This fine tombstone in the Chariton Cemetery commemorates J. French Smith, a successful blacksmith at the time of his unfortunate death on Christmas Eve, 1879, due to carelessness with a gun.
Mr. Smith's surname, too, has been an accident victim. Back in 1981, when the Lucas County Genealogical Society published its book of tombstone transcriptions, the name was condensed as "Frenchsmith" and indexed as "French, Smith J." This was carried over many years later to Find A Grave, where there are two entries --- one for J. Frenchsmith and the other for J. French Smith, neither containing much useful information.
So here I am to see if I can clarify matters a little.
Mr. Smith and his wife, Ellen, appear first in Chariton during the mid-1870s when he was manager of the Hatcher House hotel, located at the southwest corner of the square. By 1879, however, he had returned to what probably was his primary profession, that of blacksmith --- and if the tombstone is any indication, he was a very successful one.
The Chariton Leader published the first report of the accident that proved fatal in its edition of Dec. 20, 1879, and sounded an optimistic note:
"SERIOUS ACCIDENT --- On last Sunday, Mr. J. French smith, an industrious blacksmith of this city, started with his wife and Mr. Harper on a visit to the country, traveling in a wagon. Mr. Smith laid his double barrelled shotgun in the wagon before starting, fully loaded, with the muzzle pointed towards the front end of the wagon. From some cause or other one of the barrels was discharged, the contents going through Mr. Smith's left ankle inflicting a terrible injury. After considerable delay he was brought home, where on the same evening his leg was amputated just above the ankle. Drs. Fitch, Cahey, McKlveen and McCullough performing the operation. The patient is in a fair way to recovery."
Sadly, The Leader report was too optimistic and on December 31, The Patriot reported, "We regret to learn of the death of Mr. J. French Smith which occurred on the 24th inst. He leaves a widow who resides in this city. The funeral took place on Christmas day under the auspices of the Knights Templars, the Osceola members participating in the mournful ceremonies."
I've not been able to find out more about the Smiths' background --- Smith is just too common a surname, we don't known what the "J" stood for and the couple seem not to have had children.
Ellen continued to live in Chariton, however, and during early May, 1883, married the recently widowed William C. Prince, a gentleman of roughly her age --- mid-40s --- with a 3-year-old daughter named Maggie. The Patriot reported on May 16, "Mr. W.C. Prince and Mrs. J. French Smith were united in the holy bonds of matrimony last week. They have both experienced the ups and downs of married life, and were well enough satisfied with its blisses to try it again. The Patriot extends congratulations."
The first wife, Elizabeth, actually had died only a month earlier, on April 4, and it would appear that Mr. and Mrs. Prince were friends of Ellen Smith. She was buried on the north end of the lot Ellen had purchased three years earlier as a burial place for J. French, whose remains had been placed at the south end.
Mr. and Mrs. Prince eventually, about 1891, moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Ellen died on July 20, 1899. William and his children returned her remains to Chariton and she was buried next to J. French, although there is no inscription for her on his grand tombstone. Instead, a small headstone just north of the big stone marks her final resting place.
Little Maggie Prince, age 3 when her mother died, did not remember her birth mother. But she dearly loved her stepmother, Ellen, and many years later when she died in Chicago on June 8, 1930, at the age of 50, she asked her husband, Walter W. Sneathen, to take her remains back to Chariton for burial between her mother and stepmother. That mission was accomplished two days after her death although no tombstone ever was erected to mark her grave.
Although forgotten --- even misidentified now and then --- 140 years after his death, Mr. Smith was until about 1900 one of only two members of Chariton's Immanuel Commandery, Knights Templar, buried in the Chariton Cemetery. As such, fellow knights dutifully visited and decorated his grave every Ascension Day. After that, his name faded into obscurity.
No comments:
Post a Comment