Hubbard C. Smith

The Beattie Eagle, Friday, Oct. 24, 1902, Pg. 1

Researched and donated by Martha Aldridge, G-Granddaughter of Mr. H. C. Hubbard. She also wanted to point out the Gadner, Maine should be Gardiner, Maine.

OBITUARY. Hubbard C. Smith was born in Gardner (sic), Maine, July 31, 1834, and died at the home of his brother-in-law, Mr. Andrew Taylor, in Vineland, New Jersey, October 14, 1902, aged 68 years, 2 months and 13 days.

When he was 2 years old his parents moved to Ohio where, in 1842, his father died. Shortly thereafter his mother returned to Maine where she resided until Hubbard was 18 years of age. At that time he returned to Ohio and completed his education at Baldwin University, at the town of Berea. In the spring of 1858 he came to Kansas and taught school one term. The next year he went with an overland freight train to the territory of New Mexico and on his return he accompanied a Pike’s Pike expedition in search of gold. Returning he lived at Rochester, Mo., where he met Dr. Sheldon.. Later he was a member of the colony that settled Home township, Nemaha county, which settlement later removed to and became Centralia. This brought him near to the time when the civil war broke out.

In the winter of 1860 he went back to Maine on a visit and while there, in the spring of 1861, he enlisted under the first call for troops, in Co. C of the 3rd Maine regiment and went to Washington in time to engage in the battles of Bull Run, and Arlington Heights, when the three months service had terminated his regiment was reorganized for three years, and later joined the great army under McClellan, in the peninsula campaign in 1862. Here he did valiant service in the several engagements of that army, usually at the front and in the line of duty, and was promoted from time to time until he reached the position of First Sergeant of his company. No army ever did harder service. During the month of May, 1862, it fought its way from York Town up the James river and through the marshes and swamps of the Chickahominy, to within a few miles of Richmond. The battles were stubborn contests and resulted in the wounding and death of thousands on either side, and yet the fever and the exposure and the labor incident to the campaign got more victims than the sword and the shot and the bayonet. At last the two armies were concentrated in close proximity, with ‘Seven Pines’ and ‘Fair Oaks’ on the battle line and Richmond, a few miles away, as the objective point of McClellan. On the 30th of May the rain poured down in torrents and the camps of the Union army were flooded. The Chicahominy became a raging torrent and separated the Union armies into two parts. The rebels saw their advantage and struck a staggering blow at the Union left, doubling it back upon itself and taking it in flank and rear. The battle raged on to Fair Oaks and thence down to the river on the north, with varying fortune, throughout the day. The Third Maine did its duty and bore its share in the carnage. The sun was far down on the western slope and still the battle bore on. Company C, with First Sergeant H. C. Smith at its head, was in the thick of it. Just before the sun went down on that bloody field he was struck in the right breast by a shot from the enemy. It penetrated the lung to the shoulder blade and was thrown back through the lower part of the lung and imbedded itself between two ribs on the right side of the body.

His fighting was over. Months of pain and languishing in the hospital, bolstered and encouraged by a lieutenant’s commission from the governor of Maine for bravery on the battle field, and loving hands nursed him back to life again, but though he enlisted again and tried to do duty, he was too badly hurt and too weak for the hardships of war. He took his discharge in 1864 and again turned his steps westward. He purchased a farm near Centralia and sold it again to take the homestead, which he owned at his death, adjoining the city of Beattie.

October 8, 1865, at old Centralia, he married Miss Mina Hamilton who, with three sons, all grown, survives him.

In the year 1873, Mr. Smith engaged in the mercantile business in Beattie and established a reputation for honest, honorable and fair dealing, and up to the time of his decease had maintained a full share of the trade of the town. In this store his sons have grown up and followed the good example of their father.

In business relations H. C. Smith was known as an honest man, whose word and name were always good for what he promised. In social life he and his family have held a prominent position, and in morals and religion their influence was always upon the right side, not of a doubtful and uncertain caste, but positive and outspoken. No one who knew him ever doubted on which side of any moral question he might be found. In politics a Republican, drawing his lines by the teachings and example of the fathers of that creed. Loyal and true to his country, so was he to his friends, even to the extent of defending them when their good name was assailed. No one enjoyed the society of his friends more than he. He seemed almost passionately fond of meeting with his old comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic, and with the old settlers of the country. The stories of camp life and of the frontier were ever new to him and a source of much enjoyment. It was this that took him to Washington and to the Encampment there. Proud of his adopted state he hunted up a large and beautiful sunflower, made by some Relief Corps woman, and pinning it upon his breast, he joined the Kansas contingent in the great parade and marched down Pennsylvania avenue, past the reviewing stand, as when, a member of Co. C, 3rd Maine, he marched away to battle in 1861.

Comrade Smith was an active member of Chase post, G. A. R. and held the office of Senior Vice Commander at the time of his death; also a member of the Beattie lodge 259 A. F. and A. M. and an honorary member of the Knights & Ladies of Security. He had long been connected with the M. E. church of Beattie and was consistent in his life as a Christian gentleman.

He never grew old, he was never sad, but cheerful ever and full of courage he met each day’s duty as it came, performing it as best he could according to his idea of right.

When the attack came it was like that at Fair Oaks, swift and terrible, but it did not find him unprepared. There was no complaint, and at the last there was peace.

The long, sad journey from Vineland, New Jersey, to his old home at Beattie, Kansas, was indeed a trying one for the companion of his life. True she had the company and assistance of Mr. Taylor, but no heart but hers could bear the weight of sorrow put upon her.

Friends, the friends of years, gathered about the family at the home coming, and gave what consolation they could.

The funeral services, conducted by Rev. Leeper and Rev. J. F. Dennis of Waterville, were at the M. E. church on Sunday last, but as many people were unable to get inside as were there. The procession of carriages reached nearly from the town to the cemetery, and many did not attempt to join it because there was not room. Floral offerings prepared by loving hands were brought and placed upon the casket until there was room for no more. The list of those who brought them is not complete, but they were brought by loving friends as a testimonial of affection.

The plate on the casket bore this device: G. A. R. – Hubbard C. Smith –1834-1902 (letters enclosed in a rectangle) and the handle bars had upon them the all seeing eye and the letter ‘G’.

A TRIBUTE

The society of the fist settlement of Kansas was a conglomerate of the most varied composition. The fire eating pro-slavery man of the south, the abolitionist of the north, the scholar, the adventurer and the outlaw were each well represented, but the mass that united them all into one great solid body, that has developed the Kansas of today, was the predominating class of educated, clear brained, broadminded men and women, who came not only to build homes for themselves in the new territory, but to help make it a great, free and progressive state. Among this latter class was Hubbard C. Smith, a native of Maine, but a citizen of the world. I first met him in Centralia, Kansas in 1860 but did not become personally acquainted with him until after his discharge from the army, seriously wounded, when he brought his widowed mother and her family from Maine to Kansas in 1863 or 1864, since which time I have had the benefit of his uninterrupted friendship and confidence to the time of his death and each added year increased my love and respect for his sound judgment, unflinching integrity and unfailing devotion to duty, to family and friends. The love of children is one of the best possible evidences of a pure soul and this Mr. Smith had in a marked degree. He loved little children and they instinctively loved him. He was the friend of every child in the neighborhood and they were each his friend. ‘The evil that men do lives after them but the good is often interred with their bones,’ was the statement of a cynic and a pessimist, and is contrary to fact. The good, the pure, the beautiful and true only is everlasting, evil and sin and suffering and sorrow are but the fraction of the moral universe and are transient and short lived. The life of Brother Smith so pure and loving will be a benediction of peace and joy to his family and friends for years to come. Let us cherish his memory and emulate his virtues. ABIJAH WELLS.

THE LODGE SPEAKS

Beattie Kansas, Oct. 21st, 1902. Gone from our midst, a husband, father, the grandfather and brother, an honest, upright, Christian and philanthropic citizen. No more will Brother Smith’s smiling and genial continance, greet you in the store, on the street, in the lodge room, at the camp and among friends at the family fireside. He will be missed by all.

McReynolds Council, No. 152, K & L. of S., wishes to extend its fraternal sympathy to the wife, sons, grandchildren and other sorrowing friends in this their sad hour of bereavement.

We know that no words, act or offerings from any source can repay the loss or repair the broken hearts. But he is relieved of his suffering and toil co-existent with the busy and useful life in this world, and they have the satisfaction of knowing that his weary body is enjoying that sweet rest, where pain will cry no more from its rack for our assistance, or disease will summon us from its couch of distress. ‘Farewell’ Brother H. C. Smith – a word that must be and hath been – a sound which makes us linger, yet – farewell.

B. P. HATCH, W. B. BARKER, J. R. WILCOX, Committee.”