REMINISCENCES
OF LEWIS SMITH,
NOW OF MECHANICVILLE
--From "The History of
Saratoga County", published 1878--
He was born Jan. 15, 1786,
at East
Line,
being now (1878) in his ninety-third year. He states that
his father, Samuel Smith, came from Norwalk, Conn., to
Ballston somewhat earlier than the Burgoyne campaign. He is
not certain of the exact date. The family came by water to
New York, and up the Hudson to Albany.
From there the pioneer with his wife and one child went on
foot to Schenectady, and then made their way to Ballston.
When they reached their destination they had twenty-five
cents left, and no tools for work or housekeeping
furniture. Samuel Smith was a blacksmith, and he told his
neighbors, among whom was Noah Olmstead, that if they would
go to Stillwater and procure blacksmith tools from
Burgoyne's surrendered camp he would do their blacksmithing
until they were satisfied.
Burgoyne
Encampment
They went and procured an English bellows, a vise, two
hammers, and two pair of tongs. Brought them on a pole
slung across their shoulders to East
Line;
and thus Mr. Smith was established in blacksmithing.
He also procured considerable of his chopping and clearing
done by men for whom he did blacksmith work. The vise and
the anvil were sold many years ago, but at his father's
request the old bellows was saved, slung up in the upper
part of the shop on the old Smith place at
East
Line.
It is there now, and it was Samuel Smith's desire to have
it remain as a family relic, - the foundation of the
pioneer's fortune.
Mr. Smith's children were Samuel (born before removing to
Boston), who settled north of East
Line,
and whose grandson, James H. Smith, now lives on the
pioneer homestead south of East
Line;
Esther, who became Mrs. Alexander Weed, and settled east of
Ballston Spa, in Malta; Hannah, who became Mrs. Moses
Landon, and settled in Malta; Lewis, from whom this account
is derived, now of Mechanicville; Silas, who succeeded to
the old homestead, and died at the age of eighty-four.
Lewis Smith remembers something of the courts, being a boy
of seven or eight years before they were removed from Mr.
Clark's, opposite his father's place. He remembers Dirck
Swart, the first county clerk, who always stopped at his
father's house, and who gave the little boy many shillings
for waiting upon him from time to time. He also remembers
Major Buel.
He relates an anecdote showing that penmanship in the old
times was not much better than it now is. A lawyer in
Charlton had written a letter to one of his clients, then
attending court at East
Line.
The client could not read it; neither could the judge, nor
the lawyers, nor anybody else at East
Line.
So the "little shaver," Lewis Smith, was mounted on a horse
and sent to Charlton to carry the letter to the lawyer who
wrote it, and see if he could read the document himself.
The boy was instructed not to tell him anything, who wrote
it or where it came from. The lawyer took the letter,
looked it over, turned it upside-down, studied it
diagonally and perpendicularly, and then broke out with,
"Who in h--l wrote that? The devil couldn't read it!" Lewis
did as he was directed, and kept still for awhile, but was
finally obliged to tell all about it. The lawyer picked it
up again. "Oh," said he, "that is plain enough; anybody
could read that."
Mr. Smith says that in his boyhood days the children had to
work; there was no time to go off on expensive sprees with
nice carriages. If a boy was able to pull up a weed or to
burn brush, he must keep busy. He could go fishing
sometimes in the outlet of Ballston lake. The men used to
go to Saratoga lake with nets, and catch a wagon-load in a
few hours, divide them, and pack them away for family use.
He used to go to general training, and expected to have
three cents pocket-money to buy a card of gingerbread with.
He had one pair of shoes a year, and usually one suit of
home-made winter clothes. His summer wear was made at home,
of brown tow-cloth