Daniel Charlie Smith Sr. (abt. 1865 - 1939)

Born about 1865 in Alexander, Burke, Georgia, United States

Died 25 Oct 1939 at about age 74 in Punta Gorda, Charlotte, Florida, United States

Biography

Daniel Charlie Smith, Sr was born 1865 and passed away 1935. Daniel Charlie Smith, Sr is interred at Lt. Carl Bailey Cemetary located in Punta Gorda, Florida.   

Dan C. Smith born 1865 in Swainsboro, Georgia, to parents who were former slaves. Growing up in Georgia he learned to farm and the trade of masonry and carpentry. When he turned 17 he ventured south ending up in Gainesville, Florida. He got a job working on the railroad where he met Albert Gilchrist, a surveyor also working for the railroad. Dan was one of the five black men on the survey crew that Albert Gilchrist brought to the town of Trabue in 1886.

Dan Smith promoted Trabue's first religious service in 1886. The service attended by both blacks and whites was held under a palmetto thatched hut that he built. Dan helped to organize the first church in Punta Gorda, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In early 1890 Dan also helped to organize the St. Mark Progressive Baptist Church.

Dan Smith is portrayed in a mural at the Baker Center https://puntagordamurals.org/murals/local-black-history/ Dan Smith, a member of the railroad surveying crew who settled in Punta Gorda is featured in this panel. He was deeply religious and in 1886, built a “brush arbor” where he organized the town’s first Black religious services. This panel captures what the brush arbor church service might have looked like back in the day.

Sources

• Monumental inscription. Lt. Carl Bailey Cemetary, Punta Gorda, Florida.

1935 (b. 1865) Smith, Daniel Charlie. Photographed by: Bentley-7775 : taken <29 March 2024>. Find a Grave 57084746

"Florida Deaths, 1877-1939", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FPD3-4JL : Fri Mar 08 15:53:51 UTC 2024), Entry for Daniel Charlie Smith and Peter Smith, 25 October 1939.

"Florida State Census, 1935", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNJJ-YLT : Sat Mar 09 01:09:44 UTC 2024), Entry for Daniel C Smith and Annie E Smith, 1935.

• Bio info from Find a grave. I will look for the resource as there are many

local history books.

The birth date on the death certificate does not match the headstone, but the death year does, and the parents names match