Alfred Deane Smith LLD (1843-1917) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Prof. Alfred Deane Smith LLD

Born 8 Dec 1843 in Saint Kitts and Nevis

Ancestors

Son of Thomas Smith and Sarah Rebecca (Vesey) Smith

Brother of Sarah Vesey (Smith) Mack, Thomas Tuzo Smith, Herbert Smith, Jesse Cameron Smith, Rosalie Smith, Arthur Henry Smith, Samuel Somers Smith, Aubrey E Smith and Edmund Botterell Smith

Husband of Mary Victoire (Henderson) Smith — married 24 Dec 1867 in Annapolis Co,. Nova Scotia, Canada

Descendants

Father of Aubrey Cecil Smith, Ethel Geraldine Smith and Alfred Victor Smith

Died 28 Mar 1917 at age 73 in Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada

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Profile last modified 6 Apr 2023 | Created 28 Feb 2018

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Biography

Here is the latest write up on Alfred Deane Smith that incorporates excerpts from the Henderson diaries, as I promised. You have read an earlier version so it will sound familiar in parts.^[1]

"Alfred Deane Smith and Mary Victoire Henderson"

Though born in Nevis late in 1843, Alfred Smith's family was from Bermuda. His father Rev. Thomas Smith, was a Methodist missionary who had been posted to Nevis for a three-year term when Alfred was born. Thomas and his wife, Sarah Rebecca Vesey, moved back to the mid-Atlantic island colony of Bermuda within a couple of years of his birth. It is unlikely that Alfred had any memory of Nevis, a small island colony in the West Indies. Alfred was the first child of the couple. For twenty years, Thomas moved his growing family from posting to posting, which provided a mentally stimulating, if financially impoverished, environment to grow up in. This would have provided an invaluable background for Alfred's chosen profession as an educator.

Thomas' postings included a full decade in Newfoundland. It was there that Alfred got his elementary education. The school exercise book that he used as in Brigus still survives in the Archives of Mount Allison University. In St. John's he attended the General Protestant Academy.

The family had moved from Newfoundland to Mill Village, Annapolis County when Alfred was ready for higher education. He apparently attended Truro Normal School but a contemporary issue of the Allisonian notes that he was accepted at Mount Allison Institution as a senior from Mill Village in 1866. It gives some flavour of college life, and of Alfred's sense of humour:

Sackville, November 11, 1866 My dear Mother, It is Sunday evening, about forty minutes before teatime that I am beginning my letter. As I should mail it before Monday evening, I shall have time enough to put on it. Have been doing nothing all afternoon in an "able and impartial manner" and actually feel more wearied than I generally do after a week's hard work. Idleness is certainly a great nuisance. We have got through with one term and will regularly commence on the work of the second tomorrow.

I was tolerably successful. I got the highest "standings" in the College, and Miss Smith the highest in the Ladies' Academy so you see the Smiths are gaining the day. I shall be a little harder worked this term than I was the last, as I shall have four classes to teach. They are Greek grammar, Natural Philosophy, arithmetic and writing. The only change in my studies is the substitution of Moral Philosophy for Mental Philosophy. Altogether, I shall have plenty to do, but I daresay I shall feel happier than if I were idle half the time. Time passes more quickly when one is busy.

I wish we had a decent minister here. Nicholson is a deplorably wretched preacher and a fool generally. Takes no more notice of me than if he had never experienced kindness at your hand in Newfoundland.

Monday afternoon, "miserable wretch" that I am, I intended to write come yesterday and so make my letter a little longer than usual but neglected to do it somehow or other. And this afternoon I was seduced into a game of football and now it is almost teatime. Have played football a good deal lately and it has done me a good deal of good. I also take a cold bath shall have to defer it . . .

Your affectionate son, Alfred Smith

Upon graduating in 1867, Alfred moved to Yarmouth where he had obtained work as a school teacher. It was at this time that he met and married Mary Victoire Henderson, who lived in Annapolis Royal. Both Methodists, they were married on December 24, 1867. Victoire's father was the Postmaster Andrew Henderson, who kept a diary at this time. A few notes about the couple are contained in his diary. These quotations were culled by Alfred's niece, Faith MacLean of Saint John and included in a letter to Dr. Leo Davies of Mount Allison University in 1952 (Source: MAU Acc. 8441/14/12. Faith MacLean notes: "Grandfather Henderson's diaries could better be called meditations. It seems as if he is a master of understatement when it comes to things you want to know.")

Thursday 17th May 1866

Alfred Smith arrived today from the college in Sackville. I understand he has made very great improvement in his studies, and it is very pleasing to learn that he will obtain his degree next term.

Monday 2nd July 1866

Mr. Smith and Vic got home this forenoon at the hour of dinner. Thirty-five miles is a long drive without stopping - too long in fact for either man or horse - such weather as this. [They may have driven from Digby - Faith

Monday 23rd December 1867

Vic's marriage will take place tomorrow evening . . .

Tuesday 24th December 1867

May it be a happy and prosperous union both spiritually and temporally. Mr. Smith arrived this morning at 10 o'clock in good health and spirits. I love the young man, as everyone must love him, who knows the value of his education, his moral worth, and his cheerful and amiable temper.

24th December continued.

The ceremony of Vic's marriage came off this evening in presence of a small and select company. Very graceful did the Rev. Hart perform the ceremony and I thought the young couple, who were elegantly attired looked admirably well . . . after the marriage the company sat down to respectable tea.

Monday 30th December 1867

At 2 o'clock P. M. dear Vic and Alfred took their departure with the mail courier for Yarmouth - her future abode. Dear daughter, may her pathway through life be such as will call forth diligence and activity in religion and may she and her worthy husband mutually love each other, be happy and useful, and finish their course with joy."

And their marriage was clearly a happy one. As Faith Maclean said in her letter, "the warm, friendly, inclusive atmosphere bore [this happiness] out". It was not an unconventional marriage, yet at a time when women were still expected to obey their husbands, theirs was characterized by equality and even a friendly rivalry. A letter written to his mother from Yarmouth about a year into the marriage conveys this sense and reveals the robust sense of humour that seems to have permeated their relationship:

Yarmouth, November 14, 1868

My dear Mother,

I have been for some time trying to induce my wretched and depraved wife to write you but she is as procrastinating as myself. So I have given it up as a bad job, and now "take up my pen to let you know I am well and hope you are the same." Haven't heard from you for some time, but trust you are getting along all right. We are both tolerably well. We keep the noiseless tenor of our way so monotonously that I have no crisis or startling "incidents" to record. My wife, I am gratified to state, has entirely discontinued the use of profane and blasphemous language, and I may safely say, does not now touch a drop of anything strong. Having said this, "I'm blowed", to use a favourite expression of yours, if I haven't exhausted the chronicle of domestic events. Here my wife, with unprecedented daring and rashness actually has come into the room where I am sitting, and with consummate impudence, wishes to enquire if the "governor" as she styles him, has left off beating you. I rise majestically and bathe my hands in her heart's blood. She declines to die however, and doesn't seem to mind it in the least. So I leave the abandoned creature to her miserable fate and resume my seal and pen. . . . I remain your very loving son, Alfred D. Smith

Mary gave birth to their first child, Aubrey, on 12 February 1869.That year, in October, the Saxby Gale hit the Maritimes with a fearsome power. Alfred Victor recalled, "Father and Mother were living in Yarmouth at the time of the Saxby Gale, and I have often heard my mother speak of the terrible force of the wind". Aubrey's sister, Ethel Geraldine, was also born in Yarmouth, 17 March 1871. Within a year, they finally settled in Sackville. Alfred Victor was born there on 04 May 1872.

Alfred Deane had returned to Sackville in 1871 to take his MA degree and join the faculty of Mount Allison University. Very early, he took the Chair of Classics, a seat which he filled until his death. In 1888, he went to Toronto where he was conferred with an honourary Doctorate of Laws from Victoria College.

Children

Issue of Alfred Deane and Mary Victoire (Henderson) Smith: Aubrey Cecil (b. 12 February 1869, d 1928) Ethel Geraldine (b. Yarmouth, 17 March 1871, d. ca. 1890) Succumbed to Alfred Victor (b.4 May 1872) A banker, Alfred worked first indorchester where he married Eleanor Story Blanchard. They later settled inBritish Columbia. Issue: Mary Rae. ^[2]