William Henry SMART

                   NOTES:
    Buried on family farm
Biographical sketch in notes

		THE SMART FAMILY MIGRATION By Robert Foss Hansen Chapter 1 ENGLAND This is the story of the migration of the family of Thomas Sharratt Smart and his wife Ann Hayter from their homes in England to their final destination in Franklin, Idaho. To begin with here follows a brief description of their ancestry. Thomas's father, William Smart, was a truck-gardner owning several pieces of land in Upper Stonnall, Shentsone Parish, Sataffordshire, England; and often sent Thomas with their produce to the market in the city. He taught his children to be industrious and thrifty. He died as a Yeoman (a small free-holding farmer) which was a rank below a gentleman in England. Thomas's mother, Mary Mariah Sharratt (daughter of Thomas) was christened on 1 September 1796 in the church of St. Mar's in the city of Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. She was the eldest child of three born to Thomas Sharratt (or Sherratt) and Jane Bird. Thomas's Grandfather Sherratt, named Thomas (son of William), died in 1800 shortly after the birth of their third child. The family had been Chandlers (candle-stick makers) and no doubt Jane continued the business in Lichfield after his death. The city was noted for its three-spired cathedral and fairs which were held in the square in front of St. Mary's church where Mary had been christened; William Smart probably met her in such a setting. Now as to Ann Hayter's family. She was born 18 Sep. 1822 at Portsmouth, Hampshire, England as recorded by her father in a record copied by her son William Henry Smart when he visited England in 1886. Her mother Keziah died four years later at No. 8 Buckland Place, in Porsea, a suburb of Portsmouth; the family had lived in the Parish of Portsea and attended the Church of St. Marys since 1804 when their first child was born. Ann's father Henry Hayter was born 31 Dec. 1785 in the Parish of Petersfield, Hampshire about 13 miles N.E. of Portsea. He was the first son born to Stephen Hayter and Elizabeth Luff of Petersfield. When Henry was about 10 years old the family moved to Cosham Village in Wymering Parish adjoining the Parish of Portsmouth to the North. Henry advanced through the ranks of common labourer to Brickmaker to Brickburner. After his marriage to Kezia Dennis in 1803 they reared their family in Portsea Parish, attending the Church of England at St. Mary's Chapel near Landport. Fifteen years after the death of his first wife he married Sophia Purkis, late Cleverly, late Parr. By her he had two more children who died quite young. Henry died in 1862 at the age of 77 at his old home on Buckland Street in Landport in the Parish of Portsea. He was buried in the New Cemetery at Kingston near his daughter Sarah's home. Ann's Grandfather Hayter was named Stephen. He was born about 1753, and was listed as age 75 when he died in 1828 at the Poor House in Wymering Parish. His birthplace has not been determined but after his marriage in 1785 to Elizabeth Luff they continued to reside in her home town of Petersfield where they occupied house No. 22 at Chapel Green. Here they reared their first four children before moving to Cosham Village in Wymering Parish where three more children were born to them. (He possibly could have had a wife previous to Elizabeth as he was age 32 at the time of his marriage to her.) At the time of his death his eldest son Henry had recently been widowed and was trying to rear his family of five-the youngest of which was our Ann who was then age 4. The next son was newly married and a mariner of soldier, no doubt away from home. Others in his family are not accounted for and thus we find him in the Poor House at the time of his death. A description of the home in which he died has not been found but may have been similar to a neighboring one in Portsea which is described thus: "kept very clean and the Poor appear to live very comfortably. Those who use tobacco are allowed two ounces a week. Either meat broth or a sort of gruel called flour broth is common for breakfast. Dinner 3 days a week consists of meat, and on the other 4 days bread and cheese. S
  uppers are bread and cheese. Beer is allowed at bread and cheese meals only. Each adult person has 1 pound of bread a day and 8 ounces of meat on meat days." Ann's mother, Kezia Dennis was born about 1780 as she is listed as age 46 when she died in 1826 at Buckland Place in Portsea. Her parentage has not yet been determined but she was a niece of Richard Dennis of Portsea who died 1803-5. Kezia was the sole Executor of her uncle's will which was made in 1803 and proved in 1805. She is listed at that time as: "Kezia Hayter late Kezia Dennis within named the wife of Henry Hayter of Portsea in Co. Southampton, Labourer." Her husband Henry Hayter at the time of her death made the following notation on a piece of paper for inscription upon the stone of her grave: "Kezzia Hayter died at Portsmouth 25 June 1826. Denison before married." The name Denison was either a copy error he had forgotten her true maiden name as their marriage record in the Register of St. Mary's Portsea calls her Kezia Dennis, Spinster of this parish; and also we find her uncle's surname was Dennis. Here begins the life of Thomas Sharratt Smart 14 Sep 1823 The Church of St. Peters in Stonnall, where Thomas was christened, was a small brick structure with a bell-tower above the front door located on a small hill with a graveyard on both sides of the walk leading to the front door. It was the custom in those days to place both a head-stone and a foot-stone upon graves there; such is the case of his parents graves, which can be seen at this day. His family had been farmers and pig-raisers in the surrounding countryside.  His parents home was later called "The Wottages" on Cranebrook Road in Lynn not too far from the Stonnall Church. 1830 Some of Thomas' youthful friends were: Charlotte Nutting of Shire Oak, Staffordshire b. 1816 and Hannah Wright of Shenstone b. 1807, for whom he later did temple work.(4) abt 1833-40 Thomas and Ann were fairly well educated for their times. They had firm faith in God but little in the creed of the day. Thomas Sharratt Smart was the second son of his Father's family, which consisted of four boys and five girls. He had but little opportunity for education, but was schooled in the varied experiences of life. He being naturally of a God fearing spirit, thus his young life was directed in the channel of faith in God by the teachings of his parents, who taught him to pray...a virtue that ran through his whole life. His youth and boyhood was spent with his father upon the farm, in the garden and market. He was industrious, strong and trustworthy, which qualities won his fathers favor and at a very young age he was entrusted with much of his fathers affairs. It was his custom to arise as early as three o'clock in the morning, take charge of the carting of the produce and place it upon the market in the city early and in a fresh condition. His father encouraged his children in industry and in bearing responsibility so that when, with the consent and good will of the family, he left the parental roof at the age of seventeen, he was fairly well equipped. He being of large, well knit stature, healthy and strong and carrying upon his face a reflection of an inward native uprightness, he had little trouble securing desirable employment.(5) abt 1841 His older brother James chose for his business "Brick Manufacturing" (this being a natural business in Staffordshire where the clay was excellent - Josiah Wedgewood Pottery nearby in the Potteries of Staffordshire). It was with this older brother that he labored obtaining his first experience in the Brick-manufacturing business. He engaged in this business int his won native land for some-time (possibly living in Portsea, Hampshire where Ann Hayter's father, Henry was also a Brickmaker and Brickburner). Thomas made rapid progress in a knowledge of this business and was soon sought after. He was offered a job burning one-million bricks in Normandy so he left his native land and went to France. (5, 6) THE SMART FAMILY MIGRATION Chapter 2 FRANCE Ann Hayter's Mother, Kezia, died when Ann was onl
  y 4 years old; she was probably unhappy in her father's home and ran away a few years later to live with her older sister Sarah who had been married in 1829, (by this time Ann would have been 7 years old. Many years later (in 1886) while on a visit to England her sister Charlotte told Ann's son William Henry that his Mother had run away. (log 5, 7, 17) 24 Oct 1841 Ann married Henry Fleet a son of Henry Fleet a Baker, he gave his occupation as Labourer. This event occurred in the Parish Church of St. Marys' in Southampton about 20 miles North West of her home in Portsea, a suburb of Portsmouth. Her sister Sarah Cooper was a witness to the wedding. Shortly after their marriage the Fleets moved to France, where Henry had obtained a job as a teacher. Sarah told William Henry that she went to the ship to see her sister Ann off to France. Sarah's eldest daughter, Jane, said she remembered very well her aunt Ann and cried to (go) with her when she went to France.(17.) 5 Nov 1842 Their first child, Mary Ann Fleet, was born in Sandville, France according to an entry in the Smart Family Bible; however Logan L.D.S. Temple records give the place as Sandoille, France. This give the place as Sandoille, France. This leads the author to conclude the place was Sandouville (a suburb south of Le-Karve), Seine Maritime, France. This area has favorable brickmaking clay. (logs: 1, 2, 7, 15) The leached mull soils best suited for brickmaking were found in abundance in this area of Normandy to which Thomas went. The process of brickmaking involves securing, preparing, mixing and forming, drying and then the burning and cooling process. This last step in the manufacturing of brick was where Thomas Smart was involved. Bricks were fired and cooled in a kiln, an oven-type chamber capable of producing temperatures of 1600-2000 degrees F. depending on the type of raw material. The earliest type of kiln, the scove, was merely a pile of dried bricks with tunnels at the bottom allowing heat from fires to pass through and upward in the pile of bricks; the walls and top were plastered with a mixture of sand, clay, and water to retain the heat; at the top the bricks were placed close together and vented for circulation to pull the heat up through the bricks. The clamp kiln in that the exterior walls were permanent, with openings at the bottom to permit firing of the tunnels. when the bricks were sufficiently fired, the heat was reduced, and they were allowed to cool gradually before removal from the kiln. (log 21) 1 Jan 1844 Their second daughter, Alice Fleet, was born in Pontlash, France according to the entry in the Smart family Bible. The author concludes this to be Pont-De-L'Arche, Eure, France; this area is favored for its clay which is used extensively in pottery and brickmaking. (logs: 1, 7, 15) abt 1845 Some of our family histories say that Thomas Smart met Ann at a boarding-house she was running. He could have been directed to her by her father who was in the same business of brick-making. She was a hard worker and organizer and had a liking for the cultural things of life; her brother Harry played the violin and others in her family were musically inclined. She was having a hard time rearing two small children ( and was about to have a third), living with an alcoholic husband when she met Thomas, who had come to France to supervise the job of burning three million bricks. 1 March 1845 She subsequently left Harry Fleet and married Thomas Sharratt Smart at Havre, France according to family records; this is probably Le-Havre, Seine, Maritime, France. 10 Oct 1845-6 The third child, Louisa Fleet, was born to Ann Hayter at Parvey, France according to the Smart Family Bible; the author concludes this to be Pavilly (North-West of Rouen), Seine, maritime (another area favored with pottery clay). The 1850 Census record in St. Louis gives her age on a date that would indicate she was born in 1845; her mothers separation from Henry Fleet in 1845 caused some confusion in the dates. (logs: 1, 7, 22) Social discontent in the 1840's in France was aggravated b
  y the rise in the cost of living and the lack of employment which followed in the wake of the crises in both agriculture and industry. (log 23) The Napoleonic Wars had ended. During the subsequent reign of Henry X and Louis Philippe, economic and political turmoil prompted the Smarts to leave France and accept the challenge of life in that raw, young republic, the United States of America. (24) They crossed the ocean in a sailing vessel, and were eight weeks on the water, during which time they were subjected to all the discomforts surrounding such transportation at that time. They settled in St. Louis, Missouri in 1845, where many of French ancestry had lived for a long time. It was also a place where the local clay was noted for producing excellent fire brick. (5, 6, 25) OUR SMART FAMILY MIGRATION Chapter 3 ST. LOUIS 1845 The SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLOTTE SMART PARKINSON says that their family arrived in the city of St. Louis in 1845. (24) The family at that time would have consisted of the father THOMAS SHARRATT SMART, his wife ANN and her three children namely MARY ANN age 3, ALICE age 1 and LOUISA a newborn baby. These three children were subsequently adopted by Thomas and treated as his own. (26) The Levee was, as always, the high light of the commercial section; it was colorful and noisy with the steamboat whistles and roustabouts calling to one another while they worked to the rhythm of their levee songs. Bales of cotton and hemp and barrels of sugar and molasses were loaded on the heavy tandem-driven drays which rumbled up the hill over the cobblestones, disappearing into the narrow streets of the city. The year before nearly seven hundred steamboats served the port of St. Louis; this was the very peak of steamboating, when two or three tiers of boats jammed the St. Louis levee. (log 3) St. Louis possessed the advantage of being built in a location where the best bricks could be made from the local clay. This was no doubt one of the motivating reasons that led the Smarts to settle here. Foreign markets were furnished clay for crucibles used in smelting furnaces; fire-brick made here by several firms was shipped to large manufacturing cities in the U.S. as well as to England and other major European manufacturing points. (log 1) By 1830 numerous brick-yards had been established in Carondelet the lower part of the city of St. Louis and brick buildings had become the fashion of the day. (log 1) 8 Jan 1846 The ST. LOUIS ORGAN commented on the persecution of Mormons in Illinois. After criticizing Governor Ford for having acted unwisely, the paper said, "It is notorious that the great Mormon Eaters of the Upper Missouri were the greatest scamps in the country, and we have very good reason to believe that the same remarks would apply to the tribe who are now persecuting them in Illinois." The ORGAN then quoted the PEORIA REGISTER to the effect that Joseph and Hyrum had been murdered in "cold blood...an act of atrocity unparalleled in the history of the age," and that the persecutors will "continue to have apologists for their misdeeds, in the shape of some sixpenny journal of the calibre of the WARSAW SIGNAL, QUINCY WHIG, & etc." (27) 1846 The earliest school in the area was operated as part of the public school system of the state. One of the pioneers of the area who attended the public school was Mr. Luther Armstrong whose parents came in 1846. He recalled that he had had to go three miles to acquire his early education in a schoolhouse on the old Watson Road near the farm of Colonel Dent, the father-in-law of President Ulysses S. Grant. Other children were educated at home. School work done at home was not on a hit-and-miss basis for there was a regular time set aside for it each day. Indeed, education in the home included not only French, History and Rhetoric lessons but also musical training. Members of the family taught younger children to play musical instruments while they continued lear