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Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== SOURCE: The Pine Plains Register Pine Plains, Friday, March 12, 1897 Mrs. Benjamin Smith Deceased ____________________________ Minneapolis, Minn., Feb 23, 1897 -- Dear Editor: - It will probably be of interest to our old friends in Pine Plains to know that my grandmother, Sarah F. Smith, wife of Col. Benjamin Smith, died at the home of her sister in Chicago, Feb. 20th. For the past seven years she had been afflicted with rheumatism in her limbs, and about four months since she com- menced to grow worse with additional complications. February second she had rallied sufficiently to be removed to Chicago, where she wanted to go and live with her sister, and where she deceased as above in her 75th year. Further I wish to say that Col. Smith is now laid up at the Soldiers' Home here with a partial paralysis in his right leg, and the doctor says it is doubtful he will survive long. With kindest regards I am respectfully, JAMES BENJAMIN SMITH. IN MEMORIAM. Mrs. Smith was a Rathbun, a name prominent and favorably known in the annals of western and central New York. Charles, Amos and Alfred, three broth- ers Rathbun, emigrated to Grand Rapids, Mich., from New York near the 30's or early 40's, and by their mental ability and enterprise went to the front socially and financially as early settlers and helpers in the development of that then new little village in its dawnings. Charles built a hotel, and the "Rathbun House" was the leading and popular hotel in Grand Rapids for a score or more of years. His three eldest daughters - there were six daughters in all - were efficient aids to his wife in making the Rathbun Hotel as a hostelry in all respects beyond criticism. Here it was that Benjamin Smith first met Sarah Frances Rathbun, the admitted general favorite of these three elder daughters, and here also was she schooled in the art of dinner enter- taining for which she was so justly cele- brated ever after. She and Benjamin Smith were married May 3, 1847, and were her biography written from this time to near her decease by a Balasco or a Victor Hugo its fact would well nigh rival fiction and its truth romance. Soon after their mar- riage they moved to Ravenna in the wild- erness about midway between Grand Rapids and Muskegon, about twenty miles from either place, where James, their only child was born. Manufacturing pine lumber by a sawmill on the small stream at that place was Mr. Smith's business. Later, about 1852, the moved to a place, called later Ottawa Center, on the north branch of the Grand River about twelve miles from its mouth and about twenty-five miles from Grand Rapids, where Mr. Smith had built a steam sawmill. Here he manufactured lumber several years, living mean- time in a log house where the hos- pitality of Mr. and Mrs. Smith was widely known and enjoyed. Her en- tertainments were principally con- fined to the winter season when the mill was still or "shut down," a word of general use then in the lumberman's vocabulary. Many social functions have I known there of note in winter times. Guests from Grand Rapids under the direction and management of Mrs. Smith, when the chinked one story old log house was within a bazar of costly dress and fashion without dude or caste. Such had no being there. It was brains and wit and a social level that made these cabin logs echo in the social pleasure within. When spring and summer came and the mill started for its season's work, Mrs. Smith entered with like energy and heart into practical life and persons work, and when the mill was running night and day I have known her to pre- pare the table for twenty men for weeks in succession with scarcely any aid. At such times midnight meals had to be provided in addition to the daily three meals. Mr. and Mrs. Smith moved from here to Grand Rapids about 1860 and the next year the war of the rebellion commenced. A regiment of cavalry was raised - Michigan 2nd - having its rendexvous at Grand Rapids, in which her husband was com- missioned captain. She chose to share the war service with him and when in the fall of 1861 or following winter the regiment was ordered to Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis she accompanied her husband and lived in camp. Gordon Granger was colonel. In the following spring after the battle of Shiloh the regiment was ordered to northern Mississippi in the vicinity of Corloth and Mrs. Smith went with the regiment. Whenever the regiment was on a march she went with it, and when the camp was located she remained in camp while the regiment scouted. In August, 1862, Bragg invaded Ken- tucky and threatened Louisville. The Michigan 2nd cavalry - Sheridan having been assigned Colonel - in the latter part of that month was ordered to Louisville and camped about two miles southwest of Louisville for the pur- pose of looking after matters in front. A few days later our regiment camped very near the Michigan 2nd, and there I first met Mrs. Smith after she "went to war." She was as much at home in the tent with all the war camp para- phenalia as at her entertainments on Grand River and Grand Rapids, surrounded with all the conveniences thereto pertaining. What a change for a woman, thought I, from domestic life to one of rifle, sword and cannon. A portion of the regiment, including her husband, had been out two days on a scout down the river and had not returned. The next day I rode by the camp and on my way soon after met Captain Smith and his company coming into camp with three or four "**c**b" as prisoners, and one of his men lead- ing a horse saddled. Capt. Smith and others of the regiment had dashed into Elizabeth, about forty miles from Louisville, driven out a lot of con- federates, took some prisoners and this horse, which belonged to a con- federate officer. This animal was the bay mare "Fanny," the pacer, well known in this vicinity several years after the war. She was a fine saddle animal and used after this capture by Mrs. Smith during the war. About a month later the federal army started from Louisville to drive Bragg out of Kentucky. Sheridan had the Michigan 2nd cavalry in his command - he was now a Brigadier - and a few days later was the battle of Perrys- ville or Chaplin Hills. About two o'clock in the afternoon of the day of the engagement the battle commenced, Sheridan placed his command in position, and as we were forming I rode by a small, square, one story and a half, weather beaten dwelling with a small yard in front. In the yard were some wounded soldiers, some lying on the ground, others on the stretchers, and yet others inside the house, the door being open. A woman was in the yard, and to my astonishment it was Mrs. Smith. The Michigan 2nd cavalry and the 2nd Missouri infantry had been skirmishing heavily since morning in a small piece of timber a few rods in front, with the rebel sharp shooters, and these were the wounded of the Michigan 2nd. The surgeon of the regiment, Doctor Henderson, of Grand Rapids, was there, and Mrs. Smith seemed to be his only assistant. I rode up near her. She recognized me and with lint and bandage in her hands and tears flowing she exclaimed, "Oh, Isaac, this is awful." I could only stop a moment for the regiment was just forming, the battle line being on a small ridge not six rods beyond this improvised hospital and the confederates were making a charge. The musket firing of the respective armies was sharp, but she was comparitively safe beneath the eminence. The surgeon, Doctor Henderson, had been her family physician and not- withstanding her unusual emotion at this time, I saw she was an efficient aid. Brevity is imperative. On to Nash- ville, to Murfreesboro and "to the sea" with Sherman. At Atlanta, I think it was, when Sherman and his staff could not find comfortable quarters, she opened a sort of military boarding house, General Sherman and other officers being boarding guests. The regiment was her home, its ways were her ways, its camp was her camp, 'till this cruel war was over. Then she spent a few years in Georgia, later in Pine Plains on the Bonnie Brook - now Bathrick - farm, where, we all know the latch string of hospitality was ever outside the door and a warm welcome within. In 1883 she went with her husband to the Dakotas, superintended hotels in different places and later moved to Minneapolis. Rheumatism was then her physical afflication, which increased until her decease as mentioned in the above letter from her grandson. She was buried in the family lot at Grand Rapids, Mich. Mrs. Smith was practical in her mental make up, had remarkable executive ability, excellent judgment and a fund of that quality called "tact," which makes friends by saying and doing the right thing at the right time. Her perceptions seem in- tuitive, and seldom failed to be right. Often has she been of great aid to her husband in business matters by her counsel and energetic work. It was effective. She was thoroughly devoted to her husband from first to last, as her life has abundantly testified. She filled and honored every position which fell to her lot without murmur or com- plaint, and made her surroundings cheerful and enjoyable. Though a member of the Episcopal Church, she was not a devotee to church matters. Indeed in her moving life from her marriage she had no opportunity to become identified with any one church, hence she was more a Christian woman than a church woman. Her Christianity was in a life of good works and charity. Her work is done, she has gone to render up account, and has left a host of friends. ISAAC HUNTING ===========================================================================