My Genealogy Hound

ALBION SMITH, an honored and respected citizen of Watervliet, Berrien County, is a man of large experience in the community where he has made his home for many years. His estate is the result of hard labor, and his landed possessions aggregate two hundred and ninety acres, one hundred and seventy of which have been cleared and improved in the last few years. Mr. Smith has retired from active work, and now, surrounded by his family and friends, is passing the declining years of his well-spent life amid the comforts which money can provide.

Mathias Smith, the grandfather of our subject, is supposed to have been born on Martha’s Vineyard, on the Atlantic Coast. He was a sea-captain and took an active part in the French and Indians Wars, using his strength in the service of the English. He removed to Maine, where he reared a family of eight sons and one daughter, and died in the prime of life. The father of our subject was a merchant by occupation, and, like his father, was of a patriotic nature, and served his country in the War of 1812, after which he went into business with an uncle, John Smith by name, who was a sailor. The mother of our subject, who was a daughter of Jeremiah White, was born in Redfield, in the year 1792, and died in this State. Mr. White was a successful farmer in his time, and died in Albion, Me. He was a Universalist in his religious belief, as was also his daughter.

Our subject was reared in his native village, Redfield, Kennebec County, Me., where he was born February 23, 1824, to George and Celia (White) Smith. Young Albion was given a fair school education, notwithstanding the fact that he helped his father some in the hotel business. He continued in this line until he reached mature years, and then left home for a short trip through northern Maine, where he spent some time in hunting and lumbering. Subsequently he returned home and resumed the proprietorship of his father’s hotel, remaining there until he became twenty-seven years of age, at which time he decided to travel, and boarded a train en route to Buffalo. From there he went by boat to Detroit, Mich., and thence to Chicago, being four days on the trip. His intended wife was at that time living in Illinois, and after spending the winter of 1852 in a pork-packing establishment in the city of Dubuque, in the early spring he began railroading, by taking charge of a bridge gang. He went to Buffalo and there secured the lumber to build the first bridge ever erected across the Mississippi, which was at Rock Island. In the fall of 1856 Mr. Smith came to Watervliet and worked in the mill for his brother, and a year later located on the one hundred and sixty acres which he now makes his home.

Mr. Smith has been an industrious and honest man all his life, and by good management has, from time to time, added to his estate, until now he is well deserving of the praise due him as a successful farmer. His land is all in a good state of cultivation, and has been improved with the numerous appliances of modern times. Twenty acres of his farm are devoted to the raising of fruit, and the fine appearance of the orchards adds greatly to the value of the farm.

Mr. Smith was married to Helen F. Nelson November 6, 1853. She was born February 26, 1834, in Winthrop, Me., to Charles and Emily (Billington) Nelson, who were both natives of the Pine Tree State, having been born in Winthrop and Wayne respectively. Charles Nelson was a shoe-maker by trade, and went to Illinois about the year 1849, where he lived during his active life. His wife passed away at Richland Centre, Wis., leaving two sons and four daughters: Everett, of Maine; Charles R., of Wisconsin; Helen F.; Flora, who died in Wisconsin; Addie, of Ashland, Wis.; and Josie. Our subject has been the father of eight children: Ora, wife of Frank Selter; Cora, wife of L. W. Jeffery; Frank, who died when in his twenty-eighth year, leaving one son, Ford, who lives with his grandparents; Flora, now Mrs. Curtiss, of Riverside; Celia, wife of Frank Bardon; George F.; Josie, Mrs. Scherer; and Mabel.