Description

Lanta

Atlanta Augusta Wilson or Lanta as her family called her was born July 19, 1856, at Castine, Maine. She was the youngest of the four daughters of the Reverend William Jones Wilson, a Methodist minister and his wife Sedelia Abigail Follett Wilson. As a child, she moved often to different places in the state of Maine. 

In 1866, the family moved to Wisconsin. Then in 1872, the family moved on to Overton, Dawson County, Nebraska. By 1876, the family had returned to Wisconsin. It was here at Shopiere, Wisconsin that Lanta met and married Charles Harley Smith, June 18, 1880. 

Charles wanted to be a teacher and accordingly, after his education, accepted a position as a school principal in Rockton, Illinois. The Smith’s were only there a short time when Charles went into business for himself and moved to Parker, South Dakota around 1882. 

Then, in late 1885, Charles Harley Smith was on a business trip to Lincoln Nebraska when he felt the call to enter the ministry. 

His call to the ministry became so definite and imperative that, at Lincoln, he went to a Presiding Elder and made known his conviction and decision,” wrote his colleague, the Reverend Dr. Edward Cary Bass, in 1921, “and immediately was sent further west on a trial trip in preaching, and souls were converted, and our brother no longer ‘conferred with flesh and blood,’ or business.” (Methodist Church, 131).

From that point forward, Smith became a traveling preacher and pastor. He was sent to “organize a circuit near Plankinton, in the Dakota Territory. Bass continues, “’Bro. Smith knew the work on ‘the frontier.’ He knew the prairies when few of the millions of acres had felt the plowshare, when the wolf and ‘the rattler’ were not uncommon, when civilization had only begun to make habitations there. While yet a ‘supply’ preacher, himself and wife were almost constantly on the road among the eight neighborhoods which he organized as Plankinton Circuit, holding revival meetings for eleven weeks in schoolhouses, with four or five services on many a Sabbath, to save time and meet his appointments eating his lunch as he traveled, and occupying rooms whose walls were thickly frosted.” (Methodist Church, 131).’”

Biographer Brett Nelson made this telling statement about Lanta. “Due to the itinerant nature of her husband’s profession, Lanta Smith never lived in any location more than a few years.” As the daughter of a minister and now the wife of a minister, Lanta said of herself “I did not inherit pulpit oratory and am perfectly satisfied to do all my preaching with a pen.” And preach she did. It is estimated that her poetry resulted in more than 500 hymns in her lifetime. 

It seems appropriate therefore that Atlanta Augusta Smith, the traveling preacher’s wife, who scarcely knew a permanent home most of her life, should be the soul inspired to write these cheering words, 

In a world where sorrow

Ever will be known,

Where are found the needy

And the sad and lone,

How much joy and comfort

You can all bestow,

If you scatter sunshine

Ev’rywhere you go.

[Chorus]

Scatter sunshine all along your way.

Cheer and bless and brighten

Ev’ry passing day.

The Lord Jesus asked His disciples to be the “light of the world’ (Matthew 5:14). Whose darkened world can you bring light to today? 

 

Sources:

https://ldshymnology.wordpress.com/2019/06/02/lanta-wilson-smith-1856-1939/ This article is the principal fact source for this story. It has been corroborated elsewhere. 

Lanta Wilson Smith (1856-1939)

Ibid, Nelson goes on to list the numerous locations where the Smiths lived in the years that followed. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/music/library/hymns/scatter-sunshine?lang=eng

 

Copyright Glenn Rawson 2023