Dr. Joseph Smith Wing, a man that led an exceedingly exciting life, tinged with pathos and comedy, certainly left his mark on this world. He had at least 10 wives and about 20 children. He was admired by the Indians and he founded at least two mines. He practiced medicine and left hearts broken all over the damn place. And he left it in his descendants that are now virtually uncountable, he left it in the accounts of his exploits that leave you wondering if he was a saint or a sinner or a little of both.
The largest concensus is that he died a lonely, bitter man, angry at the Mormon Church for insisting that he stop the practice of polygamy. Apparently it made him basically abandon all of his wives and children. It has even been said that some of his children walked to the other side of the street if they saw him approaching.
He is my great-great grandfather by his first wife, Rebecca Pierce Davis. If there were such a thing as a time machine, I would probably request a meeting with him...just to pick his mind and see what he was really like.
He got his last wish which was to be buried by himself, on top of a hill, "as far away from those damn Mormons as I can get."
