I now take my pen to rewrite my journal of my life.

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My name is Ralph Smith, son of Thomas Smith and Mary  Usher, born 24th June 1835, Reckington, the county of Durham, England and was brought up in the same county and taught in their schools and instructed by the Sunday School teachers until I was 10 years and six months old.  

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I was well brought  up by dutiful parents, and  I got  a common education. But thru  persecution, when we joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was deprived  of going any longer to school.

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I was baptized on 4 Jan 1846 with mother and brother by Priest Henry Campbell  who came to that part of the country  where  we lived with his wife and a young  man named Thomas Ord. Campbell labored diligently in my father's house to teach the principals of this Gospel and succeeded in part  for my mother was convinced of the truth of  it. But mother put off being baptized for a number of weeks waiting for father to go with her. He did  not feel inclined  to go but gave mother leave  with my brother who was 9-years-old  and myself, so with the three above named saints, we  repaired  towaters for baptism and was baptized on the above dat and returned home and  held a little meeting in my father's house. 

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Nowthere  was a little Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in that part of the country composed of six members in the number: five members and one teacher, and we were not confirmed into the Church and the worst was we had no Elder to attend to that part of the business. 

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So Brother Campbell wrote to the authorities of the Church in Europe, and they sent an elder  from Scotland named G.P. Wauf, and he came to this small branchaat Woodside in the County of Durham, and he confirmed  intotheChurchthis small branch sometime   about the back of March or the beginning of April. My father invited him to come and prech in his house, and he would seat his house and get a congregation together, and he being master over a large number of men invited  them to come  and  hear this elder, also his master and the clerks in the office which he had to associate with. He sent his children all around the neighborhood to invite the people and a very large congregation came together and father Wauf addressed them and was very much opposed by my father's  master William  Elliout who asked him for the authority to speak there. 

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My father jumped up in an instant and  told him, "I authorize him. I count my castle like  every other Englishman," and he said, "I'll  speak to you another time, Smith." So in a few days afterwards, my father was notified to leave his situation  for he was an overman/averman  under William Elliout, a coal view for Henry Stobard, Esq. Coal pits at Etherlyin the county of Durham but to return to Father Wauf.  He rattled away with  his discourse and a clerkby the name of Thomas Greener, a Methodist,  and some  of his colleagues interrupted  him much, and he told them the more they interrupted him, the longer he would speak. And Greener took  notes of  his sermon, and he spoke until nearly 12 o'clock, and Greener and his  colleagues stayed and argued with him until 4 o'clock in the morning.

 

Now something must be  done to put down this blasphemous sect so all parties joined  together and sent their ambassador to the head proprietor of the place with all the lies they could scrape together  to poison his mind, so my father was to lose his position, and all else who would go to hear those detestable people were to lose their work. So, this was their scheme, which had its desired effect, and to make my father make his wife and two children leave that detestable  religion. 

 

They would not give him a caricature (possibly a letter of recommendation), so he traveled in van to seek a situation (a job) for when there was a likelihood for him to get a situation, and his caricature was asked for, he had it not to show. And, when he told them who  he  had worked for last and to write for it, they told them that they liked  to keep him out of work to punish him, for I, myself, have know the head proprietor Henry Stobart, Esq., to order  his carriage to be stopped for him to speak to Smith,  and during their conversation, I overheard him say, "If you will only make  your wife and two children leave  that  detestable religion, I will give you a better position than you ever had before." 

 

MY father's  answer was, "I will not. I will sooner go and earn my living by hard labor." And he had to do so. And during this  time, we suffered much slander and abuse. The large house which we occupied half of had been taken from us and foul-mouthed, mean devils came and dwelt there to put us to more  inconvenience, and after Father had worked some to the in  sinking a pit, and it was finished, he went where he got some more suitable work and took me with him.

 

One day when we were at work ndcme home, we found all  our  things on the  highway, and the rest  of the family out of the house by order  of the magistrate  Henry Stobart, Esq., and no  one  dared look upon us with  pity lest the above should be their fate. But at length, an old gentleman named Thomas  Pickren sent  word to my father to bring  his goods up to his house and stop there. This was when a brother of my father, named Sober Satkin Smith stopped, who had married this old gentleman's daughter Bessie Pickren. And, we hunted all up and down to get someone  to take our things there to get someone to take our things there but all were in vain. But when we were wearied, an old publicing sent his horses and carts to remove  our goods to the afore-mentioned place, and they were put in the stable. We went and stopped in the house with the old people for some eight or ten days and then moved from this beautiful place Etherly to Bishop   Auckland. At this time, when Elder Wauf came, it was sometime in the latter part of March or the beginning of April 1846, and we were confirmed at the  first Sunday afternoon meeting. Elder Wauf  preached a few times in that neighborhood and stayed a few weeks and returned home again. 

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After a short time had elapsed, Brother Campbell and his wife andThe young man Ord moved, and we had to go to West Auckland to Brother Campbell's  house to meeting.  A distance of three miles, and our little meeting continued without any increase or decrease for one year. 

 

In the year 1847, Brother  Campbell removed from Bishop Auckland to Farry  Hill  which kept five of us together. An a young man named  Charles  Phelps, an elder came  up to preach in that field of labor  and visited us a few times and preached and was called away. And shortly after Brother Campbell with  his wife moved again to Readker, and left us all alone. 

 

In the  year 1848, we moved from one side of our work to the other or from Farry Hill to Thrislington, and  in a little time after, we  had moved to Thrislington. Elder John Carmickel came to preach  in that district and, while he was preaching at Thormely a distance  of five miles from us, he  heard about us and came and preached at Thrislingtonandstopped at our house , and my brother  Edward and I went to  the  Thormely meeting for some time and  enjoyed ourselves very much. 

 

My father was very fond  of B rother Carmickel's company, but he couldn't lead him to waters of baptism. Another elder, John  McCaffery, and he soon raised a good branch, and my father was appointed to preside over  it, and  it flourished for more than a year, and  there were many in the branch. But some departed from thefaithandsome moved from the place. My father fell into tgransgressoinand desired to be  cut off from the church and, not to bring disgrace on the Church, so he was cut off and the branch was disorganized, and we had to go to Kellow meeting again.   

 

After a little, my  father got baptized again, the Priesthood was put on him again, and the branch reorganized. He had to preside over  it again  and put it to rights, and it flourished again forf nearly a year. And work stopped on account of some failure with the  master which caused all the inhabitants to move, and the  branch  was broken up. We  moved to the city of Durham in the latter part of June 1852, where I went to Keepier Colliery to be under overman, and my brother to work there. 

 

My father went to Austrlia, and on the first  of July 1852.He left tI   

 

 

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