Descendants of Magnolia pioneer to be honored in Summerfest parade
Dr. Henry Smith was instrumental in the settling of Magnolia
By Patricia Hackett Nicola
MSCUA, University of Washington Libraries, A. Curtis 5895
The descendants of Dr. Henry A. Smith will be honored at the Magnolia Summer Festival in Magnolia Village on Saturday, Aug. 3.
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Smith Cove and Smith street in Seattle and Smith Island in Snohomish county are all named after Dr. Smith.
So who is Henry Smith to have earned all of this recognition? Smith, an Ohio native, took up residence in Seattle in 1853 at the age of 23. His land holdings in Interbay became known as Smith's Cove. He built an infirmary, set out the first grafted orchard in King County, took part in the battle of Seattle, became the first superintendent of schools in King county and served in the Territorial government.
He successfully experimented in reclaiming the tideland in Snohomish county; and was resident physician on Tulalip Indian Reservation. He is also known for his description of Chief Seattle and his account of Chief Seattle's famous speech.
In 1880 Smith owned about 1,000 acres of land but sold most of it to the railroad by 1887. He lost his fortune when he was in his late sixties but continued working with his agricultural interests.
In 1861, Smith's future wife, Mary A. Phelan, the daughter of Irish immigrants who were residing in Portland, Ore., was attending St. Ann's Academy in Victoria, BC. It is not known where or how Henry and Mary met but they were married about 1862.
Between 1864 and 1872 the Smiths became the parents of Lulu, Luma, Maude, Laurene, and Ralph Waldo. May was born on the Tulalip Reservation in 1874, then Ione was born in 1877. The Smiths moved back to Seattle in 1878 where their last daughter, Lillian, was born in 1879.
The Smiths had two homes in Seattle: one in Salmon Bay, known as "the ranch," and a house on 2nd and James where they spent their winters.
In August of 1880 Mary Smith died, leaving Henry as the sole parent of eight children, ages 1 to 16. According to a family memoir by his daughter Ione, Henry was a devoted father and spent as much time with them as possible. After Mary's death, her family spent all of their time at the ranch. They rode horses, played on the beach, played the piano, enjoyed nature, and attended school.
Henry's oldest daughter, Lulu, married Richard Pennefather, a lawyer, in 1890. The couple's daughter, Gladius, was born the following year. Pennefather convinced Smith to resign as the guardian of his children's inherited estate and have Pennefather appointed guardian. As guardian, Pennefather, either persuaded Lulu's underage siblings to sign away part of their inheritance or forged their signatures to get his hands on their birthright. When all of this came to light, Pennefather had already left town.
Henry's second daughter, Luma, married George Linder, Jr., in 1893. Luma and George had three children, Muriel, Eleanor and George. Muriel and George each married but did not have children. Eleanor married John Roberts, and they had two children, Anne, and David, who died in 1994. Anne and David grew up on 43rd West in Magnolia. Anne married John Gulbranson and they will be attending the Magnolia Summer Festival with their children, grandchildren and a niece from Portland.
Maude, Henry's third daughter, and Charles Teaff married in 1896. According to Maude's death record she was a nurse and died in 1898. (Several Smith biographies incorrectly say that she died in 1908.)
Henry's fourth daughter, Laurene, never married, lived the longest, and died in June 1959. On the 1920 census she is listed as representative for a company called Better Baby.
Ralph Waldo Smith, Henry's only son, died in his twenties. Ione's memoir states that Ralph, and his friend, Fred Campbell, became interested in the Yukon gold rush and while exploring the Aleutian Islands both were drowned.
May B. Smith, the sixth in the family, never married. She* was engaged to Fred Campbell, when he died in the boating accident with her brother. May was a teacher and a naturalist. In her later years, she lived with her niece, Eleanor, Luma's daughter. Eleanor's daughter, Anne Roberts Gulbranson, remembers her great-aunt identifying plants and trees in the woods in their Magnolia neighborhood. May taught Anne about nature just as Henry Smith taught May as a child.
Ione Smith, the seventh child of the family, married C. Frederick Graff, a civil engineer, in 1899. Ione and Frederick had one child, Florine, who was born in 1901. Florine married Francis Old and they had two daughters, Beverly and Claudia, who today live with their families in the Chicago area.
Lillian, the youngest of the family, married William Tompkins in 1901. They divorced about ten years later. Lillian worked as a telephone operator until she married Alfred Hoke, [not Hope, as stated in several Smith biographies] who worked for the police department.
Dr. Henry A. Smith died in 1915 surrounded by his family. The house where the Smith children grew up was torn down in 1958; the area became a land fill, and is now the site of the Interbay P-Patch. It seems fitting that the land once owned by Dr. Henry A. Smith, the Magnolia pioneer who planted the first orchard, should once again be a lush garden.
About fourteen of Dr. Henry A. Smith's descendants will be in the Summerfest parade that marches through the Magnolia Village on Saturday, Aug. 3. Say hi to them and make them feel at home! The Kids' Parade starts at 10:30 a.m., immediately followed by the main Summerfest parade.
(Get the details on all of the Manolia Summer Festival events in the 34-page festival guide inserted in this issue of the News.)
Patricia Hackett Nicola is a resident of Magnolia and the treasurer of the Mangolia Historical Society. The MHS members, who are interested in preserving Magnolia memories, welcome contributions from readers to the new Magnolia Historical Society archives. The MHS can be reached at 284-5232.
Patricia Hackett Nicola is a Certified Genealogical Records Specialist and the owner of Family Traces, a genealogical and historical research business. She can be reached at (206) 284-5232 or phn@familytraces.com, or visit her Web site at www.familytraces.com.
Queen Anne/Magnolia News, Pacific Publishing Co., Seattle, WA, July 31, 2002, page 32.
*After this article was written, one of the Smith descendants thought it was probably a different sister who was engaged to Fred, possible Laurene.