LIFE STORY OF ANNETTA McBRIDE SMITH

Annetta was born on 16 April 1851, probably in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa, to Henrietta McBride. In Gilbert Belnap’s journal, an entry (in the handwriting of Gilbert’s son Hyrum Belnap) shows her name as “Annetta McBride Smith.” A marginal notation in the original Ogden City Cemetery records states that her father was named “Wells Smith.” (Jesse Wells Smith, who lived in Farmington, Davis, Utah and where Henrietta McBride initially settled, had a brother Lot Smith who married Lydia Minerva McBride, Henrietta’s first cousin, and who served in the same company of the Mormon Battalion with Henrietta’s brother Harlum. This Jesse Wells Smith also had a sister Abiah Ann Smith who married George McBride, Henrietta’s brother. It is unknown if this was the “Wells Smith” referred to.)

Shortly after her birth, Annetta apparently crossed the plains in company with her mother Henrietta McBride, her grandmother Betsy Mead McBride and 2 of her mother’s brothers, James and Nathaniel Knight McBride. Which company is not presently known. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1851. Annetta’s great grandmother, Abigail Mead McBride, had emigrated to Utah in 1847.

Annetta’s mother, grandmother, and her 2 uncles who crossed the plains with them initially settled in Farmington, Davis, Utah.

On 26 June 1852 Annetta’s mother Henrietta McBride was married polygamously as the second wife of Gilbert Belnap by Brigham Young in the President’s Office in Great Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah.

Annetta died shortly thereafter on 26 November 1852, presumably in Ogden, Weber, Utah. She was buried in the Ogden City Cemetery in the Gilbert Belnap family plot. (According to her headstone, which was erected many years after her death, Annetta was born about 1850 and died in 1853.)

On 8 October 1919 Annetta McBride was sealed “to” Gilbert Belnap and “to her mother” Henrietta McBride in the Salt Lake Temple. Gilbert Rosel Belnap served as proxy for his father Gilbert Belnap and Isadora Estella Belnap Stoddard served as proxy for her mother Henrietta McBride. Ansine M. L. Petersen served as proxy for Annetta.

(Written by Brent J. Belnap. Submitted on behalf of the Belnap Family Organization to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1995.)

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Name: Annetta McBride (Smith)

Born: 16 April 1851, probably Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa

Died: 26 November 1852, probably Ogden, Weber, Utah

Parents: Henrietta McBride (The father may have been Wells Smith)

Pioneer Arrival: 1851

Company: Unknown company (by wagon)

Spouse: (None)

Married: (None)

Spouse’s Death: (None)

Children: (None)