Ann Eliza Smith

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Ann Eliza Smith, 1901

Ann Eliza Smith (born October 7, 1819 in St. Albans , Franklin County (Vermont) , † January 6, 1905 there ) was an American author .

Life

Ann Eliza Smith was the eldest child of Senator Lawrence Brainerd and Fidelia B. Gadcombe and grew up in St. Albans with their eleven siblings, six of whom died in infancy. There she received home tuition and in addition to traditional training, she was also instructed in housekeeping.

On December 27, 1843, she married J. Gregory Smith , an attorney who became governor of Vermont in 1863. Together with her husband and children George Gregory, Edward Curtis, Lawrence Brainerd (died in childhood), Annie Brainerd, Julia Brainerd and Helen Lawrence, she lived in The Towers , an imposing house built around 1852 with more than 40 rooms at the intersection between Smith Street and Congress Street, which was destroyed by fire in 1890. One of the sons, Edward Curtis Smith , later became governor of the state of Vermont.

During the Reverend Jeremiah E. Rankin's tenure from 1857 to 1863, Ann Eliza Smith, her husband and parents, along with other church members of the First Congregational Church of St. Albans, were involved in the Underground Railroad , an informal network of opponents of slavery, slaves on the run from the southern United States to the north, z. B. to safer Canada with secret routes, shelters and escape helpers.

Ann Eliza Smith gained notoriety in addition to her literary work through her actions in the American Civil War during the St. Albans Incident ( St. Albans Raid ) on October 19, 1864, in which about 20-30 members of the Confederate Army ran several banks robbed the place. She defended her house, which was about to be burned down, and her family from assault, and helped arm the men on site. For her courage and prudence, Vermont Adjutant-General Peter T. Washburn elevated her to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of Brevet .

She has done volunteer work, including serving as President of the Warner Home for Little Wanderers orphanage since its inception and as a Sunday School teacher. In 1876 she was the president of the Vermont Women's Board responsible for the exhibition at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. She also traveled extensively within America and beyond.

Ann Eliza Smith died on January 6, 1905 and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, South Main Street, in St. Albans.

Literary work

Cover of Atla , published 1886

Ann Eliza Smith wrote historical novels, fantasy literature, poetry, and theological and philosophical essays under the name Mrs. JG Smith or anonymously. Her travel reports were regularly published in St. Albans Messenger .

  • 1886: Atla (novel), a fantasy tale about the Phoenicians' discovery of the civilization of Atlantis
  • 1883: Selma (novel), a love story in the time of the Vikings
  • 1878: Seola (novel), Lee and Shepard, New York, Charles T. Dillingham (ed.), Republished in 1924 by the “Bible Students” (later Jehovah's Witnesses ) under the title Angels and Women . Seola is set in the time before the Flood and is written in the diary of a woman named Seola, the wife of Noah's third son Jafet .
  • 1876: From Dawn to Sunrise essay collection dealing with the historical and philosophical religious conceptions of mankind

Her writings are in the St. Albans Museum and her correspondence with her husband is in the Vermont Historical Society.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Dudley Field: The genealogy of the Brainerd family in the United States: with numerous sketches of individuals . JF Trow, printer, 1857, p. 151
  2. ↑ Hiram Carleton: Genealogical and Family History of the State of Vermont: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation . Lewis Publishing Company, 1903, ISBN 978-0806347943 , p. 54
  3. ^ Vermont Historical Society: J. Gregory Smith Papers . October 2, 2007, p. 2
  4. ^ L. Louise Haynes, Charlotte Pedersen: St. Albans . Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7385-7346-5 , p. 108
  5. ↑ St. Albans Raid Commemoration Committee: The Setting - St. Albans: A village on the rise . Retrieved April 16, 2015
  6. ^ First Congregational Church of St. Albans: Church History . Retrieved April 7, 2015
  7. ↑ Michelle Arnosky Sherburne: The St. Albans Raid: Confederate Attack on Vermont . The History Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1626196292 , pp. 109-110, 174
  8. ^ Warren Upham: Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia . Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0873513968 , p. 157
  9. ^ Vermont Historical Society: Anne Eliza Brainerd Smith . Retrieved April 10, 2015
  10. ^ Angels and Women / Seola Book Website: The True Story of The Angels and Women / Seola Book
  11. ↑ Ann Eliza Smith in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  12. ^ L. Louise Haynes, Charlotte Pedersen: St. Albans . Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7385-7346-5 , p. 51
  13. ^ Full text by Seola in the 1924 edition
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Ann Eliza
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brainerd, Ann Eliza (maiden name); Smith, J. Gregory (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Albans , Franklin County (Vermont)
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1905
Place of death St. Albans , Franklin County (Vermont)