Mary Cecelia (Bird) Smith (1856 - 1942)

Born 4 May 1856 in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Ancestors

Wife of Charles Pierson Smith — married 27 Jun 1883 in Brooklyn, New York, United States of America [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 1 Sep 1942 at age 86 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Marion Ceruti [send private message]

Biography

Mary (Bird) Smith is the descendant of a New Netherland settler.

Mary (Bird) Smith has Jewish Roots.

Mary (Bird) Smith is the descendant of a Huguenot emigrant.

Mary (Bird) Smith has English ancestors.

Mary was a seamstress.

Mary Cecelia "Cece" Bird was born about in 1856. She is a daughter of James Bird and Margaret Stillwell. Her birth and death locations are thought to be most correct, but further research in family records is needed to confirm. The birth year is uncertain, not the day or month.

Cece married Charles Pierson Smith, whom she outlived. Charles came from a family with deep roots in Eastern Long Island, just as the Stillwells can count centuries of historical presence in Western Long Island, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Charles' mother was a Hildreth, a family that can trace their lineage back to England and beyond through gateway ancestor, Hannah Jessup Hildreth (Jessup-164).

Cece was skilled at sewing, crocheting, and knitting. She crocheted many garments, bedspreads, and decorative furniture protectors, some of which are still in the family. Mary and her sister, Margaret, inherited from their parents a summer home in island Heights, New Jersey, USA, where they spent summers with their children and friends. In her picture, Mary appears in her primary photo wearing the Stillwell-Bird cameo that she eventually inherited from her mother, Margaret Stillwell Bird.

In the group family photo, she is pictured seated second from the left, next to her parents, third and forth from the left.

Cece owned a row of 12 garages located at First Street and Constitution Ave. N.E. Washington, District of Columbia, USA. These garages generated rental income for the family. When the U.S. government decided to build the Russell Senate Office Building, the garages were "condemned" and taken over by the government by invoking "eminent domain." The builder of the new senate office building was George Hyman Construction Co. and the architects were Eggers and Higgins of New York, associated with Capitol Architect, J. George Stewart.

The government is thought to have paid Cece for the garages at a fair market value. That money was distributed among her children and Bird Smith Dawson received a share. Bird Smith Dawson's granddaughter, Marion Ceruti (ceruti-7) then obtained a loan from her mother, Lucille, to buy a home using the money from the garage-building sale, some of which to this day remains invested in real estate. Wikipedia can tell you the public side of the story, but now you know the rest of the story.

Cece passed away on Monday, 1 Sep. 1942. The place of death was not specified in the Washington Post obituary, but it does indicate that her residence was at 27 Jackson Street, Washington, D.C., where she lived with her son, Hildreth Bird Smith. This obituary seems to be at odds with the account that she died at the home of her oldest daughter in Eastport, Long Island, New York, USA. In any case, the funeral service was scheduled for 27 Jackson Street, Washington, D.C. on Thursday, 3 September 1942 at 8 P.M. Her remains were interred at Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, which between Washington and Eastport. This is the source of uncertainty about her place of death.

Sources

• Handwritten notes of Bird Smith Dawson on genealogy and birth order of James Ross Bird's children.
• Family records, DAR records
• "Stillwell: Memoirs of the Stillwell Family," by Hetty Stillwell Lee, 1931
• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSFP-6TP : accessed 4 February 2019), M Cecilia Smith in household of P Charles Smith, Borough of Brooklyn, Election District 4 New York City Ward 15, Kings, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 210, sheet 15A, family 361, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,052.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Senate_Office_Building
• Newspaper photo with caption attributed to "Star Staff Photos by Paul Schmick." of unidentified source that appears on pages 32 and 33 of a scrapbook annotated in the handwriting of Bird S. Dawson, daughter of Mary C. B. Smith.
• Obituary from the Washington Post found in the obituary collection of Bird Smith Dawson.
• Birth page of the family Bible of James Ross Bird and Margaret Stillwell, between 1854 and 1871.