John Perry Smith Loulia Brennetta Allen Smith Loulia Allen
John Perry Smith was born May 6, 1862 in Coalville, Summit County, Utah. He married Loulia Brennetta Allen on the 8th of August 1882 in Lander, Wyoming. They were the parents of 10 children.
- 1. (Son) born 1883
- 2. Winnefred Smith 1884
- 3. Leafy Lineria Smith 1886
- 4. (Daughter) Smith 1888
- +5. Marguerite Brennetta Smith 1889 - 1953
- 6. Marion (Mamie) Nevada Smith 1891 - 1911
- 7. Ruby Hannah Smith 1893 -
- 8. Frank Allen Smith 1896 - 1954
- 9. Dea Marie Smith 1898 - 1899
- 10. John Wheaton Smith 1900 - 1978
- 11 Loulia Katherine Dallimore 1905
- 12 Mamie Dallimore (adopted and named after Marion (Mamie) who died when she was 19.
Loulia was born in West Jordan, Utah to John Ferguson Allen and Brennetta (Kitten) Walters Hickman Allen on the 6th day of May 1866. She was the Grand daughter of William (Bill) Adams Hickman and Brennetta Burckhartt Hickman.
Loulia’s Grandfather, Bill Hickman, wrote the book, “Brigham’s Destroying Angel” which was released in February of 1872 while he was in protective custody at Fort Douglas. After that life was not the same for the Hickman family. “In one quick move he had alienated both Mormons and Gentiles. Everyone was disgusted, Gentiles because he had again escaped the hangman’s noose and Mormons because he had vilified their prophet. Hickman’s book was available in local bookstores. Its main disclosure was the claim that Brigham Young had ordered Hickman to kill men without a trial because of unbelief.” 1
In the face of consistent hostility, Bill became more and more paranoid and reclusive. He wanted to leave Utah for a place of safety, where he would not be recognized or bothered. He was suffering from complications of his lame hip and was constantly in pain. Bill was aware that his wives, children, and grand children were ridiculed because of his reputation. Several of the children were raised under other names in small rural communities where their connection to him could not be known.
It took seven years for Bill to sell his property in “Five Mile Spring” Utah. He then moved to Nephi to live with his daughter Kitten and her husband John Allen and seven children (including Loulia). If Bill ever received money for his “confessions” it would hot have compensated him for the years of anguish he and his family suffered. Then when Brigham Young died, and Bill realized that he would probably never be forgiven and welcomed back into the church, he decided to go to Wyoming, to die in peace. He persuaded Brennetta, his first and final wife, to go with him along with three of his grown married daughters and their husbands and children.
It was a long journey to Wyoming. The family traveled by wagon covered with quilts. They traveled through Parley’s Canyon, Echo Canyon, across the Bear River then headed for the new Fort Bridger. It was a journey across mostly flat land with narrow ribbons of water throughout the landscape. They continued across Black’s Fork, northeast to the lush plains of Green River, toward the Continental Divide on the old Mormon Trail. The area was now mostly overgrown sagebrush. They decided to settle near Lander, Wyoming. Eight miles north of Lander, near the head of Baldwin Creek. The foothills were sheltered by the protective folds of the Wind River Range. It was a place with grassy meadows and mountain peaks full of wildlife and cottonwood trees. They had no neighbors, no schools, no stores, no churches, no government officials, no spies.
They built four dugouts in the mountainside. A dugout is a house with three dirt walls and a front. The four dugouts were constructed in a line, with about a half-mile between the first and last dugout. Bill and Brennetta lived in one, John and Kitten Allen and seven children lived in another. The remaining two were occupied by Franklin David Gillespie and his wife Rhoda and one for Robert Hemphill Gillespie and his wife Phoebe Delilah Hickman. Rhoda and Phoebe were Bill’s daughters by Sarah Basford. These families lived in the dugouts until 1883 when Bill Hickman died.
When John and Kitten came to Lander they had seven children. The oldest (Loulia) was 14 and the youngest was 1. Eventually they had three more children. The years growing up in the dugout must have been difficult for the family. So many people in such a small place! Still, Loulia had a happy childhood. She enjoyed nature to its fullest. She learned how to work hard and help her mother take care of her younger brothers and sisters. No doubt, she had to plant a garden, hoe and weed it, and help to harvest the crops when they were ripe to help feed the family. She was no stranger to work.
In August of 1882 the oldest daughter of John and Kitten Allen, Loulia Brennetta Allen, married John Perry Smith. He was a brakeman on the Union Pacific Railroad, in Lander. She was sixteen years old and probably anxious to rejoin civilization, away from the mountain hideout of her parents and grandparents.
She married John Perry Smith on the 6th of August 1882 in Lander, Wyoming. John Perry Smith and Loulia shared the same birth date! John was born on the 6th of May in the year 1862. He was four years older than Loulia.
Loulia was 16 when she married 20 year old John. Right away the couple started having children. Their first child, a son, was born in 1883 and died the same year. It is unknown if he was stillborn or if he lived for a short time. The same is true of the next three children, all girls, who were born and died the same year. Winnefred was born in 1884, Leafy in 1886, and another daughter in 1888. It must have been devastating to Loulia and John to lose so many children.
Finally, Marguerite (Maggie) Brennetta Smith was born on July 3, 1889 and she lived! Another daughter, Marion Nevada Smith, was born on 16 July 1891 in Oceola, Nevada. She lived! What a wonderful feeling it must have been to Loulia to have two little daughters that she could hold and love and cherish.
Two years later on 13 Jul 1893 another daughter, Ruby Hannah Smith, was born. Frank Allen Smith joined the family on 30 Jul 1896. Imagine the joy and laughter that filled this home.
Dea Marie Smith was born 10 Apr. 1898 and once again the family endured sorrow when this little girl died in Feb of 1899, she was just 1 year old.
John Wheaton Smith was born on 23 Aug 1900. When John was a baby of eight and a half months old his father, John Perry Smith, was killed in a train accident. Loulia was faced with the tragedy of losing her beloved husband and having to feed 5 living children.
Bernetta Oliver (Ruby’s daughter) told me that after Grandpa John Perry Smith died that Grandma Loulia took up sewing for other people to support her family. She was living in Coalville, Utah at the time. It must have been a daunting task to take on the responsibility of raising a family all alone. But, Loulia was a very strong person. She was a survivor. She would not give up!
On the 1st of July 1904, three years after the death of her husband, Loulia married a man by the name of John Richard (Jack) Dallimore in Lehi, Utah. He was a happy man who was ready and willing to help her raise her family. He loved to play the fiddle and the accordion and was known to provide the music at many dances.
In December of 1904, Maggie, married John Parley Byington and moved to Annis, Idaho. Then in 1905, Loulia was blessed with another daughter, Loulia Katherine Dallimore.
Marion (Mamie) died on the 17th of April 1911 at the age of 19. She died from a burst appendix. There is no record of her ever being married.
One day Loulia heard a knock on her door and went to answer it. No adult could be seen. But, a baby had been left on the doorstep with a note attached to her saying “I know you will take good care of my baby and give her lots of love.” Loulia and Jack adopted the little girl and named her Mamie after their deceased daughter Marion (whose nickname was Mamie). Maggie made comments that Mamie was very spoiled because she got her mother up in the night to make pancakes for her! She WAS well taken care of! And loved!
Bernetta (Ruby’s daughter) said that Loulia loved to move around and when she decided to go… it was only a day or so and they were gone! They lived in Coalville, Utah; Nephi, Utah; Oceola, Nevada; Lehi, Utah; Euerka, Utah; Annis, Idaho; then moved near Blackfoot, Idaho for a while and then moved to Emmett, Idaho. This is the place that Loulia lived until her death on 28 Apr 1935. She was 68 years old. She is buried in Coalville, Utah next to her first husband, John Perry Smith. Jack Dallimore died in 1941.
1 Much of the information in this document comes from the book “Wild Bill Hickman and the Mormon Frontier” by Hope A. Hilton.
Jack and Loulia Dallimore
Special message from Sherry Ellen Wells. A tid bit of information. I remember my Mom telling me that one day she was sitting on her Grandma's lap (Loulia Brennetta) and her Grandma commented on my Mom's dark eyes. She said "When I was a little girl my eyes were just as black as yours are". Mom said she looked at her and her eyes were grey almost without color (whether that was from cataracts or what I don't know) but she asked her "What happened to your black eyes Grandma?" In response she said that the tears had washed all the color out of them. Mom said she didn't understand until she was older and lost a son of her own and realized how many children her Grandma had lost and then to lose her husband (It is my understanding that he was crushed between railroad cars) that she began to understand how the tears could wash all the color out of her Grandma's eyes.
Also, if you are not aware, when Grandpa John Perry Smith died, they had a large article in the newspaper stating the the father of Coleville had died. I believe that I have a copy of that paper in some of Mom's stuff. I am sure that it could be found in the history of Coleville stuff also.
Anyway, thank you for all you do and I hope that you get this and that it is interesting to you.
Love Ellen