There was a grand rallying of the children and grandchildren of William and Harriet Smith on Tuesday the 15 inst. at the "Old Home" at Mt. Horeb, it being the occasion of their golden wedding. Rev. C. A. Wamburgh was present, and by invitation gave the following brief outline of their history: Wm. Smith inherited his name from ancestors distinguished from the rest of mankind, by the not infrequent cognomen of Smith; in the course of time, and human events, he became acquainted with Harriet Coddington, who, from the persuasions and infatuations William had at his command, consented, on the 15th day of July 1829, not only to leave her father's house but to exchange her maiden name for that of Smith. After duplicating at God's Altar, the solemn "I will," "I will," they commenced the journey of life hand in hand and heart beating against heart. Not only were they united in this sacred bond, but from the beginning almost their wedded life has been consecrated to God, and from the time of its institution, they have been members and supporters of the Mt. Horeb M. E. Church. During the 50 years that have passed since their marriage, there has been a very apparent increase of the number of "Smiths," radiating from the old homestead center at Mt. Horeb; they have spread out toward the rising, and toward the setting Sun, so that when the parents speak of their children and grandchildren, their thoughts have to plume their pinions for a lengthy flight, not only around rural neighborhoods, and different cities of dear old "Jersey," but far off to the plains of Kansas, where the child whose good fortune it was to inherit the full parental name "William Smith" is fulfilling the law of his being to "increase and to multiply." We congratulate this wedded pair that for 50 years they have enjoyed so full a measure of domestic bliss, in each other, and in the children who have sprung up like olive plants around them...." According to a letter from Marcella Chapman published in the 1982 Commemorative Issue of the Somerset County Historical Quarterly (p. 71), "My great grandfather William Smith owned the farm across the road from the Methodist Church in Mt. Horeb. We lived on that farm for a short time when I was a child and I started school in the Round Top schoolhouse down the road toward Plainfield about a mile." "Mrs. Chapman's grandparents, George W. and Mary Schott Smith, and great grandparents, William and Harriet Coddington Smith, were prominent members of the Mt. Horeb M. E. Church," continues the Historical Quarterly. "The family descended from Johannes Schmidt who came to New Jersey from Holland about 1740. He may have been the same Johann Heinrich Schmidt mentioned in Vol. 6 of the Quarterly as "probably German, though stated to have come from Holland." Settled in Somerset County about 1743; died 1791; married Christine Hassel. Sons were Christian, Martin, John, Andres, Joseph, Isaac, Peter, Jacob and Zachariah, the latter being the ancestor of the Peapack Smiths." The stained glass windows in the rear of the Mt. Horeb's sanctuary are in memory of Mr. and Mrs. John Wesley Coddington and W. M. and Harriet Smith. William Smith died Aug. 19, 1900, aged 89; his wife died March 30, 1887, aged 78. Both are buried in the Mt. Horeb cemetery. [From The Somerset Gazette, July 24, 1879] |