Hezekiah Bradley Smith
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
inventor and a Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
politician who represented New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
's 2nd congressional district
New Jersey's 2nd congressional district
New Jersey's Second Congressional District is currently represented by Republican Frank LoBiondo.-Counties and municipalities in the district:...
in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
from 1879 to 1881.
Birth, early career, and marriage
Smith was born in Bridgewater, VermontBridgewater, Vermont
Bridgewater is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 980 at the 2000 census. Bridgewater contains the hamlets of Bridgewater Village, Bridgewater Corners, West Bridgewater, and Bridgewater Center...
on July 24, 1816. After completing an eighth grade education, he was trained as a cabinet maker and set up shop in a former tannery
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
building. Smith left the Woodstock District in 1846, taking with him Eveline Verona English, whom he married in a civil ceremony in May 1846, in their Boston hotel room. Smith and his wife moved first to Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
, where Smith made a living carving wooden patterns while learning the machine business. In July 1846, their first child, Ella, was born. In the spring of 1847 in Manchester there was a scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
epidemic known as 'ship fever', and Eveline took the child Ella and returned to Woodstock. They would never again live together as husband and wife.
Separation
Smith moved on to Lebanon, New HampshireLebanon, New Hampshire
As of the census of 2000, there were 12,568 people, 5,500 households, and 3,178 families residing in the city. The population density was 311.4 people per square mile . There were 5,707 housing units at an average density of 141.4 per square mile...
, where he began to manufacture items to other people's specifications, including such items as the Howe sewing machine. Smith took the first sewing machine ever to be found in Woodstock and gave it to Eveline, herself a renowned tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
, ensuring her own independence. Smith later moved on from Lebanon to Boston, Massachusetts, where he began manufacturing woodworking
Woodworking
Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...
machinery of his own design. He subsequently moved his business to Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 106,519. It is the fourth largest city in the state. Lowell and Cambridge are the county seats of Middlesex County...
. However, he continued to visit his wife in Woodstock, fathering three sons with her: Elton (born in 1848), Eugene V. (born 1851) and Edward A. (born 1853).
In Lowell, in the summer of 1854, Smith was introduced to Agnes Mitilda Gilkerson (1838–1881). Gilkerson was mill girl working in a textile factory and living in a boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
. Smith hired her as his confidential secretary
Secretary
A secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
, then sent her to Mrs. Rodgers finishing school. By 1859, Gilkerson would convince Smith that she should go further with her education. Smith sent her to live with family of the manager of his Philadelphia sales office. There Gilkerson attended Penn Medical School, graduating in the spring of 1861 with a degree in medicine, with a major in chemistry.
Wife abandoned and expunged
In 1865, Smith visited with Benjamin Shreve in Medford, New Jersey. Shreve had a $100,000 investment in his deceased brother's business. Smith managed to acquire from Shreve basically the entire town of Shreveville, in Eastampton TownshipEastampton Township, New Jersey
Eastampton Township is a Township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 6,202....
, Burlington County, New Jersey
Burlington County, New Jersey
There were 154,371 households out of which 34.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.70% were married couples living together, 10.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.70% were non-families. 22.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.50% had...
, for only $20,000. Before moving to his new acquisition (soon to be renamed Smithville), Smith made a final journey to Woodstock to the home he had purchased in 1861 for his wife, Eveline Smith. There he demanded a divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, but his wife refused to agree to one. Smith then demanded everything he had written her since 1847, which he then burnt in her stove. He then went to the town clerk's office, where he transferred ownership of the house to his wife's maiden name, then to the bank where he established an account, again in her maiden name, and deposited a few hundred dollars. Finally, he went to his sister's house, where he demanded the family Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. Upon being given the Bible by his sister, he used his pocketknife to excise all record of his marriage and children from the family tree recorded within, burning the paper scraps in his sister's stove. Having completed what he felt to be a divorce, he left Woodstock, never to return.
Smith and Gilkerson were married in a civil ceremony in Lowell that same year, and the two of them made their home in Smithville. There, he continued his business of manufacturing woodworking machinery, while she practiced medicine and made and sold herbal remedies. Smith also published the New Jersey Mechanic trade journal
Trade journal
A trade magazine, also called a professional magazine, is a magazine published with the intention of target marketing to a specific industry or type of trade. The collective term for this area of publishing is the trade press....
, which his second wife also edited; she also advertised her medical wares in it. In January 1881, Gilkerson died of cancer, without producing any children for Smith. After her death, Smith commissioned an Italian marble statue in her likeness and stood it on a brick pedestal under an iron canopy in the formal garden of the mansion at Smithville.
Inventions
Smith had over forty patents for his inventions with the United States Patent Office. The Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
describes Smith as having taken the woodworking business from hand tools to mechanized. His business (which he incorporated
Incorporation (business)
Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...
in 1878 under the name "H.B. Smith Machine Company") In addition to the woodworking tools which were the staple of his business, he also manufactured the American Star Bicycle. This bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
differed from others of its time by having a larger back wheel, where the rider sat, and a smaller front wheel for steering. The Star was driven by ratchet drive, had a hand brake and a sprung leather seat. The Star sold for $150 at a time when the average person earned $500 a year. Not the greatest of commercial successes, it was however fast, and a great stunt bike, winning many track races, endurance rides, and stunt exhibitions, as well as being a great advertising tool for the Smith Machine Co. He also manufactured the first steam-driven vehicle operated in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, although only one was ever manufactured as he died before it could go into regular production. On his desk at the time of his death was a prototype of an autogiro.
Political career and bigamy
He was elected as a DemocratDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
to the 46th United States Congress
46th United States Congress
The Forty-sixth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1879 to March 4, 1881, during the last two years of...
, serving one term from March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1881. During the election it was discovered that he was a bigamist. He was not re-elected to the 47th United States Congress
47th United States Congress
The Forty-seventh United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1881 to March 4, 1883, during the administration...
; however, it is likely that his defeat was a result of the changing winds of American politics and not a reflection on the electorate's opinion of his bigamy, as that year James A. Garfield's Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
dominated the election. Smith also later served as a member of the New Jersey Senate
New Jersey Senate
The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. From 1844 until 1965 New Jersey's counties elected one Senator, each. Under the 1844 Constitution the term of office was three years. The 1947...
, from 1883 to 1885.
Death, burial and aftermath
Smith died in Smithville, Burlington County, New JerseyBurlington County, New Jersey
There were 154,371 households out of which 34.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.70% were married couples living together, 10.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.70% were non-families. 22.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.50% had...
on November 3, 1887. He was buried next to his second wife, in the Saint Andrews section of the Pine Street Cemetery in Mount Holly, New Jersey. Upon the death of his mother, in 1897, Elton Smith, Hezekiah's oldest son, went to Mount Holly in an attempt to remove his father's remains. He wanted them transported to Woodstock to be buried next to his mother. Hezekiah had anticipated any attempts to move his body, and had been interred in an iron coffin encased in an iron cage that had been set in concrete. Elton then had the statue of his father's second wife toppled, broken into pieces, ground to dust and scattered along Rancocas Creek, using workers from the family business.
Legacy
Smith's papers are archived at Rutgers UniversityRutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, in Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries, New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
. Smith's great-great-great-grandson is Congressman Jim Marshall of Georgia's 3rd District.
Patents
April 17, 1849; H.B. Smith; Mortiser for window-blind stiles January 10, 1854; H.B. Smith; Mortising-machine October 9, 1855; H.B. Smith; Mortising machine June 30, 1857; H.B. Smith; Mortising machine mortising machines July 6, 1858; H.B. Smith; Balanced head for molding machine August 23, 1859; H.B. Smith; Mortising machine September 26, 1865; H.B. Smith; Improvement in planing-machines October 24, 1865; H.B. Smith; Improvement in planing-machines January 23, 1866; H.B. Smith; Improvement in tenoning-machines April 22, 1873; H.B. Smith; Improvement in scroll-saws February 26, 1889; H.B. Smith; Steam-powered TricycleFurther reading
- William C. Bolger; Smithville, The Result of Enterprise; Published by Burlington CountyBurlington County, New JerseyThere were 154,371 households out of which 34.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.70% were married couples living together, 10.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.70% were non-families. 22.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.50% had...
Cultural and Heritage Commission, Mount Holly, New Jersey (1980).
External links
- NJ History Mysteries: Hezekiah Smith
- Hezekiah Bradley Smith at The Political GraveyardThe Political GraveyardThe Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 224,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information.-History:...