Smith, Mary (1807-1885)

SMITH

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 12:48:11

MARY BASSETT SMITH (1807 - 1885)

Pioneer Sketches – by Leonard S. Spencer [The Advocate Tribune, Indianola, IA, Thursday, Feb 26, 1885, p.6, col.2
Those that are now advanced in years were once just like the young of today. There was a time when they could scarcely bridal their exuberance. They romped, they laughed, they talked, they shouted, they sang. The world was as bright to them during their youthful days as it is to the youth of today. Though they are in the December of life now, they were once in the July of existence. Although age has crept silently and unawares upon them, and they feel like staying close by home, and are taking everything in a quiet manner, yet when three or four old people get together we hear them telling of the times they used to have when they were young. In their youthful days they were very much as the young of the present; and they heard the old man of their time tell how fast he used to live and what he used to do when he was young; how he used to go to logging or chopping bees – roll logs or chop all day – then “shake the foot until one or two o’clock at night”; how many strong wrestlers he has laid upon their backs, and in what a willful mood they have upset the sleigh to see the victims crawl out of the snow bank. The old ladies will tell all about the quilting, the spinning, the sewing, and the paring bees they have been to when young. The old seldom say much to the young as regards their July of life.
Whether this was the case with our subject we cannot say; but, as a general rule, it is so. Our opinion is that God never designed the young to be old until the natural course of events brought age to them. They must frolic and play; all nature proves this to be the case. The Apostle Paul says; (1 Cor., 13:11) “When I was a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” The subject of our sketch, Mrs. Martha Smith, was born in Cheshire County, in the “Old Granite” state [New Hampshire], Dec 10, 1807, her maiden name being, Martha Bassett. Her ancestors for several generations were native of New Hampshire, and were of English descent. In pursuing the history of the “Old Granite State,” we find the Bassetts to be of the first settlers in the state. They came shortly after the first settlement was made, at Little Harbor, about the year 1623, Little Harbor being the place where the first settlement was made in this state. Young Martha was raised upon a farm, and like all farm girls of that day, was taught the art of spinning, and weaving and making her own clothes; and not only this, but she was able to milk the cows and yoke the oxen, if necessity required – an art that most of the young men of today have lost. Girls of her time could break and hutchel the flax that they spun and wove into towels, table cloths, and even their own dresses. They could plant and hoe, rake hay and load it upon the cart; and were thought none the less of. Such girls made wives that were a helpmate to the husband, instead of being a “doll in the parlor.” Miss Martha’s father had been born and raised upon the farm where she was raised, and her grandfather before her. Her mother was a Miss Crery.
During the year 1827 and a part of the following, her father was taken with the western fever, and so strong was the attack that he could not resist. He sold out among the hills and mountains and in the spring started for the then far west. This journey could not then be made in a palace car at a speed of forty miles per hour, but had to be made with an ox team at the rate of from ten to fifteen miles per day, and then camp where night overtook them. They settled in Coshocton, Ohio, July 1828. In this county her mother died with a cancer on the shoulder, leaving a family of nine children. Coshocton County at the time of their settling in it was very new, and our subject was seen among the pioneers of that state, where farms had to be cleared and churches and school houses built; she was willing to be counted among the workers for the upbuilding of Christ’s kingdom a well as this temporal kingdom.
The year following their removal to Coshocton County, Sept 9th, 1829, Miss Martha Bassett became Mrs. Martha Smith. Her husband, Mr. Sidney Smith, was born in New Haven County, Conn., Dec 6, 1808. He remained in the land of “Sturdy Habits” and of “Wooden Nutmegs” until 1824. At the age of sixteen he emigrated to Ohio, Coshocton County, where he married Miss Martha. He being a farmer, they toiled, and by hard labor and economy saved some money, besides making a comfortable living until the spring of 1856, when the second attack of the western fever took possession of them. Mr. S. came to Warren County and was so much taken up with the western country, that he bought land, and during the fall moved his family out and settled upon the farm that Mrs. Smith now lives upon. Their settling here in Warren County made them pioneers for a second time; for at their coming, there were but a few settlers between where they stopped and the county seat and between them and what is now the city of Des Moines, then but a small “burg.” Society had to be built up, school houses and churches built. In all these things they took great interest. During the summer and fall of 1859 a great calamity befell them. One of their sons, Lorenzo, who had just graduated from the Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, came west with his diploma, with the expectation of teaching. He was taken with a violent fever, and within a few days was called away never to return. Following this, two daughters and a son-in-law and Mrs. S. were taken down, all sick at once. Some of them had begun to improve when Mr. S. was taken with the same disease. He lay for some weeks; he got better and was up and out of doors, when he took a set back and in a few days followed his son to their long home, Oct 5, 1859. During this epidemic there were but few neighbors and help was scarce. The writer and his wife took turns in sitting up nights with this afflicted family. Eventually all recovered except the two above mentioned. In Feb 1863, the youngest daughter departed this life. Mrs. Smith has four sons and two daughters living.
Mrs. S. was converted and joined the M. E. [Methodist Episcopal ] church in New Hampshire in 1822. Her folks were Congregationalists and were very strict in their religious opinion. So strict were they on the Sabbath faith that no work could be done on that day, only what could not possibly be neglected. At one time when the country was not very thickly settled and the black bear was not afraid to be seen, he came up to the yard and took a pig within his grasp, and was about to carry off his pigship when one of the family saw him. As it was Sabbath day he was simply frightened so that he dropped the pig and was permitted to depart without being molested with the use of fire arms, because it was the Lord’s day. How would it be now a days? The writer of this article has been a close neighbor to the Mrs. Smith for twenty-eight years and he can say that he never expects nor even wants to live by a better neighbor than the subject of this sketch. We think she is a Christian in its true sense, always the same yesterday and today. She has lived the allotted time given to many and is going down the plain of life. Her children and her neighbors call her blessed. May they follow her admonitions and may she be permitted to long remain with us to still admonish and inspire by her pure and peaceful old age.[Note: Martha Bassett was born Dec 10, 1807 in Cheshire Co., N.H. She married Sidney Smith on Sep 9, 1829 in Coshocton Co., OH. Sidney was born in New Haven County, Conn on Dec 6, 1808. The family came to Warren County Iowa in 1856. Sidney Smith died Oct 5, 1859 and Martha Smith died Mar 18, 1885. Both are buried in Linn Grove Cemetery, Linn Township, Warren County, Iowa.]