They were out for a drive when they were stopped by a police officer. The officer asked for their names, and they told him … Judy Smith and Della Smith.
To which he replied, “Ladies, surely you can do better than that.”
I know first hand how challenging it can be chasing down a Smith and I’d tossed around the idea of collecting some of the more interesting Smith photographs I ran across.
I was already taken with the image on this postcard when I flipped it over and to my delight saw …
Joe and Mabel Smith
Cottage Grove, Ore.
And there it was …
My first Smith Pic.
Joe Smith.
I would be hard put to find a name more common.
And yet because he spent most of his life in the Cottage Grove area he was surprisingly easy to find. But I couldn't believe my luck when I stumbled across this … from the Family History Library Catalog …
SMITH
SOME INSIGHTS INTO THE FAMILY OF JOE T. SMITH
OF COTTAGE GROVE, OR.
COMPILED AS A CHRISTMAS GIFT
FOR HIS SONS,
KIRK STEVAN SMITH AND PAUL ANDREW SMITH
BY RICHARD K. SMITH
DECEMBER 1, 1995
It was written by Joe’s son and contained ancestral charts, theories, photographs and stories of his parents and other family members. It included childhood memories, fishing stories and stories of his father’s WWI experiences. It was a treasure trove of information.
The document was a little over 140 pages long. In the introduction the author states that the booklet was not copy righted and could be reproduced by anyone who so desired, so I sat down to read the story of the man and woman in my photograph and to copy a few of their stories.
Joe and Mabel were both teachers on April 6, 1917 when war was declared on Germany. When the war broke out, Joe enlisted and Mabel agreed to marry him.
In June 1917, Dr. John Eberle Kuykendall of Eugene called for volunteers to form an ambulance company to go to France that summer. Among the 81 required to organize the company was Joe Smith. The men assumed that they constituted a Red Cross Ambulance Company but instead of being under the Red Cross they were to become the 361st Ambulance Company of the 91st Division, U. S. Army.
~ From the Cottage Grove Sentinel, 17 July 1917
Smith-Veatch
A wedding of unusual interest to people of Cottage Grove was that of Joseph Thomas Smith and Miss Mabel Preston Veatch, which took place at Albany on Friday, July 13. The wedding came as quite a surprise to the many friends of the couple. It was solemnized in Albany in order that the ceremony might be performed by Rev. McGee, who is an uncle of the bride and who twice served as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in this city. It was hastily arranged because of the probable departure at any moment of the bridegroom, who is a member of Dr. Kuykendall's ambulance corps, which is expected to see immediate service on the battlefields of France. Both parties to the marriage are among the best and most favorably known of Cottage Grove's young people. The bride is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Veatch. She graduated from Cottage Grove high school with highest honors and since then been a successful teacher in the schools and will continue to fill that position until the return of her husband from France. Mr. Smith is a son of Mrs. Mary Smith and has for several years been active in the business and social life of the community. He is a graduate of the Sparta, Illinois, high school and has been engaged in teaching here. Mr. Smith was instrumental in a large degree in making the recent Chautauqua a success, being chairman of the ticket committee.
Among documents Richard Smith included in his narrative are several photographs of Joe and Mabel. One of those is the same image I have. Underneath is written Joe and Mabel fall of 1917. It was probably taken shortly before Joe left for Camp Lewis. He and Mabel had only been married 6 weeks.
During Joe’s absence he and Mabel wrote almost every day. His son, Richard writes of the day he found several letters written by his mother in September of 1917.
“The big news is that I found 15 letters written by Mother to Dad. They were all written in September of 1917 shortly after he had gone to Camp Lewis which is referred to as American Lake. I was surprised by the affection which they contained. Much more expressive than I would have thought and very much more so than the rather factual reporting on the days activities in Dad's letters. Her loneliness was real and expressed in many ways. She was living with her parents who provided room and board for Scott Martin and Edwin Redford so they could go to school in Cottage Grove. I felt a sadness for my mother, this young bride whose husband of but a few weeks was off to the army leaving her to adjust to her new status, resume her teaching career, be solicitous of her husband's need for communication, share in household chores, sew her own clothing, keep up morale with her husband's family, and take part in the life of the church.”
On his 28th birthday, October 4, 1917, Joe writes, “I am just back from the front and will answer your two good letters I received this morning. George had them for me and gave them to me while I was still in bed in the Ford Ambulance. I got to sleep from about midnight until 9 A.M. and so feel lots better. We have had eight days and nights of it so feel pretty tired out. We have had some wonderful work and thrilling experiences. I have been under shell fire most of this time and saw lots of everything torn all to ____ and it sure seems cruel. I am anxious to hear when the war is over. I have had my fill of it. But I am ready to go back and do my part again. All of the territory that we are in now was held by Germans before our drive. It is one continual sound of shells firing at front. Am back about as far as to where your Uncle Jim R lives. I was past the road where Sam was located the other day but had a load of seriously wounded and could not stop . . . I am sitting in truck with Geo Matthews now and he has fed me some bread and jam and it sure tasted good. The roads are very bad … full of shell holes so have a time driving.”
It was estimated that over 8000 sick and wounded were handled by the Ambulance Section of the 91st Division. The 361st Ambulance Company saw action at St. Milil, Muse, Argonne, Lys Scheldt and Belgium. They stayed on after hostilities ceased to assist in the movement and care of those still hospitalized.
The first year after their marriage Mabel taught school, but later she worked at the First National Bank.
Joe returned home from the service in the May of 1919 and soon went to work as a bookkeeper for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company tie plant, south of Cottage Grove. Mabel gave up her job when Joe returned.
Shortly after returning home Joe was involved in a near fatal accident when while riding a "speedster," the name given a flatbed car used to transport personnel on the tracks, he was involved in a collision with a car at a crossing resulting in a life threatening accident from severe head injuries.
~ Cottage Grove Sentinel 5 March 1920.
J.T. SMITH IS VICTIM OF SERIOUS ACCIDENT. SUSTAINS CONCUSSION OF BRAIN WHEN THROWN FROM GASOLINE SPEEDER WHICH HITS AUTOMOBILE.
A gasoline speeder and an automobile mixed in a wreck Monday afternoon that came near proving fatal to Joe T. Smith, bookkeeper at the Southern Pacific tie plant, and who had just resigned his position preparatory to entering business in the city.
The gasoline speeder upon which Mr. Smith and two others were returning to their work after the noon hour collided with an automobile driven by John Thomseth which was crossing the tracks to the Chamber's mill, where Mr. Thomseth is foreman. Mr. Thomseth did not see the speeder approaching. Had he seen it he could have prevented the accident by speeding his car just enough to get over the track hardly more than a second quicker.
G. M. Scott who was driving the speeder, had brought it almost to a standstill but not in time to prevent the impact with the rear wheels of the automobile, which threw the speeder from the track. Mr. Smith was thrown between the rails and sustained a severe injury on the top of his head. The skull was not fractured but it is thought that brain concussion resulted. This seems to be working itself out and Mr.Smith seems well on the road to recovery. The Inspector, E.C. Cochran also a passenger sustained a deep but not serious wound on the head. Mr. Scott escaped without injury.
The following weeks paper carried the following story:
JOE T. SMITH RECOVERS AND ENTERS BUSINESS
Joe T. Smith who is recovering from the accident in which he nearly lost his life,
has taken over the Roy E. Short grocery and is now in charge. He had made the
deal for the business before meeting the accident and was remaining on the job at
the plant only a day or so, until another man could take his place. He had just
competed invoicing the stock the day before the injury.
In that same issue of the paper was a paid ad:
NOTICE
This is to announce that I have bought the Roy E. Short
grocery store and will be pleased to meet old as well as
the new customers. Service, good merchandise at right
prices will be our aim.
SMITH'S GROCERY
Joe T. Smith
"Walk a block and same a dime."
His son remembers him as a man of tenderness and caring who never raised his voice except in song. A man who smiled a lot and who liked to see others happy.. A father who conveyed to his son a sense of values: “Do what is right. Be honest. Take responsibility for your own actions. Don't buy on time. Spend less than you earn. Be humble, merit is its own reward.”
He was a man who believed you should treat everyone as an equal; give more than you take; love your country and if forced to choose, take integrity over popularity.
He says of his father, “He spent a lot of time with me. Taking me fishing and hunting. Driving a load of kids to out of town ball games or a scouting events. Teaching me to pitch horse shoes (we had fun but never became very good.). Entertaining people at the cabin. Serving "pop" or watermelon. Writing to me when I was in college or the service often enclosing a dollar bill. 1 don't ever remember his saying "no" when I asked him to do something that was important to me.”
A soldier's continuous life in the damp and mud combined with the lingering effects of being gassed during the war started to take a toll on Joe’s physical strength. In the late 1920s he started making trips to the Veteran's Hospital. The problem was diagnosed as arthritis, and a back brace prescribed. Sunbaths brought relief to some people, and a trip to California tested this theory. A month spent in the San Fernando valley with daily exposure to the sun did not result in any noticeable improvement. Joe began to limit involvement with the store, and sometime in the early 1930's, he stopped clerking and even though he retained his interest, he eventually helped only on special occasions.
This provided plenty of time for fishing. He could sit in a boat without being in pain. So he went fishing. His son relates one fishing story and there is a photographic proof to support it. His father standing proudly beside a 45lb Chinook salmon.
In his later years Joe T. owned and operated the “Outdoor Store.”
Following a series of stokes, he spent the last 16 months of his life confined to bed, carefully tended by Mabel. She waited on him night and day. For a treat, she would make a chocolate milkshake for him and even when he could not longer speak, she knew he was grateful. He died January 1. 1959 and was buried at Fir Grove Cemetery in Cottage Grove.
Warren Daughtery, a leading Cottage Grove business man, presented the church a communion service as a memorial. It was engraved:
To the memory of
Joe T. Smith
Who lived by the
Golden Rule.
The Rev. D. Hugh Peniston appropriately used as his text for Joe's memorial service, Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
THE REGISTER-GUARD, Eugene, Lane Co. Oregon -- date unknown
SMITH -- Joseph T. Smith, 324 Adams, Cottage Grove passed away at the Cottage Grove Hospital, Thursday, January 1, 1959 at the age of 69. He was born October 4, 1889 near Sparta, Ill., and came to Cottage Grove 48 years ago. He was married at Albany, July 13, 1917 to Mabel Veatch who survives him. Mr. Smith was a member of the Presbyterian Church, the Masonic Lodge, The Royal Arch Masons, Knights Templar, Shrine, The American Legion and was a veteran of World War I. He retired several years ago as an active partner in the Smith and Short Grocery in Cottage Grove. Besides his wife he is survived by 2 children, Rev. Richard Knox Smith of Tenafly, New Jersey, Mrs. Mary Jane Irvine of Portland; 6 grandchildren; 1 brother, S. Roy Smith, Portland and 2 sisters, Mrs. Jessie Matthews and Mrs. Jennie Beidler, both of Cottage Grove. Funeral services will be held at Mills Mortuary, Cottage Grove, Monday, January 5, 1959 at 2 p.m. Rev. D. Hugh Peniston will officiate, with interment in the Cottage Grove Masonic Cemetery.
******
Although Mabel appeared to be very serious, she is said to have had a dry wit, and people who knew her well, knew that she was often hiding a smile. One family story describes an experience she had with congestive heart failure. When the medics arrived to take her in the ambulance they assumed that being a very old lady, she must be hard of hearing and spoke to her in a loud voice.
To which she responded quietly, "There is nothing wrong with my hearing … I can't breathe."
She died at the age of 97 on July 2, 1989.
For anyone who may be interested in reading more of the Joe T. Smith Family, a digital link to
SOME INSIGHTS INTO THE FAMILY OF JOE T. SMITH OF COTTAGE GROVE, OR.
By Richard Knox Smith
can be found here …
Smith : some insights into the family of Joe. T. Smith of Cottage Grove, OR
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