Joseph Smith Wing was a cooper when he married Rebecca Davis and on June 20, 1850, he and Rebecca became the parents of a baby girl; Adelia Wing.  On November 21, 1852, a son was born to Joseph and Rebecca; Byron Wing.  (Various sources claim that Joseph and Rebecca had three children; Adelia, Byron and Margaret. At this point in time there is no mention of a daughter Margaret mentioned in any documents.)

In the spring of 1853 Joseph Smith Wing left Pike County, Illinois to pursue business for his brother, Stephen Wing in Wisconsin. He would never return to the young family that he had left behind. In three letters written in the early months of 1854, Joseph Smith Wing admitted to his wife, Rebecca, that he had married another woman in Chickasaw, Iowa, in September of 1853. By September of 1854, after relinquishing her children  (in the form of an Indenture) to Joseph's brother, Stephen Wing, Rebecca Davis Wing divorced Joseph Smith Wing.

Rebecca seemed to waiver on the custody of her daughter and after her divorce, Rebecca took her daughter back and then gave her up again. Adelia Wing eventually became a ward of the State of Illinois and was handed over to the custody of Amy Wing and her son, Stephen Wing.  The evidence indicates that Rebecca did not raise either Adelia or Byron. On June 8, 1856, Rebecca married Jacob T. Cheek.

By his own account, Joseph Smith Wing became a doctor of medicine in 1857. He mentions his early education in an article he sent to the OWL, but he never addresses how he came to be a doctor. In 1848 he was a cooper, by 1854 through 1858 he was a businessman, opening a lumber company with his brother, Benjamin Wing in Black River Falls Wisconsin in 1858. Somehow, in 1857, Joseph Smith Wing either invented his medical knowledge or had somehow gained the education neccessary to become a physician.

At this time it is not known when Dr. Wing became a Mormon. Presumably he became a Mormon by the time he met and "married" Sarah Wright Strang sometime in 1857 or shortly thereafter. They had their first child, Elizabeth Jane Wing in November of 1858.

The unfortunate truth of the reputation of Dr. Wing tends to lend itself to a certain degree of skepticism. On the surface, it appears that more than anything else, Dr. Wing was an opportunist who found his religion and his occupation to suit his particular needs. Already established as a bigamist, named as having had not only an illegal marriage but engaging in a live-in relationship with another woman in the divorce papers filed in Pike Co., Illinois, Dr. Wing seems to have found the religion that suited his weakness for women.

It is also true that Dr. Wing's reputation for being something of a scoundrel tends to overshadow any redeeming accomplishments he may have achieved. He discovered the famous Flagstaff mines in Cottonwood Canyon, Utah, from which he realized a considerable fortune. He was known as a successful physician; no doubt the man delivered many babies and saved several lives. He maintained four different families at one time in Utah, providing all of them with separate homes, furnishings and cattle.

Joseph Smith Wing certainly got around. He was in Wisconsin, Michigan and then Iowa. He married Elizabeth Jarrett in Iowa, and "married" an unknown woman (Signa Anderson?) and Sarah Wright Strang in Wisconsin. However we do know that for some reason he dropped the "Wing" surname and and married the unknown woman under the name "Joseph Wing Smith". On the website of the Church of Latter Day Saints, this woman is named as Signa Anderson. This is not proven. He had two sons by this unknown woman; Miland Smith and Homer Smith. Date of births unknown, but probably the late 1850's or early 1860's. The secret of the two Smith sons' was revealed when Miland Smith traveled to Utah to find his father.

Wife # 4 was Sarah Adelia Wright. Sarah was the widow of James Strang (he started the Strangite branch of the L.D.S Church). He was killed by one of his followers before his son James Strang was born.  Sarah was the daughter of Phineas Wright and Amanda Finch. Dr. Wing developed a relationship with the widow Sarah Adelia Wright Strang and taught her nursing.

Family tradition has it that Sarah Strang did not know that Dr. Joseph S. Wing was a married man and when they traveled through Clayton, Illinois he went to the home of his first wife, Rebecca Davis Wing. All he found at home was his oldest daughter so he picked her up and told her to come for a ride. Sarah was amazed at him taking the child until later when she learned it was his own. Dr. Wing had wanted to take his son Byron, but did not know where Byron was at.

The true story is that Dr. Joseph Smith Wing legally "kidnapped" his daughter. Even then, it is difficult to say "kidnap" when her mother, Rebecca Wing had allowed Adelia to become a ward of the State of Illinois. When Dr. Wing took Adelia, she was living with her grandmother, Amy Wing. On April 6, 1859, Amy Wing wrote a letter to the Pike County court stating that she could no longer care for Adelia because she was getting too old and the court requirements were too difficult to meet since she had moved to Adams County. She also told them in the letter that she wished to relinquish the custody of Adelia to her son, Joseph S. Wing who had come to claim his daughter. By now Adelia was going on nine years old.

It's very possible that the kidnapping story came about because chances are Rebecca had no inkling that J.S.W was even in the area, much less planning to go to court and claim his daughter. It was probably not until after the fact that Rebecca discovered that her daughter was no longer in the custody of her grandmother, but in the custody of ther father. As far as Byron was concerned, unless he was off visiting relatives, he would have been in the same home as his sister, Adelia. Adelia, Byron and their grandmother, Amy Pettis Wing all lived with Stephen Wing, J.S.W's oldest brother. It is a mystery for now why Dr. Wing did not take his son, Byron Wing also. There may have been an argument involving Byron, Stephen Wing may have protested against his brother taking a young boy that had never had a chance to get to know his own father. Maybe Byron protested, maybe he was too attached to Stephen and Olive Rice Wing to want to leave and maybe never see them again. Whatever the case, Byron was left in Illinois and Adelia Wing left with her father and his new wife, Sarah Wright Strang. There are no clues that suggest that Adelia and Byron ever laid eyes each other again...in fact, they probably didn't. However, we do know that Adelia and her mother met again after many, many years. Rebecca traveled to Utah to reunite with her daughter.

At this point in time a marriage license has not surfaced to prove the marriage between Dr. Joseph Smith Wing and Sarah Wright Stang. We do know that when he claimed his daughter, Adelia Wing, Sarah had already had a child by J.S.W; Elizabeth Jane Wing, born November 27, 1858. Although no birth certificate has been discovered at this time, Elizabeth Jane was supposedly born at Black River Falls, Wisconsin. This is very likely since Joseph and his brother, Benjamin Wing  and "Joseph Wing Smith" are recorded at Black River Falls, Wisconsin as having built a three story building in the business district in 1848.

According to family tradition, Dr. Joseph S. Wing and Sarah had two or three children around the time that Brigham Young demanded that all the Mormon followers had to produce marriage licenses and be sealed. Dr. Wing had no marriage with Sarah at that point so he made Samuel Joseph Wing (his nephew)  write him out a marriage certificate and back date it to satisfy Brigham Young. Dr. Wing and Sarah were sealed  on Aug. 8, 1863. Eventually Dr. Wing and Sarah had a total of six children.

In 1862, Dr. Wing loaded his pregnant wife, his daughter, Adelia from his first marriage and his daughter Elizabeth Jane in a covered wagon and headed for Utah. His nephew, Samuel Joseph Wing and his wife, Elizabeth Wright (sister to Sarah Wright Strang) joined them in the same caravan. Unknown to them, John William Wing, Samuel Wing's brother and Dr. Wing's nephew,  hid himself among the many pioneers and was not discovered until it was too late to send him back to Illinois.

Dr. Wing had many more marriages and many more children. His fifth wife, Elizabeth Marshall supposedly claimed that she had a child by Dr. Wing but Dr. Wing denied parenting any children with this woman.

Mary Josephine Allen appears to have been his sixth wife. She was born Dec. 23, 1849 at Bingham Hollow, Pottawtomie, Iowa. Her parents were Orvel (Orville) Morgan Allen and Susannah Ward. Dr. Wing and Mary Josephine Allen had four children together.

Wife Number seven; Anena Sophia Bohne (pronounced Bonney). She was born Aug. 8, 1851 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was the daughter of Magnus Carl Frederick Bohne and Helsine Hjetling. Dr. Wing and Anene Sophia had three children together.

Wife Number eight.; Ellen Larsen. She was from Mt. Pleasant, Utah. She and Dr. Wing never had any children. Family tradition says that Dr. Wing and Miss Larsen were never legally married and yet two elderly ladies in Mt. Pleasant claimed they knew of the marriage to be legal.

Wife Number nine; Amelia Hendricksen. Amelia was of Danish descent. Dr. Wing and Amelia had one child.

Wife Number ten. Frances Anna McCurdy. Frances was a spiritualist. They had no children.

Wife Number eleven. Signa Anderson. Apparently had no children. (Recently discovered that it is this lady who supposedly had Miland and Homer Smith in the late 1850's, early 1860's)

Although not substantiated by any known proof, it is common knowledge that Sarah Wright Strang Wing divorced Dr. Wing and became a doctor in her own right. In her later years, Sarah renounced her Mormon religion and moved to Iowa where she died in the home of her daughter.

It is said that Dr. Wing was eventually divorced from all of his wives. Certainly one of the reasons for that is because the Mormon Church conformed to the demands of the United States government and stopped the practice of polygamy within the church. When the church did this they insisted that men with multiple wives select one wife and stay with her. Dr. Wing refused to comply with the churches wishes and supposedly just divorced all of them, living by himself for the last several years of his life. Dr. Wing died November 3, 1906 at Junction, Piute Co., Utah and was buried on hill, all by himself, in Kingston Cemetery.

Dr. Wing is my great-great grandfather from his marriage to my great-great grandmother, Rebecca Davis. My great grandfather was Byron Wing. For reasons that are unclear even to myself, I have a need to learn as much about the man and what motivated him as possible. He is a study in contradictions, seeming self-indulgence and remarkable aspirations rising from a supreme self-confidence that often appeared arrogant. I hesitate to judge him and yet I seem to do just that. He was a cooper, a businessman, a doctor, an orator, a miner, a Justice of the Peace, even marrying his oldest daughter, Adelia to her husband, Martin Sophus Bohne. He traveled extensively throughout the midwest, going farther west until he arrived in Utah. He managed to live a life that was financially rewarding and more exciting than most men. He was involved in apprehending men that robbed banks, fighting Indians, fought in court many recalitrant miners who lived by many of the same standards that Dr. Wing himself embraced. You find yourself wondering what traits, if any, were passed on to his many descendants that literally number in the hundreds and hundreds. You hope for the brillance to be passed on without the negative components that made up the man...and yet, he accomplished so much and made his mark wherever he seemed to go, you have to wonder if either were possible with out the other.

I honor Dr. Joseph Smith Wing while I reproach him in my heart for the pain he inflicted on my g-g grandmother, Rebecca Davis and on their children. Any yet, there is much more to be discovered. Who knew that Rebecca forfeited her right to her own children...and why? There have been documents discovered that have vindicated Dr. Wing and he seems not to be the ogre I have imagined him to be. Only time and more discovery will lead me and whoever else might be interested to a more complete understanding of this fascinating individual, Dr. Joseph Smith Wing.

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The following information was received from Kathryn Graham. Her information came from "Owl, Vol 23, #3, June 1922, pg. 2193; LDS Family sheet, Hugh W. Law; LDS Ancestral Files, 1990;

" (Joseph Smith Wing) (Descendant in 7th generation from Stephen Wing, one of the founders of Sandwich, Mass., in 1637)"

"Joseph Smith Wing, son of Joseph and Amy (Pettis) Wing (Giles, Matthew, Joseph, Matthew, Stephen) was born Sept. 18, 1830. at Mecca, Trumbull Co., Ohio. In 1903, the following account of his career was given in a letter to the Owl;

'I am a self-made man; got what little schooling I ever had in a log school-house, sitting upon a slab bench and but three months after I was twelve year of age. Six years after I was born my parents removed to Pike County, Ill. Both places were new and I have ever been on the frontier marching westward, until I reached Utah and in the mountains in the mining camps. I was the first discoverer of gold in Mary's Vale, Pinto County, in 1865, and returned to that county again in 1898. I am very busy in the practice of medicine which I began in 1857.'

Dr. Wing furnished the Owl with much of the information relative to his grandfather, Giles.

Dr. Wing was first married in Illinois to Rebecca Davis, by whom he had 3 children, Byron, Adelia and Margaret, born in Pike County, Illinois. He later went to Black River Falls, Wisconsin and engaged with his brother, Benjamin, in the lumber and mercantile business. They were burned out and Dr. Wing returned to Illinois. While living in Black River Falls he married Sarah Adelia Wright and they had five children...Elizabeth, May, Joseph, Benjamin, and Amanda.

He remained in Illinois a year or so and then, in 1862 with his nephew John William Wing, he was supposed to have taken his daughter Adelia with him. Adelia was born in 1850....Adelia was a minor  (12 years old) when she left with Dr. Wing and Sarah Adelia Wright for Utah. Adelia did apparently embrace the Mormon religion however, because she was married in the church and by all accounts was a devout Mormon. In Utah he married Mary Josephine Allen and by her had four sons...Charles, Orville, John and George. The youngest of these sons gave the following account in 1922 regarding his father's career;

His first wife was the mother of two children, Byron and Adelia, born in Pike County, Illinois. When he set out for Utah in 1862 with his nephew John William Wing, he was supposed to have taken his daughter Adelia with him. In Utah he married Mary Josphine Allen and by her had four sons. He afterward married a Frances A. (Frank) MCCurdy) by whom there were no children.

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In another account of Dr. Joseph Smith Wing, written by a nephew, John W. Wing, before 1916, the following is given;

"Dr. Wing was a successful physician and also a miner. ."

From another account it was reported that Dr. Wing also married a Sophia Anna Bonny (or Bohne) and by her had a son named Hugh. And in an old letter written by Dr. Wing himself, many years before his death, is the following;

" I bought city lots and the best of land in and around Springville, Utah, and built my families, four in number, good new houses, bought them stock and house furnishings amounting to over twenty thousand dollars."

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In a Utah newspaper the following account is given of Dr. Wing's death;

"Junction, Piute County, Utah, Nov. 4, 1906: Dr. J.S Wing died yesterday at Kingston at the age of 86 years. He left a will which was probated yesterday, his heirs being 13 children. R. Allen is named executor of the will. His property is valued from $1500 to $1800. Dr. Wing was a highly respected citizen of Piute County and a great friend of the poor. He had lived in Kingston about eight years. He was a public spirited man, always leading out and assisting in public matters. Funeral services will be held today under the auspices of the Kingston bishopric."

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THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WAS RECEIVED BY A MEMBER OF THE FAMILY FROM THE OWL;

In giving serial numbers to the children of Dr. Wing, numbers were allocated in the order that information as to names came to the society. Since in most cases the name only was received. It is impossible to determine in which order the name should appear; and they are, accordingly, given in the order that numbers were given. IT will also be noted that the obituary notice published in the newspaper mentions that heirs are 13 children, whereas but 12 names have been furnished to the society according to records as published in the Owl. (The 13th name has since been received.)

From information available, it appears that the first two of the listed children were born in Illinois, the mother being Rebecca (Davis) Wing; that the next four listed were born in Utah by the wife, Mary Josephine (Allen) Wing; that the next five were born in Wisconsin by the wife Sarah Adelia (Wright) Wing; and that the two last listed were born in Utah as children of Sophia Anna (Bohne) Wing.

(7846-a) Byron b. November 21, 1852, (7846-b) Adelia, (7846-c) Charles b. June 2, 1866, (7846-d) Orville Allen, b. Feb. 14, 1868, (7846-e) John Ethan Allen b. 1873, d. 1889, (7846-f) George Francis b. April 21, 1875, (7846-g) Elizabeth, (7846-h) May, (7846-i) Joseph, (7846-j) Benjamin, (7846-k) Amanda, (7846-l) Hugh b. March 14, 1873, (7846-m) Signa Sophia

TONI'S NOTES;

In the earliest census I could find,  (1850) Joseph Smith Wing was 19 years old, a cooper (made barrels) and was born in Ohio. He was married to Rebecca Davis Wing  who lists that she was born in Canada and she was 19 years old also.

1870 Census...Springville Utah. Joseph Smith Wing is listed in this census. He says he is 39 years old and a physician . and there were 8 in that household.

1870 Census...Little Cottonwood, Utah, Joseph Smith Wing says he is 40 years old and that he is a physician and that there are 4 in that particular household.

Children of Dr. Joseph Smith Wing;

By Rebecca Davis; Byron Wing, born November 21, 1852 at Milton, Pike Co., Illinois, Adelia Wing, Born June 20, 1850 and Margaret Wing (?)

By Sarah Adelia Wright Strang; Elizabeth Wing, born 1860 at Black River Fall, Jackson Wisconsin. Mary (May) Wing, born May 1, 1862 at Sweet Water, American Plains, Wyoming, Joseph Smith Wing Jr., born Nov. 2, 1864 at Springville, Utah, Utah, Sarah (Sadie) Wing, born 1867 at Springville, Utah, Utah, Benjamin Wing, born Feb. 11, 1869 at Springville, Utah, Utah, and Amanda Wing, born July 20, 1872 at Springville, Utah, Utah.

By Mary Josephine Allen; Charles Wing, born Jun2, 1866 at Mt. Pleasant, San Pete, Utah, Orville Allen Wing, born Feb. 15, 1868 at Fairview, San Pete, Utah, John Ethan Allen Wing, born Aug. 15, 1873, George Francis Wing, born April 21. 1875 at Fairview, San Pete, Utah.

By Sophia Anena Bohne; Signa Sophia Wing, born June 5, 1867 at Spring City, San Pete, Utah, Fredrick William Wing, born June 25, 1870 at Springville, Utah, Utah, Hugh Bohne Wing, born March 15, 1873 at Springville, Utah, Utah.

By Amelia Hendricksen; Henry Wing, born May 22, 1873 at Springville, Utah, Utah

By "Unknown" in Wisconsin; Miland Smith (Wing) and Homer Smith (Wing) Date of births unknown.