Relatively Speaking

Glastenbury, January 31, 1868
I have just received your letter and to show how much interest I still take in your mother, I have seated myself, immediately to answer it.

You say you would like a situation to teach, next summer and I think it would be very improving for you. But we are now so advanced, that we have not felt that interest in the schools that we used to years ago, and I should not know where to apply.

Had we descendants or near relatives, we should have retained it longer and known much more about them as it is I am unacquainted with any of the instructors.

I was glad your father thought of coming to see us. Tell him he must not wait till he gets time. but he must take time and take your mother, too; and then we shall be sure to see them and that before a great while.

You older girls can take care of the children meanwhile and the baby too, I know. I like his name, but you don’t tell us how old he is and whether he can run about and call your names.

I should like much to look in upon you and see all the children and among them your grandmother, perhaps, the most interesting to me, but since our last sister died, I have never expected to go so far from home as your house.
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Glastenbury, March 17, 1866
Dear Cousin,
It is four weeks since I received your last letter, and should have answered it before, but I have been gone sometime to New Haven, 39 miles from here, where we have many acquaintances among them a granddaughter of Dr. Warren Mitchel of Southbury.

Her brother Henry Johnson came over to accompany me home and left here last Wed. Almost the first thing his sister said to me was, “Are you not ashamed of your Johnson blood?” (Our grandmother was a JOhnson). And truly I believe every Republican, Johnson or not, is ashamed of our president since his speech to that rebel, copperhead, drunken mob.

His disagreement with congress is the general topic of conversation here, and I suppose it is all over the country.

When I read your last letter and learned how many children you have had to take care of, I excused you wholly for not writing before, but they will be a great…that is if you bring them …up to obey their father and mother which would indeed be a wonderment in these days of misrule, where all laws and authority seem to be set at nought.
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Glastonbury, January 29, 1855
Mary Ann Austin, Lumberland
Dear Cousin,
I though you should not wait again so long to hear from me and besides, I was so much pleased with your letter that I wanted to set down immediately and acknowledge it. It contained a little about all our cousins there, just what I wanted to know.

It must have been very hard for your mother to sit so long, but from what I saw of her, I should say, she was one that does not complain, but makes the best of things as they are; which if everyone would do, it would save much trouble in many families.

I was glad to hear of your father’s journey and improved health and that your husband thought he would like to bring you here, for I am apt to look on the bright side, and think perhaps he will come, some day.

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Last year, my newly found Austin cousin shared with me the Austin letters, info and photos saved by her grandmother Lillie Austin Calkin.

Among the items was an 1855 letter from an Abby Smith to my great-grandmother Mary Ann Eldred Austin.

The letter was about how Abby’s sisters had been so sick and what they did to get better. As I typed up the letter, I found myself wondering why in the world I was typing up a letter from 1855 about some very sick people I had never heard of.

But then the names of Abby’s sisters—Cyrinthia, Laurilla, and Zephina—were so unusual, that I thought perhaps even with Smith for a last name, I would do a google search including Glastonbury, where the letter was from.

Abby Hadassah Smith and her sisters—Hancy Zephina, Cyrinthia Sacretia, Laurilla Aleroyla, and Julia Evelina—were the daughters of Hannah Haddasseh Hickok Smith and Zephaniah Hollister Smith.

Hannah Haddassah Hickok Smith was a first cousin to my great-great-grandmother Hannah Hickok Eldred.

The Zephiniah H. and Hannah H. Hickok Smith Family
The Zephaniah Smith daughters came from an accomplished and nonconformist family. Zephaniah Smith was a lawyer and former minister. Their mother, Hannah Hickok, was an amateur mathematician and poet.

Zephina was an inventor; Laurilla was an artist; and Cyrinthia was a poet and horticulturist. Julia knew classical languages and translated the Bible into English.

In 1873, Abby, 76, and her sister Julia, 81, lived in their family home, Kimberly Mansion, in Glastonbury, Connecticut.

Kimberly Farm had the most valuable property in town. The Smith sisters were being exploited by the town tax collector, because they were women and at that time, had no vote or voice in their taxes.

Abby and Julia refused to pay their tax until they were given representation. Abby took their concerns to the town council where she said:

The motto of our government is ‘Proclaim liberty to all inhabitants of the land!’ and here, where liberty is so highly extolled and glorified by every man in it, one-half of the inhabitants are not put under her laws, but are ruled over by the other half, who can take all they possess.

How is Liberty pleased with such worship?

The town seized their beloved Alderney cows, auctioned them off and attempted to auction their farm as well.

The sisters were able to buy the cows back and fought the town in court, ultimately winning.

More information on the Smith Family
Abby, Julia, and the Cows
Fascinating, well written article by Elizabeth G. Speare.

Kimberly Mansion.

Glastonbury, CT history

The Smiths of Glastonbury