Clara, near St. George, Utah. The main attraction now was not employment or school but Anna Elizabeth Gubler of Santa Clara whom he had dated while going to school and whom he had been writing to while in Washington and Alaska.

Anna accepted Eldred's proposal and they were married July 2, 1942 in the St. George Temple. Eldred did not pass the physical for the Army because of his leg, so they moved to Seattle, Washington where Eldred worked in the ship yards to help with the war the best he could. They purchased a home and some rental property with the money Eldred had saved while working in Alaska and they proposed to make their home in Seattle. After the birth of their first child John Douglas on September 30, 1944, Anna got rheumatic fever and the doctor advised them to move to a hot dry climate.

In February 1945 they sold out in Seattle and moved back to St. George, Utah.

Shortly after arriving, Eldred again entered the hospital in Salt Lake to have another operation on his leg, which had never completely healed. Eldred and Anna feel that the Lord really blessed Eldred and inspired the doctor, and this operation was a real success.

Eldred has always worked hard and long hours, and he is a builder. They have a lovely home in St. George, Utah, which was built with Eldred's skill, mosty as an after work hours project and with the help of the rest of the family. He has always had some horses, cattle, pigs and chickens to care for and to supplement their income. Eldred has enjoyed most of his work and doing things for his family and others, and he has also enjoyed dearly the work he has done for the Lord. He was in the Elders Quorum Presidency and President for nine years, a Sunday School Superintendency member; a Scout Master and an assistant Ward Clerk and also over the Aaronic Priesthood over 21.

Eldred loves to hunt and fish and has enjoyed having his boys join with him in these hobbies. He also loves animals and has had a hobby of raising animals for many years. The family has shared in this hobby of raising animals both in helping care for them and in sharing in the profits and in many a good meal.

Eldred and Anna have the following children and grandchildren:

John Douglas Smith served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and married Joyce Millard; they have two daughters, Tamara Koreen and Nina Angela.

Deanna Smith married Robert Gower Davis, and they have a son Robert Scott. Jillyn Smith married Arthur Leavitt Cottam.

Doyle Smith was born March 7, 1955 and is still at home.