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David Irving Jr. Smith [Parents] was born 5 Mar 1805 in Southfields, Orange Co. NY. He died 26 Mar 1878 in Monroe, Orange Co. NY. David married Charlotte Conklin in Presbyterian Church, Monroe, Orange Co NY.
Other marriages:
Conklin, Cornelia Hunter
SOURCE: Meta Smith Bush "Smith and Allied Families" p 23
When David was still a small child his mother married a second husband, James Smith ( no known connection). At the age of fourteen David was apprenticed to Deacon Andrew Von Valer to learn the trade of a cabinet maker. His indenture is in existence... and is dated 6 April 1819...Various articles of furniture that David made are in existence still as sound as when they came out of his workshop. Some are pine and maple, plain in line, others of mahogany with carved posts or legs. He finished his apprenticeship early in the year 1826 and on Dec 26 of that year, at the age f 21, he married charlotte Conklin, daughter of David Conklin.
In the possession of the family is a certificate of military service for David. It is headed"Light Infantry" and reads as follows: "This is to certify that David Smith is a member of a company of Light Infantry, commanded by me, in the fifth New York Brigade of the 91st regiment, he having enlisted on the second day of September in the year 1825 and uniformed himself according to law. Lewis H Roe, Captain. dated the Twelfth day of October 1832.
During his lifetime he owned and lived on two farms. The first one was on a small road leading off to the left from the road that runs between Walton Lake and Greenwood Lake. It was almost mid distance between the farms of his two grandfathers, Samuel Smith and Gershom Clark...The second farm where David and Charlotte lived was on what is known locally as the back road between Monroe and Harriman (then known as Turners). It was later owned by their son Washington G Smith...David bought the adjourning farm and moved to that house where he died...David operated his farm as well as working at his trade as Cabinet maker. In those days when a death occurred, the cabinet maker was sent for to measure and build a coffin, so David in 1835 began to actively engage as an undertaker...
Obituary of David Smith
Ina scrap paper drive during WW11 a clipping of David's obituary was found and is hereby copied. It is signed Nil (This was the pen name of the Rev. Daniel Niles Freeland, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Monroe for over fifty years)
"The funeral of David Smith was very largely attended on Thursday last. He had reached the ripe old age of 73 years, all of which had been spent in this town. He was in boyhood, employed with Andrew Van Naler, the senior Elder of the Presbyterian Church in this place, and learned with him the trade of cabinet making. His health failed him in middle age, he entered upon faring, to which he added the business of undertaking. He united with the Presbyterian Church September 4th, 1857, and was elected Elder Masrch 16, 1862. For a still longer time he had been a Trustee in that congregation. All these positions he filled with acceptableness. He was in repute among his neighbors as a man of integrity, and while diligent in business was a man fevered in spirit. He was a friend of the churches and the ministry, and one of the kindest fathers to his children, and extended more than a father's care to several who in their orphanage would have been left to the cold charities of the world. Heart disease with its pain and paroxysms gradually wore him out, leaving him his mental faculties clear with but slight interruption to the last. His days were spent in religious conversation and in Counsel to his friends. He expressed great desire "to depart and be with Christ which is far better"...It was affecting, to witness the unusual spectacle of the remains of a father carried by six sons, all in their manhood, while at the house could have been seen four generations gathered about the remains of our deceased brother. The grandmother numbers ninety three years. Their is a child of the fifth generation whose likeness was exhibited but who was not present. It is rare in this world of vicissitude to find so many of such extreme ages contemporary in the same family circle.. Monroe April 1st,
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