AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RALPH DEWEY SMUIN
I was born December 21, 1888 in Ogden, Utah, Weber County, the tenth child of a family of fourteen…fifteen in all for one boy was adopted when a child, due to the death of his mother and father. I grew up on the farm at 5th Street and Washington Avenue and attended the Five Points School, also Mound Fort School. During my two years at Weber College, David O. McKay (who later became President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), was the President. I attended B.Y. College at Logan, Utah, for one year.
As a boy, together with the other boys of the family, we were coached in many of the crafts of our Pioneer Father, who during his young married life followed the man with the cradle and bound the grain with bands made from the stocks of grain. This was also after the first reaper before the self binder.
Returning from Logan in the spring I was called on a Mission to Great Britain by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. On November 11, 1909 in the Logan Temple I was married to Ray Parkinson by William Budge.
December 16, 1909 Seymour B. Young set me apart in the Salt Lake Temple to labor in Bristol and South England where President C.W. Penrose and Rudger Clawson were presiding. My missionary labors kept me in England for three years, wonderful years in the service of my Heavenly Father, gaining further testimony to the truthfulness of the gospel.
Returning to Ogden, I worked on a farm one year and for the railroad the following year. In 1913 I was appointed Letter Carrier at the Ogden Post Office and served in that capacity until 1947, retiring at that time. My retirement came as a result of a freak accident. A flue in our home, which corroded over years of use, caused carbon monoxide gas to strike me down. Blood stopped circulating in my body. Ray called David O. McKay to help us. He rushed to my hospital bed and administered to me. During his prayer the doctors saw the blood surge through my veins again.
During my life I have been a confirmed hobbyist, as a poet, scout leader, hunter, bee keeper, taxidermist and conservationist.
My family consists of my wife Ray, four daughters: Carma Sandberg, Phyllis Gillie, Donna Feltcher, Janice Fingerle, three grandsons, six granddaughters, two great grandsons and one great granddaughter.
In the year of 1959 Ray and I celebrated our Golden Wedding Anniversary…a truly full life with a very choice companion for eternity. We have enjoyed our home at 1758 East 21 South in Salt Lake City for twenty four years.
Other related family members included in Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah are Joseph Watson Young, his father, Lorenzo Dow Young and Horace Sunderlin Eldredge. Relationship to these men can be traced through Madge Young Smuin, wife of Joseph Richard Smuin, Sr.
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