Jane Smead was the niece of my great-grandmother, Jane who married John Hays, and the daughter of Alexander Dallas Bache Smead. Far back into my youth I have memories of her fortress-like, solid brick house commanding the south -east corner of West and South Streets in Carlisle. On West Street the yard was extremely deep and guarded by a high wooden fence. Only tall evergreens and hardwoods grew above fence -height, but from South Street you could look over a picket fence and peer into a magical garden. My clearest memories were of masses of white and purple flocks gently swaying in the wind. They seemed to fill the circular brick garden and were dominated by white petals, a brilliant reflection of the sun. Further back delicious greens flowed together and beckoned.
As I grew older I began to learn about my cousin and to know her. At first she seemed severe, but as I grew older I began to visit her and did so until the end of her life in 1979 when she was ninety-one years old. She was a fascinating woman, highly educated, deeply religious and embued with great enthusiasm and desire to learn. "She was educated by her parents and by tutors and for four years studied at the Lycees of Grenoble and of Paris, France, where she graduated at the head of her class of 1910. Later she pursued post-graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University where she received the degree of Master of Arts in 1918 and Doctor of Philosophy in 1921."1 She was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Over the years she taught French literature, medieval drama, modem drama, contemporary drama and poetry, and Spanish and Italian, etc. She first taught at Wilson College in Chambersburg and then at Wells College in Aurora, New York. In 1927 she returned home in order to care for her widowed father until his death at the age of eighty-three in 1931. She then began a tenure at Temple University that lasted for twenty-four years. She finished her last two years of teaching at Dickinson College. Over these many winters her house was boarded up, but then in the summer it would come alive with her return. After her retirement in 1959 she moved back permanently. Jane often said to me, "I love this old house, every comer of it. I can still look out on the same trumpet vine I gazed upon as a child. " It had been her home since 1892.
Often I would visit Jane in this house. Over the years I would take my wife, son and nieces and nephews. She was interested in everything we had to say. She always brought out ice cream and cookies for the children even to her final years when it was painful for her to do so. The young ones never bothered her, and she laughed at any prank they might pull. Through our long conversations we always talked about family history. Jane was very proud of her family. This is that story.
Jane told of a Judith Stoughton, who married a man by the name of Smead in Devon, England, and then in 1636 moved to America as a widow with a young son William. Her brother was Israel Stoughton, a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and later an opponent of King Charles I. His son, William, was one of the judges in the notorious Salem Witch Trials. Judith Stoughton remained in this country as did following generations of Smeads.
Raphael Cummings Smead is the first Smead we know in any depth. He was born in southern New Hampshire in 1801. Four years later the entire family moved to Batavia in western New York state. Here Raphael Smead spent his childhood. In 1814 his brother Charles, fought at the Battle of Lundy's Lane in the War of 1812. War stories impressed the young Raphael. Partly because of this and a desire for adventure, Raphael Smead applied for and was accepted as a cadet at West Point in 1821. Throughout his college days he had little trouble with course work and graduated seventh in his class in 1825. The tall, thin youth made many friendships at the Academy but especially with Alexander Dallas Bache, the grandson of Benjamin Franklin. Bache became the benefactor of Raphael Smead's wife and children after his death in 1848. According to Jane, the whole family referred to her grandfather, Raphael Smead, as "Pa." Although born forty years after his death Jane always became sorrowful when speaking of his early death.
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