Charlottle Rachel Anderson Smith History

by daughter, Alice

“I have found such joy in simple things,

A plain, clean room, an nut brown loaf of bread,

A cup of milk, an kettle as it sings

The shelter of an roof above my head:

And in an leaf-faced square upon a floor

Where yellow sunlight glimmers thru a door.

I have found such joy in things that fill my quiet day:
A curtain’s blowing grace,

A growing plant upon an window sill
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within an vase:

A table cleared, an lamp beside an chair,

And books I long have loved, beside me there.

Oh I have found such joy: I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far

For some elusive, feverish delight,

That very close to home the great joys are:

These fundamental things – Old as the race,

Yet never, thru the ages – commonplace!

This appreciation of simple true beauty and joy, pens the life of Charlotte Rachel Anderson Smith, born Feb. 20, 1968 at Grantsville, Utah, a daughter of John C. and Mary Ann Clark Anderson. Being the oldest child in the Anderson family of 9, Rachel was taught in early Youth to work in the fields. There was probably her first lesson in appreciation of life giving soil. She had many responsibilities in the home with the rearing of the younger children. Here she was taught the arts of home making. But Rachel still had time to be active in her church work, serving in M. I. A. and Sunday School.

After her marriage to Joseph Smith, Nov. 28, 1889 in the Logan Temple, she served as a teacher in Religion class and was a counselor in the Stake Primary Presidency for 15 years, making visits to the distant wards by means of an white-top buggy. She served as counselor in the Relief Society for a number of years. She devoted a great deal of time to Temple work, after her family of 8 were reared.

Her life has always been one of service, not only to her family, but for others. During the time of the “flu”, she devoted her time in caring for the sick, leaving her own children during the day and going from one home to another to ease the load for other families.