 |
| Carl & Mertie Smith in horse carriage |
The humid summer was coming to a close, when Mary Wilds, wife of Nathan A. Smith, gave birth to their first baby boy and second child. He was born on August 18, 1852 in West Fairlee, Vermont.[1] They named him Carlos William. He became known as Carl. His sister Lydia was 5 years old and it is certain that she was pleased to have a new baby brother.
Carl grew up on a farm located in the beautiful woodlands and fertile countryside surrounding West Fairlee, Vermont. His father Nathan was an energetic farmer and taught Carl the importance of hard work and honesty. On their thirty-seven acre farm they were self-supporting and planted crops, raised cattle, sheep and baby lambs, as well as hay for the livestock.[2]
When Carl was twelve years old, his father gave him a colt, which he broke without ever whipping it. He would race the colt by placing the whip on the tip or beginning of the horses tail.[3] During his youth, Carlos learned to read and write.[4] He likely attended the school in West Fairlee.
Mertie’s Childhood
Mertie May Loomis was the daughter of Edmund Beaman Loomis and Maria Warren Smith. Mertie was born on April 11, 1864, in the township of Rupert, Vermont. Though there were beautiful mountains adjacent to Rupert, there were many large and productive farms. Mertie’s father was a schoolteacher and a farmer. Her mother also taught school while Edmund was courting her.[5] Mertie came from a large family, being the fourth child of nine.
The residents of Rupert were very interested in the spiritual and educational welfare of all who belonged to their town.[6] In addition, because Mertie had parents who were teachers, Mertie became well schooled and was raised in a religious atmosphere in her home and community.
At the age of twelve, Mertie left home and found a job in Syracuse, New York. In the first year while she was working, she developed pneumonia. Before she could get well, she returned to work too soon, because she had no money to care for herself any longer. It seems that from that time on, she was never without a headache.[7]
Carl Buys a Farm
On April 14, 1874, when Carl was twenty-one years old, he purchased sixty-five acres of land located north of his parent’s farm, in the beautiful woodlands near West Fairlee. He bought the farm from Benjamin Niles for $1,350, with a mortgage to pay $150 each year. His father paid the first three payments of $150.[8] Carl continued to live with his parents.
Courtship and First Marriage
Carl’s maternal grandparents, the Wilds, lived in Topsham, Vermont, which was located about twenty-nine miles north of West Fairlee. It is likely he went there to visit them, traveling by wagon or horseback over the lush hillsides and valleys. He probably traveled to Topsham with his father and mother for the funeral of his mothers father, Moses Wilds, who died on November 1, 1879, at eighty-nine years.[9]
On one occasion, while visiting Topsham, he met a young girl named Sarah Clark and began to court her. Each time he returned, he fell more in love with her. When he was thirty-one years old, he asked her step father, John Clark, for his daughter’s hand in marriage. She was only twenty when they married on January 24, 1884, at Topsham. The Clergyman, H.P James from East Corinth, Vermont, performed the marriage.[10] Sarah was the daughter of John and Cyrena Clark.
It is unknown whether this marriage lasted very long because there is no other known records of Sarah. It is possible she died shortly after they were married, though there does not appear to be a record of her death in West Fairlee.
Carl sells farm and buys more land
On October 17, 1885, Carl sold the 65-acre farm in West Fairlee, Vermont, to William Russ for $600 and paid off the prior mortgage to Benjamin Niles for the 65-acres. His father Nathan also sold his 45-acre farm to William Russ for $800 and in turn purchased 31.5 acres from William Russ, for $1200.[11] Thus, William Russ now owned a total of 110 acres.
The new farm his father purchased was located on the north side of the crossroad to Fairlee Lake, between the lake and the hills. Because it was flat bottomland it was almost certainly more fertile for farming.
Carl moved in with his aging parents and helped take care of the family farm. He did not purchase land of his own until the following year. Cyrus Lyon, the neighbor adjacent to his father Nathan, sold a total of 59 acres to Carl on May 26, 1886. Again, this land was more desirable and carried a higher price of $1200.[12] Eight years later, on May 3, 1894 Carl purchased an additional 25 acres of pastureland from his brother-in-law, George Holbrook, for $75.[13] The land was located west of the 59 acres he owned.
Carl loses his parents
On April 11, 1888 Carl and Lydia lost their dearly loved father Nathan, who died of paralysis at the age of sixty-eight.[14] Six years later, at age seventy-six, their beloved mother Mary contracted pneumonia and died on April 21, 1894.[15] They buried their mother next to their father in the Post Mills Cemetery, near West Fairlee. On the tombstone, Carl and his sister Lydia placed the epitaph, “Our Father and Mother.”[16] After the death of their parents, Carl and Lydia inherited the 31.5-acre farm and Carl continued to live there and farm it.[17]
Carl meets Mertie
When Carl’s mother had departed this life and his responsibility to care for her was gone, he felt alone. Mertie resided in Schenectady, New York[18] and undoubtedly occasionally came to Thetford to visit her older sister Jessie and her husband George A. Clough. Thetford is just seven miles south of West Fairlee, where Carl lived. Carl soon became acquainted with the charming and educated Mertie and began courting her. Because Mertie was thirty-four at the time, she was considered a spinster, and Carl was a bachelor at forty-three years old. It had been almost twelve years since Carl had first married. He was so happy to finally find someone special to share his life with. On December 18, 1895, the Reverend L. Harlow, pastor of the Congregational Church in Post Mills and Thetford, joined Carl and Mertie in marriage.[19] The Loomis family rejoiced on that special day.
Mertie loses her father
Shortly after Carl and Mertie were married, Mertie lost her father, Edmund B. Loomis. He died in Danby, Vermont, on April 1, 1896.[20] He was sixty-seven years old. Even though her mother Maria was now a widow, she had eight living children to comfort her.
Marriage brings blessings
Not long after their marriage, Mertie and Carl were expecting their first child. Flora Winifred was born to them on January 16, 1897 in West Fairlee, Vermont.[21] Mertie was thirty-five years when Winifred was born and Carlos finally became a father at forty-four years. After waiting so long for a child, their precious baby girl surely was a blessing to them and filled their lives with happiness and new experiences.
 |
| Smith family in about 1900 |
On November 5, 1897, just three short years after his marriage, Carl sold all of his land in West Fairlee, Vermont, to Benjamin Hyde. The 31.5 acres of rich fertile farmland where he lived, which was owned with his sister Lydia, sold for $500. Additionally, the 59 + 25 acres were sold for $500. Mr. Hyde paid $600 down and signed a note for $400. The day before selling to Benjamin Hyde, Carl bought a half share of spring water from Mira Aldrich for $75.[22] Before his father died he had purchased a half share of the spring located on his daughter Lydia’s property, so he could have running water to his house.[23] Part of the deal of selling to Mr. Hyde was that Carl would need to disconnect the water from Lydia’s spring and reconnect the newly purchased Aldrich spring water into the house located on the 31.5 acres.
After Carl sold the family farm, he left his birth town and moved his family to Sunderland, Massachusetts. It is unknown why Carl moved to Sunderland. Perhaps the rigors of farming 110 acres were becoming more difficult and Sunderland offered a change.
 |
| Smith home in Sunderland, MA in 1900 |
Another baby
When Mertie was nearly forty years old, Carl and Mertie were blessed with a baby boy. He entered this world and took his first breath in the little town of Sunderland, Massachusetts, on January 22, 1901, the same day that Queen Victoria of Great Britain died. They named him Monroe William.[25] He was the first American boy to be born in Sunderland in the twentieth century.
 |
| Monroe in about 1902 |
Of course, farms often have their hazards. On one occasion, while working on the farm, Carl almost lost his life to a Jersey bull. It seems that Jersey bulls often have bad temperaments and are unpredictable. One day while Carl was near the barn, his Jersey bull charged him. In Carl’s attempt to escape from the bull, he yelled to his wife Mertie for help. Inside her home she heard her husband’s cry for help. By the time she had reached Carl, the bull was goring him. She quickly grabbed a pitchfork and ran to the fence, and with all the force she could muster, she stabbed the pitchfork into the bull. This hardly slowed the bull down. Then, this small 5’2” woman went over the fence, grabbed the pitchfork again and proceeded to stab the bull again and again, until she had killed the bull, this time accomplishing her goal to save her husband![26]
On another occasion, Monroe watched his father break a horse named Dick. The horse was from the West and was considered a devil. One farmer after another had owned him, but could not handle or control him. He would begin to kick when anyone entered the barn. Carl wanted to take on this challenging horse, and one of the farmers gladly sold or perhaps even gave Carl the horse, to get rid of him. In one afternoon he was able to break Dick, and he became the family horse for about fifteen years.[27]
 |
| Carl & Monroe working on farm |
Carl started buying rundown farms
To be able to continue providing for his family, Carl started buying various rundown farms. Then with his agricultural skills and diligent work, he would rebuild and maintain the house, the barn, the outbuildings and the fences, until the farm was restored so he could sell it for a profit.[29] At one time he was also a railroad worker.
According to the 1910 census, Carl and his family moved from Sunderland to Claremont, New Hampshire, and were living in a home at 51 South Street. About 1913, they lived at 661 Commonwealth Avenue, in Newton Center, Massachusetts.[30]
 |
| Flora, Mertie & Monroe Smith in about 1904 |
 |
| Monroe & Flora in about 1917 |
When the 1920 census was taken, they were renting a house in North Andover, Massachusetts, at 549 Osgood Street. Carl was sixty-seven and the rigors of farming were beginning to slow him down. Because Monroe was now away at school most of the time, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the farm work. Therefore, he had five boarders that lived with the family, and five more mouths that Mertie would cook for.[32] Their stay in North Andover was short, ending May 1921.[33]
During the summer they returned back to the farm in Marlborough. In September when Monroe had returned from a summer trip to Colorado, he found that his father had purchased a duplex in Glen Falls, New York, the mortgage being only $1,500. The house was located at 136 Main Street and one side of the duplex would be rented. The lot was 120 feet by 75 feet, with a barn and garden in the back. Part the barn was also rented out for $3 per month.[34] By the spring of 1922, they had a large garden planted, and the heavy rains in the summer helped the plants to grow so there was an abundance of fresh vegetables to eat.
Mother Mertie
Mertie was known for her unlimited charity. Anyone who asked for a meal could count on one in her home. Monroe often thought that the hobos from the railroad had marked their home with some secret mark, so that any hungry hobo knew that if they came knocking at the Smith door, they would surely be invited in for a delicious meal. However, Mertie always required that anyone asking for a meal would first have to work for it. She would put them to work on the farm while she prepared the meal.[35]
 |
| Smith dinning room table |
Mertie was the mother of only two children undoubtedly because she married so late in life. She was a constant help to her husband as he tried to make a living as a farmer. In spite of Carl’s hard work, the family was poor, and Mertie had to scrimp and save to get by on her husband’s $2 a day income.[37]
When the children were older, Mertie worked as a practical nurse, helping to deliver babies and taking care of families when the mother was sick. At one time she became a nurse for a man who weighed over two hundred pounds. Every fifteen minutes she would have to turn him over. She took care of him in his home at night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. At 6 a.m. she would walk two miles back to her home. After arriving home, she would continue her housework and do all the cooking and baking. Then at 5 p.m. daily, she would walk back to her patient for the night. For two weeks she never undressed, or changed her clothing, nor could she lie down. She only dozed at night between the 15-minute breaks. Her patient lived in a sixteen room, beautiful home, and she kept it immaculate. She never complained about the work she had to do, though she always suffered from headaches.[38]
Religion and Beliefs
Carl and Mertie were members of the Methodist church. They taught their children to go to church, read the bible, keep the Sabbath day holy, pray, and to be honest and grateful for their blessings.[39]
Carl taught his children to pay a tithe. When Monroe got a little job from someone, he received a dime in pay. When he got home, his father asked him to return to the man who paid him to ask him to exchange the dime for a nickel and five pennies. When he returned home with the correct change, his father asked if he would like to take one penny and place it in a jar for the Lord. From that time on Monroe was always diligent in paying ten percent of his income for a tithe.[40]
 |
| Carl Smith |
Family Life
The Smith family was very close. Winifred and Monroe loved their parents and they frequently did things together as a family.
 |
| Smith family outside their home in about 1918 |
What a joyous day in October 1923, when Mertie and Carlos heard that their son Monroe had met a lovely young lady while attending college, and that they had exchanged a ring for a fraternity pin. Monroe proposed to Hilda Melin on December 24 and she promised to be his. Their courtship lasted until they married on June 16, 1924, the very same day that he graduated from Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut.
While living in Glen Falls, Mertie lived only about thirty-nine miles from her aging mother, Maria Loomis, who had lived in Pawlet, Vermont. It was fortunate that she lived closer and was able to visit her mother. However, because of her mother’s failing health she spent the last nine months of her life with Maria’s sister, in Enosburgh, Vermont, which was about one hundred seventy miles north of Glen Falls. She died on June 21, 1924, just five days after the day that Monroe had graduated from Wesleyan University and married Hilda Melin. She was ninety-one years old. In just five short days, Mertie was so delighted about life beginning for her son and new daughter-in-law, and then so saddened about life ending for her cherished mother.[43]
Mertie unexpectedly dies
On Saturday, September 5, 1925, after mowing the lawn, Mertie had a stomach ache. She tried to continue her work, but the pain began to increase. When the pain became almost unbearable, the doctor was summoned in the night, and he immediately came to their home. Not knowing what was causing the pain, he applied hot applications to her stomach. He did not realize it was appendicitis and before he could operate, the appendix had ruptured. Monroe was at Teachers College at Columbia University, New York, but he came home at once. His mother lived for two days after he arrived. Her last breath included the soft singing of “Jesus Lover of My Soul.” She died at Glen Falls, New York, on September 11, 1925, at the age of sixty-four. Monroe was heart broken, for his mother was the most wonderful person he had known, and his admiration for her was more than for anyone else.[44]
Just twenty-five days after Mertie had died, her first granddaughter was born on October 5, 1925, to Monroe and Hilda. Mertie never got to hold her granddaughter or become part of her life and see her grow up. Monroe and Hilda named their new baby Mertie Elizabeth, in honor of her cherished grandmother.
Mertie’s Legacy
Mertie was indefatigable and untiring as a wife, mother and farm worker. She never stopped working. Monroe wrote of his mother, “She had pluck[45] and red blood and never played out.”[46] She taught her children to be kind and behave properly, and she put her trust in them and believed in them. She knew the meaning of charity and had all the virtues of a beautiful woman and mother.[47]
Tragedy Strikes
Mertie Elizabeth (Betty) was a darling grandchild. Carl must have adored her, though he probably didn’t get to see her often, as Monroe and Hilda lived in Peekskill, New York, where Monroe was teaching at the Military Academy, which was about one hundred eighty four miles south of West Pawlet. When Betty was only one year old, on October 14, 1926, Monroe and Hilda went canoeing alone at Lake Mahopac. Monroe canoed to a small island, got out of the canoe and began to explore the island. When he returned to the canoe, his wife had ventured out alone, and had upset the canoe. As she was screaming and struggling in the water, Monroe swam to her aid, but was unable to find her in the deep water before she drowned.[48]
Carl Dies
Carl was a widower for three years. Even though his wife was nine years younger than him, she had passed away before him. The hard work he had done during his life began to take a toll, and he developed a hernia in his abdomen. To reduce the pain, he would often stand on his head and let gravity help the hernia go back in place. Eventually, on May 2, 1928, he died due to strangulation from the hernia, at West Pawlet, Vermont.[49] He was seventy-six years old.[50]
Carl’s Legacy
Whatever Carl put his hand to he did it well. He was a hard working farmer, who believed in giving full measure, pressed down, and running over, whether it was produce or labor he was dealing out. He was 100% honest. His definition of honesty was “when the other person understands it as you understand it, then you have been honest.”[51] Carl was quiet and did not speak a great deal, but was a good thinker. What he felt, but may not have said, he taught to his children, by setting a good example to them for all of his life. Monroe said he had never seen his father lose his temper. He could find no fault with either his father or his mother.[52]
In just four years, from 1924 to 1928, Flora and Monroe had lost their grandmother, and their mother and father. In addition Monroe had tragically lost his precious wife, Hilda. Only their love and memories of them and what they had learned from them would help them to be able to continue on without them.
 |
| Flora & Monroe in about 1918 |
Carl and Mertie shall ever be remembered as good people who loved the Lord, their children and treated those they met with kindness and love.
Written by Dorene Smith
________________________________________
[1] Monroe W. Smith 1922 Journal.
[2] Land Record, Smith to Smith, Nov. 4, 1844.
[3] Monroe W. Smith 1939 Journal.
[4] 1910 Census, West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont.
[5] Letters written by Maria to Edmund.
[6] History of Rupert, Vermont.
[7] Monroe W. Smith 1939 Journal.
[8] West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont Land Records, Vol. 8, p. 122.
[9] Death Record.
[10] Marriage records of West Fairlee, Vt.
[11] Land Records of West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont, Vol. 8 p. 419-420.
[12] Land Records of West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont, Vol. 8 p. 424.
[13] Land Records of West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont, Vol. 10 p.71.
[14] Death record of Nathan A. Smith in West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont (film).
[15] Death record of Mary Wilds Smith in West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont. (film).
[16] Gravestone of Nathan Smith & wife, Mary Wilds, Post Mills Cemetery, Vermont.
[17] Land Records of West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont, Vol. 10, p.73.
[18] Marriage record, West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont.
[19] West Fairlee, Vt. Vital Records.
[20] Death Record.
[21] West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont Vital Records.
[22] Land records of West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont, Vol. 10, pp. 71, 72, 73, 74, 80.
[23] Land records of West Fairlee, Orange, Vermont, Vol. 8 p. 433.
[24] Monroe W. Smith 1938 Journal.
[25] Birth Certificate.
[26] Family story passed down to Monroe Smith.
[27] Monroe W. Smith 1938 Journal.
[28] 1972 Tape Recording of Monroe W. Smith.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Letter written by Mrs. Carl W. Smith to Mt. Herman in Northfield, Mass.
[32] 1920 Census, North Andover, Massachusetts.
[33] Monroe W. Smith 1921 Journal.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Unknown.
[36] Monroe W. Smith 1939 Journal.
[37] Monroe W. Smith 1939 Journal.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Application to Mt. Herman School 1918 and Monroe W. Smith Journal 1922.
[40] Story related by Monroe Smith.
[41] Monroe W. Smith 1922 Journal.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Death record.
[44] Monroe W. Smith 1939 Journal.
[45] courage, guts, nerve.
[46] Monroe Smith 1939 Journal.
[47] Ibid.
[48] Newspaper article.
[49] Story as told to living grandson.
[50] Gravestone located at Mettawee Cemetery in West Pawlet, Vermont.
[51] Story as told to living grandson.
[52] Monroe W. Smith 1939 Journal.
No comments:
Post a Comment