Sketch XXXVII
A Pioneer Mother Who Weighed Three Hundred Pounds
The largest woman in all Long Point settlement was “Aunt Nancy” Smith. It is said that she weighed three hundred pounds, and that the only way she could pass through an ordinary door was by crowding through sideways. The chair used by her is in possession of one of her descendants, and is certainly an object of curiosity. Her maiden name was Nancy Morris, and she married Samuel Smith, son of the old U. E. Loyalist, Abraham Smith. Her husband was a most excellent man, and his name ought to be enrolled among the distinguished personages of the early time in which he lived. Samuel Smith was noted for his unselfish nature and his many Christian graces. He settled on his U. E. Loyalist grant, being Lot 22, 5th concession of Charlotteville, and there he erected one of the purest Christian altars in the settlement. He was a man devoted to good works. He was never ordained to “rescue the perishing” by the formal “laying on of hands,” but he preached the Gospel of salvation to his fellow- beings in all places and on all occasions by word of mouth and, which is far more effective, by his daily deportment. He was no “doctor” of divinity, but he was a minister of divinity in every sick room he visited. He never graduated in theology in some great school of learning, but he could tell “the old, old story” in the simple, old-fashioned way in which it was first told; and if the language used was not faultless in diction or elegantly rich in phraseology, it came from an honest heart and was understood. After his boys were old enough to look after things at home, Mr. Smith spent a large portion of his time in going about the settlement doing good in various ways. No sick-bed escaped his visitation, and no destitute person failed to have a visit from “Uncle Sammy.” He not only offered words of consolation and good cheer to the afflicted and the destitute, but he rendered substantial aid in so far as his means would permit. He was prudent and economical in his business affairs, believing that the accumulation of wealth which a man is permitted to make, and which it is his duty to make by honest industry, is simply held by him in trust to be used in the advancement of the cause of its rightful owner, the Author of our salvation and the great Giver of every good gift. Mr. Smith loved money for the good that it might enable him to do, and not for its own sake. He used to tell his children that the most valuable legacy he could leave them was that of a good name. He certainly did leave this legacy to them, and to-day his descendants are prouder of it than they would be it had consisted of a colossal fortune and an unsavory reputation.
Samuel Smith had four sons¾Abraham, David, Morris and Samuel; and four daughters¾Mary, Rachel, Ruth and Nancy. He died in 1850, at the age of seventy-three; and Nancy, his wife, died in 1828, aged fifty-two.
Abraham, eldest son of Samuel, married, but left no children.
David Smith, second son of Samuel, died single.
Morris Smith, third son of Samuel, did not take to farming. He had a predilection for a life behind the counter, and found a place in “Young’s Store,” Vittoria. Very few people are living to-day who were waited on by this young clerk. Nearly all the girls who used to visit “Young’s Store” and merrily chat with young Morris as he waited upon them, have entered the silent abodes of the dead. The few who remain are wrinkled and grey, yet to them it seems but yesterday since Morris Smith tore off calico and weighed out salaeratus for them in the old store at Vittoria.
But Morris fell in love, as most all nice young clerks do, and married Miss Harriet Walsh, daughter of that old veteran Registrar of Deeds, Francis L. Walsh. He became a partner in the business which he entered as clerk, and settled in Vittoria. He had one son, Frank, who conducts a general store in Vittoria at present; and two daughters¾Ella and Mary. All three are single, and live in the old homestead with their aged mother.
Samuel Smith, youngest son of Samuel, married Catherine Seger, and succeeded to the homestead. He had two sons, Seger and Walter; and one daughter, Nancy. Seger married Mary Short, and settled on part of the homestead. Walter married Margaret Schuyler, and settled on part of the homestead, and Nancy married Thomas Moore, who settled on part of the homestead also.
Mary Smith, eldest daughter of the original Samuel, married Trion Treadwell, and settled at Aylmer, Elgin County, where she raised a family.
Rachel Smith, the second daughter, married Stephen Teeple, and settled in the township of Nissouri. She had several children.
Ruth Smith, the third daughter, married Robert Young, and settled in Simcoe. She had no family.
Nancy Smith, youngest daughter of Samuel, married Peter Young, the old Vittoria merchant. She had three sons¾Robert, Charles and Frank; and three daughters, one of whom married James H. McCall, the Vittoria merchant; another married William Wilson, of Simcoe; and the third married Dr. J. B. Kennedy, of Detroit. Charles and Frank Young are in Vancouver, B.C., and Robert is a bachelor in Vittoria.
Among the descendants of the original Samuel Smith, there are only three male Smiths of the third generation, and none in the fourth.
Endnote:
E. A. Owen is short on detail about the second generation of this important Vittoria family. More is gleaned from the gravestones in Vittoria Baptist Church Cemetery and census information. The family progenitor Samuel Smith (son of Abraham Smith) was born in New York State on 31 Jul 1777 and died at Charlotteville Twp., Norfolk Co. on 5 Dec 1850 ae 73y 4m 5d. He married first to Nancy Morris, born c. 1776, died at Charlotteville Twp. on 22 Sep 1828 ae 52y. This information is from their gravestones in Vittoria Baptist Church Cemetery. After Nancy died, Samuel remarried to Isabella whose surname is unknown. She was born in the United States c. 1778 and was recorded in the 1852 Census of Charlotteville Twp.
Samuel’s first son Abraham, born c. 1805, died on 27 Feb 1832 ae 27y and was buried in the same cemetery as his parents. Owen states that he married but no marriage record has been found and there was no issue. The next son, Obediah Morris Smith was born c. 1811 given his age in the 1852 Census of Charlotteville Twp. The Talbot District Marriage Register records his marriage on 13 Nov 1845 to Harriet Walsh (daughter of Francis Leigh and Elsey (Fairchild) Walsh), born at Charlotteville Twp. on 6 May 1821. Their three children Ella, Frank and Mary lived at Vittoria and never married, all buried in the family plot.
Samuel’s son Samuel, born c. 1814, died on 2 Dec 1892 in his 79th y. He married Catharine Seger, born 8 May 1817, died on 8 Oct 1873. This information is from their gravestones in Vittoria Baptist Church Cemetery. They had three children, Nancy, Seager and Walter. Nancy married Thomas Moore and was buried in Vittoria Baptist Cemetery. Seager married first to Catharina A. whose surname is unknown and second to Dora H. whose surname is also unknown. Seager farmed in Charlotteville Twp. and had one son Carling Smith who died as a child and was buried in his parents’ plot. The third son of Samuel, Walter was born c. 1847 and died on 24 Mar 1921. He married Margaret Schuyler and his descendancy is included in Isaac Gilbert, UEL by Harriet Walker.
Samuel’s oldest daughter Mary married Tryon Treadwell and settled on Lot 8, Concession 6, Malahide Twp., Elgin Co., recorded in the 1842 Census. Daughter Ruth Smith, born c. 1816, died on 30 Dec 1883. She married Robert Young, born c. 1809, died on 30 Dec 1883 ae 84y. These dates are from their gravestone in Vittoria Baptist Cemetery. Ruth and Robert had no issue.
Nancy Smith, born c. 1816, died on 7 Apr 1895 in her 78th year according to her gravestone in Vittoria Baptist Cemetery, although this does not agree with her age in the censuses. She married Peter E. Young, the proprietor of Young’s Store at Vittoria. Peter, born at Edinburgh, Scotland c. 1806, died at Vittoria on 7 Apr 1864 and was buried in the family plot. They had a family of six children recorded with them in the 1852 Census of Charlotteville Twp. The oldest, Elizabeth married William Wilson of Simcoe and was the author of “Recollections of Vittoria in 1842,” published in Vittoria, 200 Years of Memories (Vittoria Bicentennial Committee, Vittoria, ON:1996), p. 184. The next daughter Agnes Ruth Young, born on 17 May 1839 married James Henry McCall, son of Simpson McCall. James was born at Vittoria on 15 Oct 1836 and died at Vittoria on 22 May 1914. This information is from their gravestones in Vittoria Baptist Church Cemetery.
Next Peter and Nancy (Smith) Young had a son Robert, born on 6 Jan 1841 and died on 19 Aug 1908. He followed his father in the mercantile business, never married, and was buried in the family plot. The next child Amelia was born on 25 Feb 1843 and died young on 8 Nov 1847 ae 4y 8m 11d, buried in the family plot. The next child Archibald, born on 22 Jul 1845 also died young on 10 Jun 1847 ae 1y 11m 19d. The next born was Charles about 1850 who moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. The couple’s seventh child Ruth was born about 1850 and married Dr. J. B. Kennedy of Detroit, Mich. The youngest child Frank, born after the 1852 Census lived in Vancouver, BC. At the time of this writing no additional information is known about the younger children.