Skip to main content

Buried Gems: The Poetry of Mrs. M. J. Smith

As usual, the People's Voice of May 1, 1880 starts off with a poem, titled Buried Gems:

How many gems of thought beneath 
The dust of toil lie buried; 
How many o’er the bridge of sighs 
To silent tombs are carried, 
And never see the light of day— 
Tho’ their’s is matchless beauty; 
For hands that hold the richest gifts,
Must closest cling to duty. 
How many hands ne’er dare to pluck 
From life the wayside flowers; 
How many feet must bleed and ache 
In this bright world of ours; 
While others sing the gayest songs, 
And pluck the brightest roses; 
For them the opening of each hour, 
Some new found joy discloses. 
How many sweet songs well to lips 
That may not pause to sing them; 
And sweet bells chime in many a heart 
But there’s no one to ring them. 
God pity such whose rounded years 
Are filled with care and trials, 
Whose daily life is constantly 
Made up up self-denials. 
 For those who toil in faith and hope 
There must be rest at last; 
For those who weep there must be joy, 
When all these tears are past. 
And there'll be gems for those who bear 
Aloft the cross of duty— 
Where the unfettered tongue shall sing 
’Mid love, and joy, and beauty. 
—Mrs. M. J. Smith.

My ongoing quest to find unknown local authors seemed like we had a potential hit here. While this is not in any way an outstanding poem, there are a few lines that have the ring and cadence of something with some potential. Perhaps this could be a local poet, like C. Toler Wolfe, whose work is now lost to time. Although it's not much, we have a name to start searching, and a general time frame for the search. Let's see what we can learn about Mrs. M. J. Smith and her work!

Since this poem alone was not returning hits outside of newspaper editions (one in Vermont was printed April 2, 1880 and a Pennsylvania newspaper printed the same one day earlier), a narrower search of 19th century books proved much more fruitful. All of the following sources credit "Mrs. M. J. Smith" as the author: 

While we can't definitively say all these poems are the work of the same woman, the themes and structure are similar enough to be reasonably certain they could be by the same writer. "Buried Gems," as possibly one of her earlier works, is a bit more uneven than a later poem like "Mother's Room," which keeps a consistent focus and tone throughout.

None of these sources was sufficient to pin down any particulars about Mrs. M. J. Smith as a person, but several other possibilities presented themselves. In the Ladies' Own Magazine, there are two letter to the editor style submissions from a Mrs. M. J. Smith in Washington Heights, Illinois. In another magazine, there is a subscription notice from a Mrs. M. J. Smith in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. A third magazine, The Michigan Teacher, notes a Mrs. M. J. Smith in Berrien Springs. 

Unfortunately, the lack of any concrete details on the poet seriously diminishes the ability to pin down her information through census records or other common search methods for cross referencing and verification. It seems, however, she was a relatively well-known poet, but almost certainly not a Winchester native (or even one that could be claimed by marriage, like Van Alstyne). 

Mrs. M. J. Smith from Local and National Poets of America, 1892.
Luckily, her prolific writing style earned her a spot in Local and National Poets of America. The book states she was born in Gardiner, Maine, on Oct. 28, 1834. The biography is exceedingly short, but we have some real clues now: "This lady has written over a thousand poems, many of which have appeared in some of the leading periodicals of America. She was married in 1852 to Mr. A. A. Smith, and now resides in Longwood, a suburb of Chicago."

The US Census from 1880 suggests two possible candidates for our poet near Chicago. Our first is a Mary J. Smith (widowed) living at 301 Paulina Street. The census does not specify north or south; if it was south, her home has been replaced with a medical building, while north looks very industrial/commercial. The second is also a Mary J. Smith, living at 256 Walnut Street. 

Given the hint that the suburb was given as Longwood, it seems most likely her house was on North Paulina Street. With that assumption, we can glean from the census that she had at least one daughter, Louisa M. Smith, who was 19 at the time and involved in a "charitable institution."

Even with these clues, it has so far proven impossible to definitely track down a death date or confirm her husband's name. Beyond a handful of attributed poems and letters, Mrs. M. J. Smith is still a buried gem in the late Victorian poetry scene. If you know more, either about her poetry or with some additional research angles, drop me a note!

Enjoy these posts?

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Fratricide in Clarke County: Part Two

When last we left the Little Family in Clarke County, Clinton Little had been murdered, his mother had been wounded, Oscar and Lycurgus were in jail in Berryville awaiting their trial, and Columbus claimed it was all a giant accident of boyhood exuberance ( Staunton Vindicator , Shepherdstown Register ). The postmortem and coroner's inquest determined Clinton's death was a case of premeditated homicide.  Medical Updates Reports on the seriousness of the mother's injury varied, ranging from minor since no bone was broken and no artery was severed, though several sources reported that she developed erysipelas , or a bacterial infection in the skin, which was seen as potentially serious ( Shepherdstown Register , Staunton Vindicator , Virginia Herald ). It appears this was successfully resolved, however, and she came to no lasting harm. Columbus and Gilbert were allegedly hit on the head with a pistol during the struggle in the dining room but suffered no more than bruises fr...

A Fratricide in Clarke Country: Part One

While looking for mentions of the Ancient Order of Hibernians for the previous Saint Patrick's Day post, I saw mention of a murder trial for Oscar Little in Winchester. I had not come across a mention of this person or case before, and it turned out to be quite the deep and twisting rabbit hole.  While I will be quoting liberally from some primary source material, I know at least one of my readers is squeamish about medical content. Be advised that if you click the links to read the full articles, there will be possibly more details on the case than you might want to read. (A number of testimonies from the trial describing the wounds are covered in some detail, as you'd likely expect in a murder case.) This first entry in a multi-part story will set the stage for the trials to come. Let's get started. Setting the Stage The tragedy occurred in the Little family home, involving the parents Franklin and Mrs. (Margaret or Mary Jane) Little, their six adult sons and one daughter...

A Fraticide in Clarke County: Part Three

If you're just joining us for the first time, you can catch up on Part One and Part Two before diving in. Since it's been about a month since our last post, let's quickly recap where we are in this story. After initially being on board with a punishment for Oscar and Lycurgus in the death of Clinton, the other Little family members, seemingly spearheaded by Columbus' press tour in Washington D.C., wanted to back off and drop the case. However, the indictment was deemed a "true bill" at the July court session, and the trial was scheduled for the October term. Columbus' press tour caused some feuds between the Richmond Enquirer and the Winchester and Clarke papers, but by the end of the summer, it seemed the press had largely come to acknowledge that the original statement and reporting in the Winchester papers was accurate. The state and the prisoners both secured all-star law teams.  As this section of the story is heavy on medical testimony from the doc...