Ephraim and Elizabeth Hudson Smith — Granger Utah History

Ephraim's life is one of inspiration. He is one of the hardest workers I have ever read about.

Born in England, Ephriam and Elizabeth came to America with 25 cents in their pocket. When they landed in America, the children were so hungry they begged that father buy a peach pie with part of that quarter, and he did.

16 children were born to Elizabeth and Ephriam, one perished on the journey to Utah and 5 more died as small children.

Work was scarce and the family moved often, looking for steady work. One day Ephriam walked from Brigham City to Salt Lake looking for work and when he arrived back home he had mosquito bites from head to toe.

He worked hard and was an excellent bricklayer yet work was still hard to find.

He moved to Granger in 1883 and ran a small store and the Granger post office. In 1892 he built a beautiful brick home at 4200 W 4100 South. It was beautiful and the family named it Pleasant View.

Ephriam's Store and Post office

Here is a wonderful description:

" It was the most beautiful and elaborate home in Granger, in fact, it is said to have been the most beautiful home west of the river. The house was built with two large bay windows on each side of the recessed porch. The front door opened into a large hall covered with red wallpaper and with an elegant red chandelier. This hall led straight through the house to a large dining room with a fireplace with an oak mantle to match the furnishings in the room. One side of the dining room was a large “buttry”, as pantries were called at the time. The east side opened onto a large porch that went the full length of the room. On the south, the dining room was connected by a hallway attached to the house and leading to a kitchen. This was a brick building by itself. On each side of the hall from the front door were two large rooms, one was the master bedroom with a fireplace and the other was the living room with another fireplace. These fireplaces were very ornate. One of them had tile that showed a carriage drawn by four horses. They were all beautiful stone and marble. Some had pillars of Birdseye maple holding up the mantle. The other bedrooms were connected to these rooms and the dining room. They always had a hired girl to help in the keeping of this house. The house was surrounded by beautiful, well-kept grounds with a circular driveway coming up to the front porch. They had a gardener to care for these grounds. Ephraim was very meticulous in the things he did. His yard was arranged with everything exactly to plan. He planted an orchard and every way you looked, the trees were in an exact row with the same space each way. All the outbuildings were made of brick. There was a brick granary south of the house. The well had a beautiful curbing of brick and stone, with a roof over it and a bucket and a rope".

In 1894, when he was a foreman at Sandy, Ephraim fell into a vat of hot matte. The matte set and burned to his body. His wife Elizabeth placed olive oil on his skin and carefully picked it off. Ephraims skin eventually healed.

Ephraim built smelters in Old Mexico and El Paso, Texas Montana, Colorado Nevada & all over Utah.