John Henry s/o George Smith & Eliza Harris was born in Birmingham on March 30, 1841.
It seems only fitting that the railway brought John Henry Smith and his family to Vancouver. Smith had grown up in Birmingham as the railways were transforming that city into the second largest in England. They crossed the Atlantic to settle in Winnipeg, a city destined to be the major rail terminal on the prairies. Family tradition asserts that Smith was the founding editor of the WINNIPEG FREE PRESS. The reality was humbler, but every bit as interesting.
BIRMINGHAM
We know little of John Henry Smith early years. On his marriage certificate, his father George is described as a "rulemaker" - but every census return states "labourer." The family's address kept changing - from Parkes street (1841) to Taylors Wharf on Granville street (1843) and finally Essington street (by 1861) - which suggests it was rental accommodation.
John Henry Smith was a 21-year-old compositor (typesetter) boarding with a couple in West London at the time of the last move.
1861 census West London Faringdon ward St Sepulchre parish
BIRIMINGHAM
John was a 22-year-old compositor (type setter) living on High Street, Birmingham, when he married 21-year-old Ellen Garrad on Aug 1 1863.
John Henry Smith took Ellen back to Birmingham after their marriage on August 1st 1863. For most of the next 22 years in Birmingham he owned his own printing business and performed every task from stenographer to typesetting. He and Ellen appear to have operated a bar from 1871 until at least 1881.
1871 census St Barnabas parish, Birmingham Eng
1880 Directory - , the Smiths were living at 104 Kyrwicks Lane (Hereford Arms), in Aston, Birmingham. John Henry Smith was now a "retail brewer."
1881 census Kyrwicks Lane, Aston, Birmingham Eng
TYPESETTER FOR THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
John Henry Smith emigrated to Canada in 1882 and his family followed in 1883. The WINNIPEG FREE PRESS was already 12 years old, employing a staff of 60 and the editor was William Luxton. So our family tradition that John Henry Smith was the founding editor is false. According to the Winnpeg City Directory, he was a compositor (typesetter), living at 20 Foseca E, in 1884 and 1885.
His employer(?) William Luxton found 1885 a disappointing year. He failed to win the vacant Legislative Assembly seat for South Winnipeg in a bye-election. The WINNIPEG FREE PRESS was losing money. Luxton’s attempt to expand his market only drew him into further debt, so that he was eventually forced to incorporate as a joint stock venture with a board of directors.
Assuming John Henry Smith was employed by the FREE PRESS, Murray Donnelly gives a possible reason for this coming to an end in his book DAFOE OF THE FREE PRESS (p 24): "By the time that Dafoe arrived in late May 1886 the paper was more firmly established, having acquired a mechanical printing press powered by a gasoline engine ..."
JOB PRINTER
Thus John Henry Smith's typesetting skills would not have been needed in 1886, when the city Directory lists him as a "job printer" at the very prestigious address of 487 Main. John Henry Smith operated two offices in Winnipeg's downtown core during 1887. It was then that he launched a shortly lived publication known as the WINNIPEG SIFTINGS.
Smith's last listing as a "job printer and publisher" occurred in 1888. Then his name disappeared from the directory.
Most of Winnipeg's small papers were disappearing. This was the topic that William Coldwell, of the long defunct NOR’WESTER, meant to address at Cloughers, on April 2nd 1888. Only he was indisposed and instead sent a list of the newspapers that had gone under. At that point Winnipeg only had two newspapers and William Luxton’s WINNIPEG FREE PRESS would soon absorb the SUN. Coldwell concluded “Everyone knows that there is a very large journalistic graveyard here, but few have any conception of the number of journals in it.”
MORDEN, MB
John Henry Smith had already moved on. He purchased Morden's "MANITOBA NEWS" in 1886. Though only possessing a population of 200, by 1884 the village had become the most important trading post for 50 miles due to the box car station there. On April 6th 1887, John began printing a Conservative Newspaper known as the MORDEN MONITOR. He hired Reverend Hugh J Borthwick, a fondly remembered local minister, as the first editor.
Smith was elected secretary of Morden’s first Board of Trade. The MORDEN MONITOR, which he published but did not yet edit, reported on their first meeting during its’ March 27th 1890 issue.
“The charter of incorporation for the Board of Trade for the Electoral Division of Morden, having been received from the secretary of State. A meeting was held in St Andrew’s Hall on Thursday last when the following officers were elected: President - H. P. Hansen, Vice President – W. J. Sutton, Treasurer – H. J. Pugh, Secretary – J. H. Smith, and eight members of the council vig. W Garrett, George Ashdown, T Duncan, J. T. Blowey, J Hieman, D McMillan, Henry Meikle and Dr. Wilson.
“The report of the delegates to the Winnipeg convention was reported and Votes of thanks accorded them for their service.
“A petition was introduced to the meeting petitioning the Dominion Government to give substantial aid to the building of the Hudson Bay Railway which was unanimously carried and ordered to be sent to Ottawa for presentation.
“A large amount of routine business was transacted and after a lengthy Meeting which was characterised by a hearty and business like spirit, the meeting adjourned to Saturday evening.”
JOHN A MACDONALD'S LAST HURRAH
My aunt Norm has a story that appears to have arose from the federal election of March 5 1891. As he was both secretary of the town's board of trade and publisher of a Conservative newspaper, John Henry Smith would definitely have been involved.
This was Prime Minister John A MacDonald's last election campaign. He had imposed tarrifs on American goods, to protect Canada's manufacturers. The Liberals, led by the youthful Wilfred Laurier, were calling for free trade with the United States. MacDonald, now 77, responded by crying treason! The Liberals wanted to sell the nation’s proud British heritage for a mess of American stew! MacDonald proudly declared “I am a British subject, and British born, and a British subject I hope to die.”
John Henry Smith's daughter Agnes would later claim the Tories had seemed in danger of losing in that area because most of their support was in the rural areas and the farmers were hard at work. Then Agnes suggested her father send wagons out to bring them in. As a result the Conservative candidate won.
The record shows that the Conservative candidate for Morden won his seat by a mere 190 votes.
This was MacDonald's last victory. He won a majority in the House of Commons, only to have a stroke. The "father of Confederation" died on June 6th, 1891.
1891 CENSUS - MORDEN
JOHN HENRY SMITH BECOMES AN EDITOR & MERCHANT
Reverend Borthwick resigned as editor of the MORDEN MONITOR in February 1892, as the result of a dispute with his Tory sponsors. Smith became the editor, while Borthwick teamed up with another printer to start a Liberal paper called the MORDEN HERALD. According to Morden's 1882-1892 Centennial Booklet, for the next five years the “political writings of both were rousing and lengthy castigations of political enemies, which in modern times would have instigated libel suits.”
My great grandfather Ben Cross was the MONITOR's "news agent" when he married Agnes Smith on May 31 1893. They moved to Winnipeg.
THE LOCKS AT ST ANDREWS
In 1893, Morden’s Board of Trade was one of the local bodies supporting Winnipeg’s request that the Federal Government construct locks at St Andrew’s Rapids. The people of Manitoba desired a waterway that would break the CPR’s monopoly of transportation across the prairies. The St Andrew’s locks were a key component of a potential water route that could enable goods to be shipped south into the United States along the Red River (17 miles to the east of Morden), north into Hudson’s Bay and as far West as Edmonton.
Despite the Winnipeg MP’s insistence that Ottawa display “prompt action”, the Federal government responded that the project was too costly and would benefit only one locality – Winnipeg. The Manitobans soon learned that the Minister of Railways was spending half a million dollars – the amount deemed necessary for St Andrew’s project – to construct a canal in his home riding of Perth Ontario. This was regarded as yet another example of Western Canada’s interest’s being ignored in favour of the East!
LAST DAYS IN MORDEN
J F Galbriath purchased the MONITOR in 1895 and the Liberal's took Morden during the election of 1896.
John Henry Smith opened a bookstore in the downtown area. With the help of an article called “I remember Morden in 1902” , the secretary of the Morden Board of Trade identified site of Smith’s Book Store with the present (1997) Radio Shack on Stephen Street.
The 1901 census in Morden, MB
The 1906 census in Morden, MB
LAST DAYS IN VANCOUVER, BC
The Smiths moved to Vancouver around 1909 and were at 2322 Burns street when Ellen died in 1918.
1911 census from 2322 Burrard Street, Vancouver
By the time the 1921 census was taken, John Henry Smith was livingwith his daughter Agnes and her husband Ben Cross at 611 7th Ave East. My mother Dell and her sister Norm both remember their great grandfather as a dapper old man who liked a stiff tot every night and had a talent for picking the winners at girlie shows. He died of "septica caused by "the bite" of a spitz dog, on July 16, 1928.
CHILDREN OF JOHN HENRY SMITH & ELLEN GARRAD