Arabella Jane Coombs Smith
Born: approx. 1853; California
Died: 19 January 1883; Mancos, Montezuma, Colorado
Married: Joseph Stanford Smith; 23 October 1871; Salt Lake Endowment House
Father: Abraham Coombs
Mother: Olive Olivia Curtis
History
At the age of 21, Stanford married Arabella Coombs (called Bella). She was almost 18 years old at the time, and had dark-hair. The young couple journeyed to Salt Lake in a stylish new wagon pulled by a team of ponies. They were sealed in the Endowment House on October 23, 1871.
After their marriage, Stanford and Bella settled in Cedar City. Sadly, their first baby, a little girl, died at birth. iii Two years later, they were blessed with twin girls, who they named Ida and Ada. But once again heartache entered the Smith home when Ida passed away at the age of just two and a half. Arabella was pregnant at the time, and a few months later gave birth to little Joseph Elroy, called Roy by his family. Three years after that a second boy was born, named George Abraham, on June 8, 1879.
Hole-in-the-Rock – the Last Wagon
Only a few months later, when little George was just four months old, Stanford and his young family were called to the San Juan Mission. They packed up their belongings in Cedar City and gathered in Escalante with the other families headed for the San Juan. Perhaps dismayed, but nevertheless undaunted, by the task of proceeding through what became the Hole-in-the-Rock, the Smith family did what they could to make it possible. For Stanford, that meant working tirelessly to help blast and build a way down through the Hole. For Bella and the kids, it meant waiting patiently in camp with other women and children while the weeks stretched on and winter drew near. Stanford recalled:
My wagon stood just where I drew up when we came to the hole in the rock, for seven weeks, while we worked like beavers to get the road through. I never turned a wheel on my wagon for these seven weeks and there my wife was with her three small children. . . . It was not much of a place to spend Christmas. However, we did have a real Christmas celebration. iv
For Christmas, one of the men in the company slaughtered a steer and offered the meat in exchange for a shooting contest. So on Christmas Day, for the price of a dollar, each man who wanted to participate got to shoot three shots at a target. The man who scored highest was given first choice of the beef for his family. It was quite a treat, considering that food supplies were already rationed carefully and to supplement their diet, Stanford and others would catch gophers for food. Other tournaments, games, races, and wrestling matches helped to make Christmas Day a much needed holiday from the rigorous labor of blasting and building that had consumed the previous two months.
Finally, at the end of January, the men began to lower the wagons down the Hole. Stanford was right in the thick of the action, helping to lower the wagons and move them on towards the ferry. He was dismayed to discover, however, that after all the wagons had supposedly been lowered down the canyon, his was nowhere in sight. He climbed up the Hole-in-the-Rock and discovered Bella wrapped in a quilt with baby George in her arms. She explained that their wagon had been moved out of the way while all the other wagons were let down the Hole. Now all that was left was their wagon, and no one left to help. Stanford was put out that after all he had done to help the others’ with their wagons, no thought had been given to his own family’s welfare. He had assumed someone would see to it that his wagon was brought down safely.
Seeing no other choice but to lower their wagon themselves, Stanford and Arabella hitched up their team of horses and tied a third horse to the back, hoping the horse would act as a counterweight to the downward pull of the wagon. Bella wrapped the children in quilts and instructed them to sit quietly on the snow while she and their father took the wagon down, assuring them that it would not be long before Stanford would return for them. With childlike faith, Ada, barely six years old, offered a simple prayer: “‘Father in heaven bless me and Roy and baby until our father comes back.’” v
Bella wrapped the lead ropes of the hind horse around her hands as Stanford climbed onto the wagon seat. He started the horses forward to the crevice, and seconds later the wagon began its dangerous descent down the steep canyon. Bella and the hind horse were sharply jerked forward and over the edge of the Hole. The horse lost its footing in an attempt to resist the wagon’s pull. Likewise, Bella fought not to be pulled from off her feet, but she tripped on a rock and fell, clinging tenaciously to the horse’s ropes as she was dragged down the crudely fashioned rock road. The wagon bounced violently down, finally crashing into a bolder. The impact of the crash yanked Bella back to her feet and slammed her into the canyon wall. Dazed, she stood lamely against the rock as a fierce pain throbbed in her leg. She had been slashed by the rocks all the way down her leg. Stanford, shaken by the rough ride, climbed down from the wagon and turned to ask his wife how she had managed the descent, unaware of her condition. “‘Oh, I crow-hopped right along!’” Bella answered smartly. vi Only then did Stanford notice a flutter of white cloth on the rocks a hundred feet above, combined with the pool of blood forming at Bella’s feet, and realize that his wife had been dragged down the 100-foot incline. He hugged her tight while tears of pain and relief flowed. Then, once Bella was secured in the wagon with her wound tended to, Stanford hurried back up to the top of the Hole to retrieve the children. As he climbed his heart was filled with love and admiration for his courageous and spirited wife. He lifted his hat to her as a gesture of his esteem. Atop the Hole, he found the children right where Bella had left them, and carefully helped them climb down the rocks to their mother.
Family Search:
Arabella Jane Coombs Smith on FamilySearch
