Margaret Emma, arriving on December 3, 1861, was the first child born in the newly erected farmhouse. Indeed, the family moving in late November, was hard pressed to bring the furniture from the log cabin and put the various items into place before the baby arrived.
Aunt Penelope had come from Canada to help in the relocation and to care for the children while their mother was recuperating from childbirth. Penelope’s written account of this visit indicates that the advent of the baby was a rather festive occasion. Dr. Wilson had arrived from Belle Center: Mrs. Janet Keys, the good neighbor to the west, had walked across the intervening fields, to be on hand if needed. Aunt Edie, the negro cook, had made cookies and brewed a pot of tea. There would have been little joy in the family had those present been aware of the tragedies awaiting this tiny child in the years ahead.
It seems to have been customary for the various Trumbull families to give the new arrival the name of a favorite relative. Two years before this baby was born, Catherine had lost her sister Margaret by death at the age of twenty-five. The only Emma in the family was the wife of Catherine’s brother John, one year her junior. Thus, members of the Christie family were honored by this name, but her dark eyes, black hair, and brown skin, were characteristic of both Grandmother Janet Trumbull and Great Grandmother Lucy Babcock Trumbull.
There was much activity on the farm as this child was developing. Sister Anna, two years older, proved to be a good playmate, teacher, and supervisor. As soon as the girls were old enough they were sent to the neighborhood school located on the Johnson farm and there they became close friends of the Alexander and Laughlin girls. Tragedy struck their young lives when one of the Laughlin girls was murdered. Fear gripped the hearts of the children and the Trumbull girls were afraid to go upstairs at night. There was no electricity to flood the rooms with light. The flickering light of the candles did little to dispel the fear of what might be lurking in the darkened hallways and the adjoining rooms. The tragedy was felt deeply in al the surrounding households.
Since the schools were usually organized with three terms for the year to accommodate the children who were needed at home to help with the farm work, it was very common to find both boys and girls in their teens as students. However, with advancing age there was also better understanding as well as appreciation of the courses offered. The Trumbull children were excellent spellers and could express themselves well in both the written and spoken word. Their handwriting was legible. Everyone learned the multiplication tables in those days as well as short and long division.
At the age of eighteen, Margaret was enrolled in the class of 1879 in Geneva College. One can be sure that she was already adept in the art of cooking, sewing, knitting as well as the menial tasks necessary for the operation of a large and busy household. Anna enrolled later and the girls enjoyed meeting the students who had come from other states as well as from adjoining communities. The classwork was profitable and the chapel service uplifting. The girls were popular and the Trumbull home became a hospitable place for students who were many miles away from their own homes.
Among the young men attracted to Margaret was a student from Staunton, Illinois, Ellsworth Montgomery Smith, known to the family and his friends as Elsey.
The girl who was to become Elsey’s mother had at the age of fifteen crossed the ocean from Ireland with a sister who was a year or two older. The girls, Mary and Elizabeth Carson were unaccompanied by any relative or friends. Upon reaching New York, they still had to find their way to an uncle’s home in Illinois. A few years after their arrival the younger sister Mary met and married a young man by the name of Robert J. Smith and they established their home in Saint Louis, Missouri, where a son was born April 18, 1862. They named their son Ellsworth Montgomery Smith. While he was still quite young, his parents removed to Staunton, Illinois, where he received all of his education before entering Geneva College about the same time as Margaret Trumbull had enrolled.
At Geneva, his proficiency in English won him the editorship of the college paper, the “Geneva Cabinet.” He held this position for two years and when the college was moved to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, he followed to its new location and graduated in 1883.
In the autumn of the same year, Elsey enrolled in the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary located in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and graduated three years later. He was licensed to preach by the Pittsburgh Presbytery.
For the next two years, Elsey served his church in mission stations located in Maine and in New Brunswick. Living conditions must have been difficult in both places, especially for a young man whose constitution was not rugged. At the end of his commitment to this work he returned to Staunton to accept the responsibility of pastoring two Reformed Presbyterian churches – his home church in Staunton and the one in Saint Louis. This must have been a difficult charge when one considers the traveling involved. Elsey made his home in Staunton.
There can only be speculation concerning Margaret’s activities during the seven years in which Elsey was completing his education and serving a mission term. One is quite sure; life on the farm was filled with plenty of work for everyone and each of the three sisters would do her share. The household at this time included Grandmother Janet Trumbull who resided in her son’s home until her death. The older brother John was still at home and the work necessary to keep food available for a household of seven people cannot be minimized. A trip to town was time-consuming, the garden had to be cultivated and fruits from the family orchard demanded preservation. The family had its own cider press, and someone always to be available to turn the large wheel-shaped grindstone when the scythes needed sharpening. The family washing with limited equipment was a formidable task.
There would be company to entertain, church to attend, neighborhood parties among the young people, and comforters and quilts to piece, knot, quilt and finish, not only for use in the home but to be put away in a chest for the day when one of the girls would be moving into a home of her own. The girls were adept in using every scrap of material and every crumb of food. A diligent housekeeper in those days wasted nothing.
Margaret was a favorite niece of Aunt Penelope and after her aunt’s marriage and subsequent residence in Minnesota, Margaret spent several months in the Ridells’ home as a welcome guest.
The years of waiting, in retrospect, may not have seemed so long, when Elsey came to claim Margaret as his bride. They were married August 16, 1888, and returned to Staunton.
As a pastor’s wife, Margaret would need the proficiency she acquired at home to keep the household operating smoothly and efficiently within the limits of her husband’s salary. She had been taught economy and thrift at home plus the wisdom of living within one’s income. Her friendly disposition endeared her to the members of the congregation and captivated the hearts of Elsey’s family.
The young couple’s happiness increased when a son was born on June 16, 1889, and was given the name of Montgomery Trumbull Smith, soon shortened to Monte. The young parents agreed that this child’s intelligence was not to be offended by “baby talk”. He would be treated as a responsible individual and would learn to respond to and absorb the vocabulary of his parents. Their resolution brought the desired result and laid the foundation for the expert use of the language which later won Monte the sobriquet of “Shakespeare”, bestowed by his fellow students at Wooster College.
In 1890 Elsey moved his family to Baltimore where he had accepted the pastorate of the East Hampden Presbyterian Church. The Smiths remained in Baltimore for nearly five years. During this time three more children were added to the family. Penelope, Paul, and Leigh Hamilton. Baltimore, built on the shores of an inlet of Chesapeake Bay, had a mild humid climate which affected Elsey’s health and his doctor advised that he change locations to a dryer, thinner atmosphere. To make the search for a new and more healthful location easier for him, Margaret and the tiny baby, Leigh Hamilton, were put on the train and sent back to her father’s home in Ohio to await the result of Elsey’s quest for a new and more healthful location.
The furniture remained in Baltimore to be forwarded by freight when Elsey sent the word of the new location. Church officials may have helped in the search as Elsey was directed to the Fountain Church of Pueblo, Colorado, located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with a dry climate and long cloudless days.
In due time, the furniture arrived and Elsey began to prepare the vacant manse for occupancy. One room was reserved for his study and he spent some time in building shelves for his library which had grown considerably since he first began his ministry. He wanted to put the house in order before the family would arrive as Margaret had written that the baby was needing much of her attention.
Finally, the day arrived when Elsey stood on the depot platform and watched the approach of the train bringing the rest of the family to Pueblo. He must have felt then that his rendezvous with death was not far off, for he confessed to a friend later that it would have been a satisfaction for him had the train crashed, killing the members of his family. But it was not to be, and he found himself greeting them all with deep emotion which had been building within him during the lonely days and nights of the separation.
The three older children were in normal health but the baby Lee Hamilton was a frail-looking child. There were no pediatricians in those days and in spite of the loving care bestowed upon this child, he died. (Members of the congregation had already come to the aid of the family and shared their grief at the death of baby Leigh and they did not come at this time.) The little white casket, bearing the body of this precious child was interred in a lonely grave at the local cemetery.
Contrary to the fond hope that a more healthful climate would bring renewed health, Elsey became more and more aware of his failing strength and before many months in the new location had passed, Elsey informed his people that he was no longer physically able to perform his duties as their pastor. Sadly, members of the congregation helped with the packing of the furniture and the long journey back home to Staunton began.
At some period of time in Elsey’s youth, his father had died and in due time his mother married a many by the name of Dowzer. Two daughters, Margaret and Dolly, were born during the early years of this second marriage, and the family was evidently well established financially. No doubt his parent (or parents) had asked Elsey to return to Staunton and bring his family and they would help provide the needed care.
The change from the clear cool atmosphere of Colorado to the hot, humid climate of southern Illinois must have caused additional suffering for Elsey whose strength was diminishing daily and communication was also a difficult experience. One wonders if Margaret, in her anxiety and grief, took note of the ninth anniversary of her marriage as she sat by the bedside of the man she dearly loved. Five days later on August 21, 1897, his soul passed from his frail body into the presence of his Lord for whose service Elsey had dedicated his life.
One of the reasons Elsey had left the Reformed Presbyterian denomination in whose college and theological seminary he had been educated, licensed, and ordained, was the pension system instituted by the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. for its ministers. Whether wives were included at that early date is questionable. No mention was ever made of Margaret receiving a pension from the pension board. There is no record of the manner in which she survived the first five years of Elsey’s death. At that time very few women were taking jobs outside the home and no way was provided for a widow to provide for her dependent children. Grandmother Dowser and her church to which Elsey had ministered for two years or more may have kept the family together until Margaret moved back to Belle Center in the early 1900’s. She rented a house on Center Street in which the family lived for a time. Later she moved into a more commodious house on Buckeye Street. The children were admitted to the Belle Center Public School which at that time had only a three year curriculum for its high school. The two older children graduated from high school, the youngest refused to continue his education after the eighth grade.
Money to live on, pay the rent, purchase food, replace worn out clothing and shoes, purchase coal for the heating and cooking stove, and oil for the lamps was still a problem. It must have come from sympathetic relatives, Aunt Penelope, Brother George, Grandmother Dowzer, plus farm produce in season and sacks of flower and corn meal during the winter.
Margaret began to succumb to periods of depression which lasted for weeks and frequently entailed institutional care. There were no physical therapists in those days or trained psychologists to give counseling. The only recourse for aid was the family physician who listened sympathetically as Margaret described her sleepless nights and days of anguish. The doctor prescribed a “quieting medicine” and it was not long until Margaret was hooked.
Her sisters and friends did not understand how to deal with Margaret’s situation. Some scolded her for giving way to her feelings and advised her to ignore how she felt and busy herself with household tasks and the interests of her children. Others sympathized with her and Margaret wallowed in self pity. More than once she was rescued from suicidal attempts. When her condition became desperate, the doctors would advise commitment to a mental institution and this precaution was observed periodically throughout her life.
When Margaret would recover from her struggle with depression, she was a delightful companion. Her relatives and friends were very fond of her.
She lived to see her three children acquire the necessary education for profitable jobs, and later the marriage of her daughter, Penelope, and the birth of a granddaughter, Patricia. She had the privilege of witnessing the development of this grandchild, with the dark eyes and dark hair like herself, into an ambitious student who excelled in all the twelve grades of the local school. Several weeks after her granddaughter had graduated, Margaret died peacefully in the nursing home where she had spent the last months of her life. Her body lies in her father’s lot in the Northwood Cemetery beside the grave of her older sister Anna who outlived Margaret by nearly six years. This sketch is written forty years after her death, by her one surviving niece. It might be interesting to note that all of Margaret’s children, save baby Lee Hamilton, attained the Biblical span of three score and ten. Penelope died almost four months before her seventy-second birthday, Monte four months before his seventy-fourth and Paul the youngest, three months short of his seventy-sixth birthday.
The graves of this family are widely scattered. Lee Hamilton’s grave is in Pueblo, Colorado; the father’s grave in Staunton, Illinois; Paul’s is in the Masonic burial grounds in Springfield, Ohio, and Monte’s and Penelope’s are in the Fairview Cemetery, Belle Center, Ohio.