Documented Life     Ancestors - Troper and Hochstein Genealogies

Ancestors of Miles Hochstein (Great Great Grandmother)

Mary Ann (Bland) Smith
b. 1816 in Williamsport, Virginia,
married 17 April 1840 in Knox County, Illinois,
d. week of 25 March 1902, (probably in Eldora, Hardin County, Iowa)

Occupations: Homemaker, Farmer, Iowa and Hardin County Pioneer

Mary Ann (Bland) Smith's younger sister (born in 1820) ..."Symphronia Bland often told that among her earliest recollections was the seeing of her brothers and sisters playing and romping with the Indian children and also seeing the Indian wigwams that were still standing in the timber." From a family history from the 1930s or 1940s, courtesy of J. McGuire. See Joshua Bland's page for text.

"My Dear Grandson, this is Sunday and I am all alone. You will be surprised when I tell you Grandpa has gone to church and still more surpised when I tell you we both went to the old settlers picnic. We are all alone yet (Mona?) comes down and washes and cleans up every thing so we get along as well as we can."  From a letter to G. Day Smith, August 27th, 1899, at age 83.

Transcript of a letter from Mary Ann Bland Smith to her grandson G. Day Smith.

Eldora Iowa Aug 27 1899

My Dear Grandson,   this is Sunday and I am all alone You will be surprised when I tell you Grandpa has gone to church and still more surpised when I tell you we both went to the old settlers picnic

We are all alone yet M__ comes down and washes and cleans up every thing so we get along as well as we can We had a letter from your mama last week they was well I gess I will stop trying to write I will have Grandpa write some When are you coming home (?).

Monday morning - Gran Mea has written all the news So I have not much to say We read your letter of aug 8 have neglected as we should have but we was pleased to hear from you Hope you are still enjoying your self in Sight Seeing I suppose Kansas City is a great place and much of interest to be seen by you Have not heard anything from your father since he was home Do you think of staying there for some time or will you be back here in time for school I think I am gaining some but it is slow

Please excuse us for not writing sooner and write us again Will close with much love Gran____ Give our respect to your friends there I have never seen them.

Notes for Readers

The above letter is a transcription of a barely legible pencilled letter that appears to have been written by Mary Ann Bland Smith, wife of Samuel Smith. Marry Ann Bland Smith was born in 1818 in Monroe, Virginia (later West Virginia), and as a result of this letter, is now known to have lived at least until August of 1899.

The letter is written without punctuation. When spelling is clearly deviant I have preserved that. Her grammar speaks of the Virginia country (Monroe County) where she was raised long before the Civil War

In the letter above we see a man who was not the church going type heading off to church to his wife’s surprise and a old settler woman who apparently consented to go to her husbands old settlers club meeting, contrary I surmise to her usual preference.

She makes reference to Day’s father, who was Jacob K. Smith. She is writing to her grandson George Day who spent a year before college in Kansas City. George Day Smith would have been 17 years old. During that year, Day lived with his deceased mother's brother, George Willard Day, "Uncle George" in Kansas City.

Daughter of Joshua Bland and Polly (Shires) Bland of Monroe, Virginia (post Civil War, West Virginia) and later of Knox County, Illinois.

One of 5 (or 6) sisters
1. Sarah Jane Bland - b. 1811 Monroe, Virginia?
2. Rebecca Bland - b. abt. 1814 Monroe, Virginia?
3. Mary Ann Bland - b. abt. 1818 Williamsport, Virginia
4. Simprina Bland - b. abt. 1820, born in Crawford County, Indiana
5. Hannah Bland - b. abt. 1822
6. Nancy Bland - b. abt. 1824

Wife of Samuel Smith marrying on 17 April 1840.

Mother of five surviving children: Hannah J Smith (aka Mrs. WW Brooks) (b. ca 1843), William H Smith (b. ca 1845), Jacob K. Smith (b. 1851), Charles W. Smith (b. 1854), Ellis M Smith (b. ca 1857). Eight other children died in infancy.



The Official History of Hardin County

"Mr. Smith was married to Mary Ann, daughter of Joshua Bland. Mrs. Smith is a native of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had twelve children, only five of whom (four sons and one daughter) are living. Their children are as follows: William H., now a resident of Grundy county, was a member of the 9th Iowa Cavalry during the rebellion; Hannah J., now Mrs. W. W. Brooks, of Grundy county; Jacob K., in Dakota; Charles W., also in Dakota, and Ellis M. Their deceased children died in infancy." From "History of Hardin County", 1883

Below: We have no picture of Mary Ann (Bland) Smith, but we do have a letter in her own hand, below
Copy of letter from Mary Ann Bland to G.D. Smith. Transcript above.

Below: Second page of letter from Mary Ann Bland Smith to G.D.Smith. Transcript above.

 

Recent discovery of the following document online (April 2005) fixes (assuming it is accurate) Mary Ann (Bland) Smith's year of death to 1902, and her week of death to very near March 25, 1902.

Iowa Recorder
Greene, Butler, Iowa
March 25, 1902

OF INTEREST TO IOWANS HAPPENINGS OF THE WEEK THROUGHOUT THE STATE

Pioneer Iowan Dead.
Mrs. Mary Smith, the first white woman settler of Hardin county, died at Eldora at an advanced age. She and her husband, the late Samuel Smith, located in that county in 1850, and were its first settlers. They endured many of the hardships which are now a part of Hardin county history.

[submitted by C.J.L., March 2004]

http://www.iowaoldpress.com/IA/Butler/1902/MAR.html

 

Rough Timeline for Mary Ann (Bland) Smith's Life
(Including Both Facts and Projections Based on the Fact that She Bore 13 children)

There are many unknowns for Mary Ann (Bland) Smith's life, and most of what is known is known because her life is presumed to have paralleled her husband's, as the family moved west to Iowa, and then migrated among the counties of southeastern Iowa before settling in Hardin County in 1851. But the most impressive fact from a modern perspective is that Mary Ann gave birth to 13 children (12 according to one source), 8 of whom died, and 5 of whom lived. For those who lived rough birthdates are available. However the birthdates of those who died are not available.

To imagine the life of Mary Ann Bland, I have assumed that she gave birth to a child every two years for 26 years, from the possible birth of her first child in 1841, to the birth of her possible last child in 1866, at the age of 46. This device is used simply to portray what the childbearing life of a woman of Hardin County might have been like in this time period.

Given the early deaths of these children, her births may have been less widely spaced than I have assumed, and may have concluded earlier. But in the absence of evidence in any direction, it is easy to imagine a birth every two years, and to overlay that on the known facts of her life to describe an important fact about Mary Ann (Bland) Smith's life - her's was a life of continual pregnancy and childbearing from the age of 22 until her middle to late 40s, and a life of childrearing into her 60s.

~

Events for which there is no evidence are in italic type.

Rough Timeline for Mary Ann (Bland) Smith's Life (b. 1818, d. aft. 1899)
1818 Born in Williamsport, Virginia the second (or third?) of five (or 6?) sisters.
1820 (age 2) Her next younger sister Simprina is born in Crawford County, Indiana, suggesting that she had migrated to Indiana with her family by this time.
1831-1832 (age 13-14) Her father Joshua Bland participates in "an indian company in the Black Hawk War" in Illinois.
1833, (age 15)

In 1833 Joshua Bland, his wife Polly Shires and their family moved to Knox, Illinois, and resided on a farm in a section south of Galesburg and just before Abingdon, in Cedar Township. (Source: Jane McGuire, descendant of Simprina Bland, gx3 granddaughter of Joshua Bland).

1840, April 17 (age 22) Marries Samuel Smith, age 24 or 25, at Knox, Illinois.
1840, Fall Migrates to Iowa with husband

1840-1841, Winter

Resides in Washington County, Iowa, in cabin built by or with her husband.
1841

Possible birth of first child. Child dies.
1841, Spring (age 23) Miigrates with husband to Johnson County, Iowa, resides there four years.
1843
 First surviving child (Hannah J. (Smith) Brooks) is born.
1844 (age 26) Migrates with husband to Keokuk County, Iowa, resides there for six years.
1845 Son William H. Smith is born
1847

Possible birth of fourth child. Child dies.
1849

Possible birth of fifth child. Child dies
1850, May - (age 32) Migrates to Hardin County, Iowa, resides in Eldora "several years"
1851 Son Jacob K Smith is born.
1853 (age 35) Husband is elected Treasurer and Recorder of Hardin County, for five years
1854 Son Charles W. is born
1856

Possible birth of 8th child. Child dies
1857, 31 March (age 39) Husband ends job as Hardin County's first Treasurer and Recorder, and returns to farming
1857 Son Ellis M. Smith is born.
1860 As Civil War breaks out, husband leaves farming and enters grocery business in Eldora.
1858

Possible birth of 10th child. Child dies.
1860

Possible birth of 11th child. Child dies.
1862

Possible birth of 12th child. Child dies.
1864 (age 46)

Possible birth of 13th child. Child dies.
1879 (age 61) Husband retires from grocery business.
1882, July 22 - (age 63) Husband Elected President of Hardin County Old Settlers Society for one year.
1899, late August (age 81) Writes letter to grandson G. Day Smith noting that, surprisingly, her husband attended church one weekend, and, suprisingly, that she consented to attend the old settler's picnic with him.
1902 (in the week before March 25, 1902), at the age of 84. Dies. Five children survive her. Her husband Samuel Smith also dies circa 1902.

 

Above: A wedding in Eldora on July 16, 1913. Bride and groom stand in the center. The gentleman on the far left is known as "Uncle Ezra." On the back is written "The Two Families". I had hoped that the women on the right might be Mary Ann Bland Smith but since she is now known to have died in 1902, it is certainly not her.

For a more complete listing of the fates of her descendants see her husband Samuel Smith's page.

 

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revised April 2005
revised October 2007