94 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



farming as an occupation. During all his years of study, chemistry 

 and the natural sciences had been favorite branches of knowledge 

 with him, and in the former he made considerable proficiency. 

 These studies trained his mind to habits of observation and inquiring 

 into the action of Nature's laws, which gave him a good fitness to 

 write upon questions concerning orcharding, plant growth, etc.. 

 which he did to quite an extent in the latter j'ears of his life. Al- 

 though he praclicalh' abandoned teaching as a business when he 

 began farming, he continued to teach school winters for man3' j-ears, 

 teaching his last term at the age of fifty-two years. 



Mr. Smith married, December 1, 1832, Mary F. Shaw of Win- 

 throp. Tlieir famil}' consisted of six sons, one of whom, Henry S., 

 lives on the old farm in Monmouth ; and one. Prof. George Board- 

 man, resides in Houlton, a teacher of acknowledged ability. His 

 widow, a lady of estimable Christian character, fine sensibilities and 

 true benevolence, still survives, and resides with her son in Mon- 

 mouth. Mr. Smith lived in Winthrop until the year 1862, when he 

 moved to Monmouth and purchased a farm on the shore of Lake 

 Cochiiewaggin, where he continued to reside till his decease. 



At the early age of sixteen, Mr. Smith united with the Baptist 

 Church and ever continued a consistent member of the same. In 

 1848, when the anti-slavery controversy- was beginning to assume 

 form and shape as a social and political factor, Mr. Smith was one 

 of three, out of over thirt}' male members of his church who were 

 bold, outspoken and earnest in their opposition to human slaver}-. 

 They voted as they believed and talked, and thereby incurred the 

 almost universal contempt of their associates and townsmen. But 

 Mr. Smitli lived to see himself in the majority, and to witness the 

 consummation of his prayers and hopes in the eternal abolition of 

 legal bonds from men of color. A writer in the Lewiston Journal 

 of March 13, 1885, in a notice of Mr. Smith, says, in reference to 

 this fact: ''Those onlv who lived in those times can understand 

 what such men were obliged to endure. But he bore it patiently 

 until he saw the reward of his labor. He is the first of the three 

 who has gone to his rest. The other two are nearly ninety years 

 old." 



Although always a farmer, it was not till the latter period of his 

 life that Air. Smith began to give special attention to orcharding. 

 About 1860, or possibly a few years later, he began the nursery 

 culture of fruit trees by planting seeds, budding, grafting and 



