Mary Heathman Smith

Ogden Valley called her Granny Smith, and for thirty years she was the closest thing it had to a hospital. Mary Heathman Smith trained in a maternity hospital in England before coming to Utah in 1862, and she served the valley as doctor, surgeon, midwife, and nurse — turning out in the worst winter nights, over bad roads, usually for little or no pay. She raised nine children and, by the count on her monument, delivered more than fifteen hundred others into the world. She died in Huntsville in 1895, mourned by a whole valley she had helped populate.

What the plaque says

In memory of Mary Heathman Smith lovingly known as "Granny" Smith. Born in England, January 21, 1818, where she was trained in a maternity hospital. She came to Utah in 1862. As doctor, surgeon, midwife and nurse, for thirty years, in storm or sunshine, during the bleakest winters or the darkest night, with little or no remuneration, she attended the people of Ogden Valley with a courage and faithfulness unexcelled. In addition to rearing her own family of nine, under her skill and attention she brought into the world more than 1500 babies, she died in Huntsville, Utah, December 15, 1895.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Snowbasin — 5.5 mi
  One of the country's oldest ski areas and a 2002 Olympic downhill venue — world-class terrain that somehow still skis uncrowded.
• Powder Mountain — 8.3 mi
  The largest ski resort in the United States by acreage — a famously uncrowded "PowMow" now remaking itself under Netflix's Reed Hastings.
• Ogden Union Station — 11 mi
  A grand 1924 train depot turned museum complex
• Hill Aerospace Museum — 14 mi
  Over 90 military aircraft displayed indoors and on the tarmac

More markers nearby

• Captain Jefferson Hunt — steps away
• Huntsville — steps away
• Eden World War II Memorial — 3.5 mi
• Liberty — 7.0 mi