Portrait and biographical album of Ingham and Livingston counties, Michigan, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties ... the governors of the state and of all the presidents of the United States.

747

POWR'RA IT AND BIO GRAP~HI CA L ALBUM.

POTATADBORPICAL ALBUM. 747

one of the best families in the county. Mrs. Abbott
is possessed of a broad and comprehensive education, and has musical talent which has been highly
cultivated, both in the vocal and instrumental
lines. She is universally esteemed and admired for
both ability and culture.
AVID 0. SMITH. A beautiful and tasteful home placed in attractive surroundings and furnished according to the dictates of a cultured mind is an educative
power in any community. The " new education "
of which so much is said nowadays, teaches that
we learn through the eye, and that a lesson which
is agreeably taught has double force. For that
reason we hold to the truth with which we opened
this paragraph. Much more does such a home
educate when this home affords within its walls an
exhibit which has been collected by one wlio enjoys the deep secrets of nature, and loves to hunt
out her strange ways and works. Such a collection of rocks' and fossils and other interesting
curiosities as has been collected by Mr. Smith leads
the minds of the young and old alike above the
sordid commonplaces of our daily life.
Mr. Smith, who operates a farm in Marion Township, Livingston County, and who is also the manager of a sawmill and thresher, was born in Erie
County, Pa., March 10, 1834. His father, Nel.
son A. Smith, who also followed agriculture,
was born in New York in 1812 or 1813. Having received a common-school education, he started out
when about twenty years old to work for others
by the month, and soon built up a good standing
among men as a responsible young man in whom
reliance could be placed.
Nelson Smith was married about the year 1832
to Angeline Beach, the first-born child of Lyman
Beach, a New Yorker. This daughter was born in
1814 or 1815. Nelson Smith came to Michigan first
in 1835 and after locating two hundred acres on
sections 8 and 17 in Marion Township, returned to

Pennsylvania for one year, and then removed
with his family to the West, traveling by means
of wagon and ox-team.
One daughter and three sons crown the union of
Nelson and Angeline Smith, and they gave to their
first-born the name of David. The mother, who
died in 1888, was a Universalist in her religious
belief. The father was a prominent. man in his
township, active in his relations to the Democratic
party in which he was a decided favorite, as is
shown by his having been an incumbent of the
office of Supervisor for eight years.
Our subject received only a limited education,
as the necessities of the farm did not permit of his
attending school for as long a term of years as his
parents desired. lie remained with them until lie
was twenty-seven years old, faithfully assisting
themi in theiir efforts to put their farm in first-class
condition, and to make it. highly productive. In
1861 he came on to the farm of one hundred and
sixty acres which he and his father had purchased
together, and upon which about forty acres was
cleared when lie moved upon it. In 1865 he had
been so prosperous as to add to his estate one
hundred and sixty acres on section 4, and twenty
acres in Ilowell Township.
It was in 1862 that this young man was joined
in marriage with the young lady of his choice.
She bore the maiden name of Sarah E. Bailey, and
is the oldest child of Charles and Mary E. (Coleman) Bailey, who had come from Orange County,
N. Y., where this daughter was born June 26,
1843. She came to Michigan with her parents
when she was four years old. Four children have
blessed her union with Mr. Smith, namely: Nina,
who died at the age of eleven years; Bailey B.,
Edward L. and Elvia. The two sons have been
for some time in the far Northwest, Ba-iley having
gone there about four years ago, and both making
their homes in Thurston County, Wash. Elvia is
the wife of William Carlan, who lives in Wyoming, about sixty miles west of Laramie, she is the
mother of two daughters-Sarah 1-. and Helen B.
Our subject was reared upon a farm over which
the Indians were wont to travel when going to
Detroit for Government pay and supplies, and
many incidents of his childhood are connected