Here will be my starting page for my Smith Family.  I only have a few pictures but they will blend into my Wales family and what little information I have on them.

My great grandfather was George McClellan Smith.  He was born in Vermont.  His father was Benjamin M. Smith who was in the Civil War, captured and died at Andersonville Prison.  His mother was Loretta E. Davis Smith Howard Meade.

Loretta and Benjamin Smith had five children.  McClellan G., Benjamin Alanson, William Webster, John Garfield and Abby Farietta Smith.  When Benjamin died in the Civil War, Johnson Fuller Howard became the guardian of these children.  About 1870 Loretta and the children moved to Michigan.  Johnson F. Howard also moved to Michigan.  In 1871 Loretta and Johnson  married.  She had two more children, Walter W. Howard and Charles C. Howard.  When Johnson died she married Alfred Guion Meade. That is how she became known as "Grandma Meade."  When Alfred died she moved into the home of her son,  John G. Smith.  There she lived until 1922 when she died.

                 I would like to create a separate page for each of the five Smith children with some of the pictures I have.

My great grandfather George Smith standing in his "victory garden" that he was so proud of.

This was taken in his back yard.  He is standing by his "Victory Garden."  I am told he loved to have a garden.  He died before I was born, so I never got to know him and have relied on Aunts and Uncles to tell me about him.  They say that when the family lived in Colorado on Log Hill that he tried to farm and grow potatoes, but that his passion for reading western books in the barn ruined his farming career.  So, after they moved to California I guess he settled for backyard gardening and by the looks of it, he did pretty well.

He was born June 6, 1862 in Enosburg, Vermont to Benjamin M. Smith and Loretta Elinore Davis Smith.  After his father died his mother moved the family to Michigan.  Somewhere he must have joined a wagon train heading west.  The family story goes that he and his wife Nellie came out in a covered wagon.  My Aunt Jewel has the lantern they used on that trip.  So, I don't have any idea where he met Nellie or when.  I have a newspaper clipping about their 50th Wedding Anniversary, that states that they were married in Grand Island, Nebraska on June 6, 1888.   Below, I have a couple of pictures of my great grandmother Nellie Reynolds Smith.

This picture was supposed taken shortly after Nellie and George married.  She says she was born in Manchester, England on June 18, 1866. 

I would guess this was taken by one of George's gardens.  My grandmother Loretta C. Smith Wales looked exactly like her mother.  I guess I take after those two ladies as I am the "shorty" in the family.

This next picture is of George and Nellie together.

If you look close, to the left of Nellie there is a child peeking out the window.  I do not know for sure who that child is.  It looks like a young child and my mother would have been at least 10 or 11 by then.

In this picture, my mother is Gene, the little girl on the left in the front.

Here is a little of what I know about my great grandfather, George.  He and Nellie settled in Colorado in a cabin that they built.  He worked in the lumber camps as a cook and he loved to read westerns.  I have also learned that he made ties for the railroad and tried to farm.  I have recently learned why he has been so hard to find.  Instead of looking for George M. Smith, I should have been looking for McClellan G. Smith.  I found he and Nellie on a census at last in Ouray Co., Colorado.  They lived on Log Hill or Log Hill Mesa.  I am still not sure if it is the same.    Here is a picture of the cabin.

  George and Nellie had five children, all daughters.  Although I have been told there might have been a son who died very young.  The daughters are Mabel Anna Smith Paxton, Hazel Emelene Smith Goode Virzi, Loretta Cynthia Smith Wales,  Abigail Marcella Smith Miller Barlow and Gladys Lorna Smith Bower.

One of my cousins told me that she believes her mother told her that Nellie came on a ship to the United States with a cousin or a nanny and that the cousin/nanny died on the ship, so Nellie was placed in an orphanage after she arrived in Canada.  That later she worked either as a nanny or in a boarding house; One version even has her as a "bond servant."  None of which I have been able to prove.  I have not even been able to locate a record of birth for Nellie.  It is stated on Nellie's death certificate that her father was a Thomas Benjamin Reynolds and her mother was Elizabeth - - - - - -.  I have been researching a group called The British Home Children.  These children were from very poor families who could not support them or were orphans.  They were sent to Canada to homes where they lived and worked.  There is a large group of researchers that are documenting these children.  I just cannot help but think that Nellie was actually one of these children and that she made up most of the story of her beginnings to cover her sad start in life.  On the census that I found, Nellie states she immigrated in 1880 and that she was naturalized.  So, a couple of more avenues for searching.

George and Nellie Smith passed away in Yuba City, California.  Both are buried in Sutter Cemetery and thanks to my son Mathew, I have pictures of their headstones.

Don't you sometimes really wish you could use a time machine and go back and talk to some of your ancestors?  My great grandpa George loved to read and garden.  He just seems to me to be a man with spunk.  Considering the times he lived in and how he came from New England to the "West" was a bold thing in those days.  My Aunt Jewel tells me he loved reading Westerns.  Now, in talking with my Uncle Jack and Aunt Jewel, little Nellie was really the spunky one.  She is the one who learned to drive and when my Aunt was in junior college, Nellie would go with all the young people to the movies, soda shop or all the way to Sacramento to have coffee.  

My Aunt tells me that George had a pet name for Nellie and that he always called her "Mammy."  Gosh I would love to know how he came to call her that.  One of my Uncles said he called her "Dumpling."