Download - Minister on the Move
WALTER GRANT SMITH by
©Robert F. Smith1
2011
Walter Grant Smith was said by one of his sons to have been a "red-haired Irishman,"
standing about 5'3" to 5'6". Some say that he was very self-conscious of his height and that he
always walked several paces behind his taller wife, Kathryn Florence Zane Frank -- others say
that was not the case. It is certain, however, that he was very humorous and bold, even having
his new daughter-in-law, Ruby, sit on his lap on one occasion! He and his wife Kathryn were
good, loving parents, who brought their five children to responsible adulthood through stressful
but happy times, and who had a canary in their home in their later years.
After being born there April 3, 1870 (on Sunday at about 8 pm), Papa spent his entire
boyhood and youth on his parents’ farm 4 miles northwest of Oskaloosa, Kansas (north of
Lawrence, and midway between the Oregon and Mormon Trails). He was a red-headed, barefoot
farm boy, with seven sisters -- most of them older than him. He had a kind, older brother,
Charles Lincoln Smith, who was educated at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, and who then
married (Georgiana Washington Lee Smith), and settled in Butte, Montana. His younger brother,
Morrison Waite Smith, grew up, married (Mae Johnston Smith), and remained on the family
farm the rest of his life.
In 1888, at about age 18, Walter Grant was "saved" during an old-fashioned Methodist
revival meeting at the Fairview Country Church conducted by the Rev. J. W. Roberts, founder of
the Oskaloosa Independent newspaper (1860). Walter himself said of this conversion experience
that it was “the receiving from the Lord a most joyous consciousness of His acceptance of me
and assurance of salvation.” Many years later, in a letter to his son James, he expanded on this:2
I consciously knew the Lord as a Savior in an experience when 18 years old. Just by
simply trusting Him. No excitement. No unusual emotion – just about 15 simple
country people on a rainy October nite – the Dist. School Teacher was there. But in pure
Based on Kathryn Lucille Smith Wieser's "Minister on the Move," on Woodrow Walter Smith's1
compilation of "Our Smith Family Memories" (Aug 1982), and numerous other documentary and familysources.
Walter Grant Smith letter to James T. Smith, April 5, 1940, page 2.2
and simple trust I was seeking the Savior to forgive my sins (that was the way Wesley
would preach it), and the Lord was seeking me (that’s the way Barth would preach it)
and we met. I knew it, and have known it ever since.
Nine years later, in the Fall of 1897, Walter would be licensed to preach.
After graduation from High School, came his college years at Kansas State Teacher's
College (now Emporia State University) in Emporia (1889-1895). According to Walter, James3 4
E. Smith was disappointed that son Walter left the farm at 19, since he had envisioned his three
sons as taking over his estate at some future time.
Walter was a charter member of chapter 69 of the Epworth League when it was organized
at First Church of Emporia (Methodist) in the Fall of 1889. Devotional meetings were held there
every Sunday night just before the evening preaching service – in those days the most important
service on Sunday! Sunday School was frequently taught by the very knowledgeable members of
the College faculty. Walter found the religious atmosphere exhilarating, attending the State
Christian Endeavor (C.E.) Convention in the Spring of 1890, and the regional YMCA
Convention that Fall – both in Emporia. There were about 1800 students at Emporia State at that
time, but only about 80 of them went to church on Sunday.
Walter recalled that several people had a profound influence on him in his decision to
enter the ministry: At the Farewell Night on Commencement Day at Emporia State in 1895, his
“best girl” asked him if he had ever considered the ministry. The same question had been asked
him some months earlier by Dr. M. Louise Jones of the English Department. A year earlier,
following a prayer meeting, Dr. Aldriman (of the Washington Avenue Church in Kansas City,
Kansas, where Walter had been Epworth League President) asked Walter whether he had “ever
felt called to preach.” Later in Butte, Montana (in 1896), the pastor of the First Church Mt. View
Methodist told him that he should be preaching. A year later that pastor’s successor (the Rev.
William van Orsdale) licensed him to preach.
For a time in his late twenties (between 1895 and 1898), Walter Grant first worked as a
cashier and steward in the Murry and Freund Hospital in Butte, Montana, no doubt under the
The change in name was made April 1977. Walter Grant studied at KSTC 1889-1895 (ages 19-25),3
gaining a bachelor's degree in education.
Walter Grant Smith letter to sister Marjorie and brother-in-law Fred Blazer, April 3, 1943.4
aegis there of his older brother, Charles Lincoln Smith. During the 1898-1899 school year, while
teaching English and Geometry and studying Greek at Montana Wesleyan University, he began a
diary covering his studies and daily activities from January 1 through September 22, 1899. He
was elected Epworth League president on February 6th, and president of the Athenian League on
Feb 10th (which office he resigned on the 17th). He delivered his first sermon on March 19th
(on Psalm 119:59 "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies"), and
composed a short poem on January 31, 1899:
Time is the rosy morningOn the darkest eve may be;Time is a bounded ocean,Time is a death locked sea,Time but reaches to Heaven,Time -- then Eternity.
He was home in Oskaloosa by June 18, 1899, and even preached at the church in Dunavant that
day. He preached there again on the evening of June 25 (Isa 55:6-7), after preaching at Fairview
that afternoon (Rom 12:1-2). He then preached at Oskaloosa July 2nd (Prov 14:34). He left for
Kansas City on July 17 (he visited with his sister Etta at a Kansas City hospital where she had
undergone very serious surgery), then went to St. Louis the next day, and from there to
Indianapolis on the 20th. He attended a Temperance (Epworth League International Convention)
meeting in Indianapolis at the Meridian Street Church on Saturday, July 22nd. He arrived in
Cincinnati on July 24th, where he visited Miss Edna C. Strubbe (living at 224 Oak St., Mt
Auburn), a young lady he had met on the train from St. Louis to Indianapolis. He took the train
to Newark, Ohio, on the 26th, and spent several days visiting relatives – including Uncle Tomas
(Thomas R. Smith ). He and Uncle Tomas visited the old Homestead and neighborhood in5
Mansfield, and even went to a Buffalo Bill's show with the Bradford girls on August 1st.
He left Newark for Washington, D.C., on August 2nd, and spent a couple of days there
seeing the sights (Washington Monument, Library of Congress, the Capitol, and Mt. Vernon)
before continuing by train to New York City on August 5th. He saw his sister Eva there for the
first time in six years. The next day he went to church at 1st Presbyterian, ate lunch at
Delmonico's, and then attended a Baptist church that night. On Monday the 7th, he went
downtown, purchased 18 suits, and had dinner at the Majestic that evening with several people,
Thomas R. Smith, b. 25 Jan 1830 Mansfield, OH, d. 31 Jan 1921 Mansfield, OH.5
including Miss Georgia Leighton (54 West 52nd St., NYC), Mr & Mrs Charles Nealand, and Dr.
Canfield. On the 11th he went to Ocean Grove, and he heard the Elijah Oratorio that evening.
The next day he went ocean "bathing for the first time" -- with Reba Love -- and went to Asbury
Park that evening. He returned to New York City on the 15th, visiting Greenwood Cemetery that
day, and the Docks the next. On the 17th he went sailing with Dr. Bryant (whose daughter
Josephine lived in Boston), and treated him to dinner at the Waldorf Hotel. The next day he left
Gotham and headed for Boston by boat (via Providence, R.I).
Walter arrived in Boston on August 19, 1899, and took a room at Crawford House. He
began studying (including Greek) on August 24th. He went to Walpole on the 26th, and
preached there the next day. After a week of studies, he attended a colored Baptist church Friday
and Saturday. Sunday the 3rd of September, he went to church at Temple Street. On Labor Day,
the 4th, he went out to Castle Island, met Harry Smith, and had dinner at the Parker House. The
next day he "had a good time" visiting Harvard with Miss Knowles. He went to the Museum
with her on the 9th, and had dinner at her place on the 11th (after moving into a college residence
Hall). He went to Mt Auburn on the 13th, and then to Nantucket on the 14th with Miss Knowles.
On the 18th, he received a letter from Eva telling him of Etta's death.
School at Boston University commenced on September 20, 1899, and President William
Warren gave the opening address. Dean Marcus Buell also spoke (he doubted that Walter had
had enough Greek, but admitted him anyway). His first classes began September 22nd, with the
Pauline Epistles and Hebrew. It is not entirely clear how his classwork went, nor whether he
finished that year, for his diary ends at that point.
Whatever the case, in the Spring of 1901, while still in Boston, Walter took on his first
big project as a Methodist Minister and began the Arlington Heights Methodist Church “from
scratch.” He first rented a hall over a store. It was used for Saturday night dances and had a
piano. He distributed announcement cards in the rain (with umbrella) from door to door that
April. The New England Methodist Conference paid him $150 per month then, but it later
became a very desirable appointment, with a fine church building and paying perhaps $2,000 for
a pastor.
He continued his studies the following year at Ohio Wesleyan in Delaware, Ohio (1902-
1904). Finally, however, he did a year of post-graduate work back at Boston University6
Theological Seminary to prepare for the Episcopal ministry (1905-1906), and was working as a
minister-in-training at a Cape Cod Episcopal Church. He is said to have kept a diary during this
period, and it was apparent that he was in love with a young lady of the Boston upper crust, and
that, when the relationship broke up, he returned to Kansas and Methodism.
Back in Kansas as a full-fledged Methodist minister (now age 36), he was appointed to
Euclid Methodist church in Topeka where he met Miss Katy Zane, a 30-year-old school teacher. 7
The wedding took place July 11, 1906, at the home of Aunt Anna E. Pedrick in Ocean City,8
New Jersey, and was performed by the Rev. Ward Gamble. Present was Walter's sister Eva
Florence Smith of New York City. The pair honeymooned in Atlantic City, N.J., and in New
York City. From then on the moving began! And also, after one miscarriage, the kids!
Marjorie Louise was born in Maywood, Missouri, January 22 (23), 1909. Her father
loved to recite for her:
Little Margy!Here she comes!Sound the trumpet,Beat the the drums!She's small but smart,Knows her part,And loves her Daddy with all her heart!!
Next came Kathryn Lucille, in Akron, Iowa, Nov 11 (12), 1910, and James Theodore, in Norton,
Kansas, April 22, 1913. James was an easy-going, big fellow whom the doctor prophesied would
be "either a prize fighter or a bishop." Later in 1913, perhaps, but certainly in 1914, Walter
served a pastorate in St. Francis, Kansas. However, after his illness with Typhoid Fever and
influenza, his doctor ordered him away from Kansas' climate to sunny California, and San Diego,
where, named for his beloved Uncle Charles Lincoln, Charles Foster was born July 6, 1915!
He lived at 110 N. Sandusky Street in his senior year, and is listed in Ohio Weslyan records being from6
Kansas City, Kansas. He does not appear to have received a degree there since he is listed in BessieBeal's 1927 Alumni Directory as a non-graduate Methodist Episcopal Minister.
Kathryn Frank Zane, born 11 April 1876, was informally adopted by Abraham N. and Susan Zane of7
Fairbury, Illinois, after her mother died when she was only 5 (1881); she was also known as "KatherineFlorence Zane," and claimed to be born in 1880. A separate account deals with her life.
This is apparently a sister of Abraham or Susan Zane, who came from New Jersey.8
Walter Grant had to convince the Southern California Methodist Conference of his worth
in order to be accepted. Before long, he had started a Sunday School in the garage of his house,
which was a roomy, two-story, rented one. Pretty soon he was commissioned to obtain the
property across 30th Street for the building of what is now Trinity Methodist Church, San Diego.
One of his fund-raising schemes involved offering to name his next son's middle name for the
high donor. Captain A. J. Foster was the high donor (he was San Diego Harbor Master). A nice
parsonage was also built next to the new M.E. church and it was Mom's pride and joy!
In those years one entered kindergarten at the age of four. Lucille cried a lot when her
turn to enter kindergarten came and would get lost going home from school. Big sister Marjorie
would be quite disgusted with her. The one happy thing Lucille remembered is finding a banana
in the cloak room at school and eating it.
One morning, Mama had Lucille sitting on the kitchen table to comb the tangles out of
her long, thick hair. She was having a hard time of it, and Papa came in and took over. He fixed
Lucille's hair (somehow), washed her tear-stained face, and put on her Sunday dress. Then he
took her downtown with him. First, to a shoe store for a pair of new shoes. She chose the red
ones. Then, to his ministerial meeting. The room was full of a circle of men in conference.
Lucille still remembers "that certain smell of big, black leather shoes and dark pants all around
me; and on my feet, a pair of new shoes! And they were red!"
In three years Walter Grant returned from the Methodist conference with a new
assignment, Taft, California; and Mama wept! On the way to Taft, they spent ten days at a hotel
in Hayward, while all the kids (but Lucille) took turns having the measles.
Taft was a small railroad town -- a poor and unattractive former boom-town. Marjorie's
school was an empty store building; and Lucille's, an old one-room school and "out house" on a
bare lot in back. Lucille says that the children didn't mind. Lucille's two recollections of Taft
were: First, some beautifully decorated Easter eggs in a small store window nearby; and, second,
the talk around town at Christmas that Santa Claus himself was coming to see them!
But there were nights when drunken tramps from the nearby railroad cars, attracted by the
bedroom light late at night, would come to the window and jabber to Mama, who would be up
with the baby -- and it frightened her. Walter didn't complete his year in Taft (until March), but
moved his family to Butte, Montana, where his brother, "Uncle Charlie," found a house for them
out in a poor district where the copper miners' families lived. Lucille can only remember that
school was all right, nothing fancy; and there was a beautiful big tree in the uncrowded
playground! A photo from that year (1916), taken by a Mr. Marsh, shows Charles, Lucile,
Marjorie, and their friend Madeline Marsh.
But after a few cyclone-type dust storms, when all windows and doors had to be quickly
sealed and everything was totally dark for a few minutes -- and after someone stole some things
out of the house, Papa moved them back to Los Angeles, California, to stay until Conference
convened again in the Fall, and he would be given a new assignment. Papa wasn't going to stick
around and wait for the Dust Bowl!
In Los Angeles, Marjorie & Lucille were enrolled in Jefferson Elementary School, which
had a playground with lots of apparatus! Slides & swings & bars! But swarming with children
& noise! Lucille was in Second grade (1917) and rather overwhelmed; but sister Marjorie was
with her, so Lucille managed OK. Her teacher was very nice. They passed the University of
Southern California on their way to school. In those years there were only the three main
buildings at USC -- quite old, but with "atmosphere," and with spacious, shady lawns & ancient
trees.
On Saturdays, the three older children walked a few blocks (carrying sack lunches) to
Exposition Park with its rolling lawns and big exhibit buildings to explore. The favorite one had
a huge skeleton of an African Elephant that was very impressive! It took up all the space of the
first high-ceilinged room.
Walter's new assignment: Elsinore, California. They were three years (1917-20) at Lake
Elsinore and loved it! The lake was unpolluted and beautiful then. The little red brick church
and big square two-story parsonage were on a sage-brush covered hill that they had all to
themselves.
On a lazy Saturday morning the Smith children played house in the sage, selecting sets of
rooms naturally formed by the bushes. One would sit in his domain and visit with his neighbor
whose head looked out at him from his quarters just over the way. And all about was a
quietness, except for some buzzing of a few bees among the fragrant sage blossoms!
The school playground was just down the hill behind the church and they had it
practically to themselves on Saturdays and during summer. With just them and perhaps a few
others they played ball, Red Rover, and also "Annie-Over," which could be quite an exciting
game. One group would throw the ball over the top of the building to be caught by one of the
players on the other side. Then his group would run with it to the first side to throw at one of
their players. If hit, that player became a member of that team and returned to their side with
them. It was lots of fun!
As the eldest child, Marjorie was occasionally left in charge of the rest when Mom and
Pop were away. According to Lucille, "She usually managed with capable equanimity, altho' I
remember once in Elsinore that we must have given her a hard time and she locked us out of the
house. We went 'round from window to window tapping and calling and giving her no peace. If
she 'told' on us, I'm not sure. I don't remember being punished (maybe she didn't tell)."
Marjorie started her first piano lessons in the home of the church organist and kept up her
practice all through the years.
The little primary Sunday School class was held in just a circle of chairs up in the corner
behind the little pump organ.
Here at Elsinore, on New Year's Day, 1918, Walter Woodrow was born, the fifth and last
of them. He was such a sweet and happy baby and they all loved him a lot -- except that Lucille
was assigned the job of taking him for his outing in his buggy down the dirt driveway and back
and forth on a solitary patch of sidewalk below!
In 1918 there was an earthquake one Sunday morning that was the first one which James
recalls experiencing. It shook the property while the children were coming from church.
World War I brought young airmen from Riverside. They landed on the dry end of the
lake, and would stay overnite at the parsonage before returning to their Riverside airfield.
It was at Elsinore that Charles ran away from home at 4 years of age (the first time!), and
was found roaming around the railroad tracks downtown. James started 1st grade here in 1919.
In summer Walter would take the older children around the lake for a few days with Mrs.
Tout, a widow lady of the church. They enjoyed the country, swimming in the lake and sleeping
outside under the stars. Most of the ranch folk around the lake were busy with apricots at that
time. The men would pick them and bring them to the protected area by the house where the
women would pit them and arrange them on trays for sulphuring. The kids would help some
with the pitting, but found the standing so long at the work table pretty tiring. For years
afterwards Lucille didn't eat an apricot.
It was different with figs. Mom would "candy" them and then lay them out on the roof in
the sun to dry. But Walter's upstairs study window happened to be within easy reach of the tasty
delicacies and their number dwindled daily! (Lucille doesn't remember that anything much was
ever mentioned, unless perhaps once when she thought she saw just a flash of a guilty smile on
Papa's face).
As so often at his other assignments, Walter Grant served other pastorates as well as his
main one: Wildomar, and Murietta (Hot Springs).
One day, that Lucille will never forget, she was standing by herself out between the
church and the yard when all was peaceful and quiet -- and the thought came to her: "We are all
so happy here." And she recalls smiling and gazing about her and saying it again: "All of our
family are happy here!" At about this time, Lucille also realized: "We are poor." As James put
it recently: "We saw many parsonages, but money was scarce, even to what Dad explained as an
'irriducible minimum'."
But by fall 1920, they moved again. This time to La Habra!
It was an interesting year playing with goat kids, attending Papa's Vacation Bible School
(VBS), Marjorie & Lucille making fudge, and reading library books on the bed in the tank house.
Charles was in Kindergarten and 1st grade there (1920-22), when his Uncle Morrison
Waite Smith visited from Kansas, and he recalls Morrison Waite's violent outbursts of temper.
Lucille says that he would "walk the floor and talk & talk in a troubled manner, over & over
again. We children were not aware that he was having a nervous breakdown. Papa took him to a
sanitarium in a city nearby. After some time (a month perhaps), we drove over to get him and he
was looking like himself again, calm & smiling. Soon he returned home to Oskaloosa." Many
years later, back on the farm in Oskaloosa, Uncle Waite apparently committed suicide.9
Lucille was in the 5th & 6th grades in La Habra; Marjorie in 7th & 8th, and James in 3rd
& 4th.
La Habra was in the orange tree area of Southern California, between Whittier and
Waite was depressed over marital problems: Not only was he weak and sickly, his wife Mae (May)9
Johnston chose to live in town rather than with him on the farm. They had one daughter, Helen, uponwhom Uncle Waite doted. She later married a Mr. Hagge, and together they ran a funeral home in anearby town.
Fullerton.
Brawley, California, was the next assignment (1922-23).
The parsonage was well shaded by nice trees, and built for hot weather with screen
porches all the way around. The beds were all out there. Two special memories Lucille has of
Brawley: One is of a Hallowe'en Party in the church basement next door to them on the corner.
One of the chairs in the circle was wired so that anyone sitting in it would get a shock. Seeing
unsuspecting newcomers sit down in it and jump up out of it so fast was a sight Lucille will
never forget!
Hanging May baskets with Marjorie on the first of May was always fun. Pretty flowers of
all kinds were so plentiful then, and sometimes candy was put in the bottom! It was fun to sneak
up and ring a doorbell and then run "for all they were worth!" That year Lucille fell while
running away and sprained her right wrist. It's been slightly weak ever since!
When summer came to the Imperial Valley, Papa decided it would be a good time for his
family to go to a "place called Yosemite" in their Maxwell touring car. In those days, touring
cars were open. Also they had their spare tire where the car trunk is now. But suitcases could fit
between the fenders & engine, the tire in back, and other baggage up on top. Inside were Mom &
Pop, the five kids, and Fluffy (or "Rags"), our little, scraggly poodle, who had recently appeared
from our alley and adopted us. On the way to Yosemite, Fluffy had a litter of five!
So off went the Smiths on a trip that would take perhaps a week or more, traveling 20
miles per hour, over dirt roads (some very rough, so that some of the time was spent sitting at the
side of the road while Papa worked on a flat tire). Every night Papa had to find a campground
and put up the tent. Mom's job was fixing supper for a very weary family.
Finally they reached Wawona, the entrance to the Park! Their camp site there was a very
nice place under a great fir tree with the cold Merced River flowing past just below them. It was
a beautiful spot.
The next day, however, we learned that dogs were not allowed in the Park! There was a
moment of dismay! Then James & Lucille volunteered to stay with the dogs. They knew that
this would mean that they would have a whole can of pork & beans for lunch (just for the two of
them)! And so it was. Through the years she and James have never quite "lived down" the fact
that they gave up Yosemite for a can of pork & beans!
Dewey and Medford, Oklahoma (northeast of Enid, Okla., and just south of the Kansas10
border), were next. Walter Grant ministered there for the Kansas-Oklahoma Methodist
Conference. In Oklahoma the children went to school, first for a year in Dewey (1922-23 --
Woody started kindergarten then), where Walter Grant traded in his broken down Maxwell and
purchased a brand new Hupmobile. They spent the next year in Medford (1923-24); they had to
buy their own books and tablets! There were a few Indian boys in Lucille's class. One was
Cherokee and very "sharp." The other (tribe unknown, perhaps Osage), dull. The children
experienced snow to play in, in winter, and enjoyed walking in the woods and picking pecans!
Lucille still remembers a few of the school songs and yells!
Okla-homa! Okla-homa! Okla-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho! (three times)
Okla-homa gets there!!
Okla-homa gets there!! First!!!
Charles recalls an incident which he claims took place while he was in Texas (perhaps
passing through the Panhandle) with his mother, Kathryn: Kathryn saw a woman smoking, and
she immediately went over, took the cigarette out of the woman's mouth and threw it on the floor.
Charles says that this was very much out of character for Kathryn. They may have been passing
through the panhandle of Texas on their way to or from Oklahoma at the time. Jim drove the car;
Mom never drove a car in her life.
Lucille graduated from eighth grade at Medford, Oklahoma, in June 1924, and again
that same year in Huntington Beach, when they returned to California right after Medford schools
were out. California schools were still in session! So, all were in school again.
They stayed that summer in the home of the Methodist minister (or basement of the
Methodist Church, at the corner of 11th & Orange, now gone), who was on vacation. It was fun
to be at the beach! However, Walter Grant was having a hard time finding acceptance into the
Southern California Methodist Conference again: District superintendents didn't like ministers to
leave and return, and they had their own young minister-proteges whom they wanted to advance.
South Pasadena, California, 700 Charter Oak Street (1924-26). While at Huntington
Beach, Walter found a fairly new home on Charter Oak Street in South Pasadena and bought it!
Enid, Oklahoma, is where Mom's sister Minnie lived most of her life with her husband Tom Taylor,10
and their children Robert and Julia.
Mom was overjoyed! The kids (especially James) soon became acquainted with the girl two
houses down, Marian Tynan, and enjoyed outdoor games with her. Also the garage became the
stage for programs, including numbers Lucille remembered seeing at a chautauqua back in11
Elsinore. One number had been done by the Scotsman, Sir Harry Lauder himself, striding back
& forth lustily singing "Roamin' in the Gloamin'"! (done later by Lucille)12
Starting her freshman year at High School there was easy for Lucille, with sister Marjorie
to pave the way. They even attended the exciting football rallies after school on Friday
afternoons. At the end of the year when Marjorie's 3rd year Latin class held a Latin banquet
(1925), she and the other upper classmen dressed as Roman nobles (senators) and lounged on
"couches" around the banquet table while the first year students served as the slaves.
Marjorie had piano lessons at High School with a very good man teacher too. Lucille can
still hear those lusty beginning chords (from the Polish Dance) which she started her practice
with every afternoon after school! It was during this period that Marjorie began piano
accompaniment for singing at church.
All the boys played harmonica by ear, but eventually all the children obtained more
formal instruments. Lucille's was a second-hand but very excellent toned model of a Stradivarius
violin that Papa purchased for $7 from Lucille's first teacher in Oklahoma. James had a trumpet,
Charles a clarinet, and Woody first an alto horn, then a tuba, and finally a trumpet (in Tescott).
On a visit to Kansas one summer, Lucille viewed a small-town parade including a truck carrying
her three brothers playing for all they were worth: James on the trumpet, Charles on the clarinet,
and Woody doing a lusty oompa! oompa! on the tuba! Possibly in Kanopolis.
It was in South Pasadena that a sewing machine was found for Marjorie. She had had
help learning to sew one summer by a crippled woman across the street from where they were
staying that summer in Alhambra (1925).
Marjorie had a real gift for sewing. She could take a dress from the church missionary
At one time a "chautauqua" was a popular system of educational extension by means of summer11
schools, programs of lectures, concerts, etc., modeled after that instituted in 1874 at Chautauqua Lake,New York.
"Roamin' In the gloamin'/ On the bonnie banks of 'Clyde'!/ Roamin' in the gloamin'/ With my Bonnie12
by my side./ When the sun has gone to rest/ It's the time that I love best/ When we're roamin'/ Roamin' inthe gloamin'!"
barrel and transform it into something very pretty and like new!
Charles preferred to attend the local Lutheran Church, because his friends were there.
Walter Grant had preached in so many different types of churches anyhow that it was all the
same to Charles -- he was always bored and just waiting for it to be over. Most especially,
Charles hated revivals and being called a "sinner," etc.13
At one point during this time Walter Grant was substitute pastor out in Indio, and
Woodrow stayed with him a week there. Walter also repaired tires in Indio to make extra cash.
Woody thinks that he may have owned some property there.
There were still many wild, undeveloped areas in South Pasadena then. There was even a
railroad spur behind their house, with 1 or 2 trains a day. The family had a goat, which James
would milk regularly, giving his younger brothers -- sitting on the fence above him kibbitzing --
an occasional squirt of milk. The family attended the Rose Parade on New Year's Day at the
corner of Orange Grove and Colorado Avenues. Jim says that little Shirley Temple was the
Grand Marshal that year (Shirley was 5 or 6, and this may have been a later occasion), and that
he watched the parade standing on a wooden box which he had to lug several miles.
The next summer in South Pasadena was a happy one (1926). James & Charles set up a
5¢ soda pop stand nearby on South Orange Grove Avenue, a few blocks from the Arroyo Seco.
They had about 4 cases from the distributor (Walter Grant co-signed), at 24 bottles of pop per
case, with 6 different flavors. It was very hot those days and cars seemed to be passing at a pretty
fast clip and didn't stop. Anyway, by the end of the day most of the pop had been drunk by
themselves! James says that Charles drank most of it.
James was then 11-12 and in the 6th & 7th grades, Charles 9-10 and in the 4th & 5th
grades, and Woody 7-8 and in the 2nd & 3rd grades. All three are pictured in one photo
celebrating the August 3, 1926, birthday party of their friend Myron Joy Rickman. The Arroyo
Seco was all weeds and trees at that time, and James gathered and pressed wild flowers from it
for a 6th grade school project. James got all As from his 6th grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary
that year, Miss Waterman, because he answered every question in American History correctly. It
was in 2 grade there that Woody gave his first speech: a recitation of “Robin Red Breast.”nd
Charles did not like Billy Sunday, and could never under-stand why anybody could have a "saving"13
experience of some kind. He considered it foolishness.
When fall 1927 came, Papa broke the news that they would be moving to Pacific Beach
near San Diego, where he would wear a uniform (with puttees) and would be teaching Math and
English at San Diego Army & Navy Academy! Like the other teachers, he would have the rank
of Lieutenant. Mom wept again.
Marjorie was invited to stay and finish her senior year in South Pasadena, living with a
couple she had been cleaning house for after school.
Pacific Beach didn't have a High School, so James & Lucille took an interurban street car
every morning to La Jolla. It was a nice town and school. The outstanding events there for
Lucille were: Her part as Statue of Liberty on the day of a special Commemoration; and later,
winner of first place in an oratorical contest on the subject, The Constitution.
Chuck says that, during this time, because Walter was an out-of-work minister, he and
brother James made more money than their father with their newspaper routes: Jim had about
300 daily deliveries, Chuck about 50, and Woody helped. They delivered the San Diego Union
and the San Diego Sun.
At the end of the school year, Lucille was contacted by the Green family in Pasadena,
where she had worked as a mother's helper, to spend the summer again with them. Marjorie
remained with her friends in South Pasadena (the Bairds), then went to Redlands University in
the fall of 1926. The rest of the family stayed in Pacific Beach until fall, when Papa received an
appointment from the Methodist Home Mission to go to Belen, New Mexico, a small railroad
town about 30 miles south of Albuquerque (down the Rio Grande). It was just as well, Papa
needed a change after coming down with exzema or shingles at Pacific Beach, and using rabbit
skins to soothe his sensitive skin.
Walter Grant was actually quite a good preacher, and very innovative, e.g., he would first
show silent movies (sometimes short comedies), and then give his sermon. Lucille says that one
fine film Papa showed was "The Stream of Life" (the story of a christian family), and that it was
the sermon. Woody recalls others, such as Cecil B. DeMille's silent version of "The Ten
Commandments." Walter was an evangelical, hell-fire & brimstone preacher by today's
standards. However, his set views, political liberalism (he was a "Peace Patriot," or America14
Lucille says that he was not a hell-fire and brimstone preacher, even if he raised his voice and pounded14
the pulpit once in a while. In any case, none of his sons were evangelical or highly motivated
Firster, and an admirer of Charles Lindbergh), and his outspoken nature sometimes got him into15
trouble, and that is one of the reasons he had to move his family so frequently. He was also very
ecumenical, and even took the family to hear Aimee Semple McPherson at her Foursquare
Gospel Angelus Temple in Glendale (when he and Woody were not slipping out the back to go16
play in the park, Charles thought she put on a pretty good show, but Lucille was not impressed
with her at all).
Walter Grant preached in the federated Community Church in Belen (with mostly
Methodists, Baptists, and Lutherans in the congregation) and in outlying towns, making a circuit
including Las Lunas, etc., in various types of churches, as earlier at Lake Elsinore and the nearby
towns & country schools. The collection plates from the circuit were the Smiths' bread & butter,
and much of what was received by pastors in those days consisted of donations-in-kind. Charles
frequently traveled with Papa, even though he hated the services (even if other preachers
preached), and did not like being a supposed "goody two-shoes." However, Charles did go along
quite happily to Epworth League (Methodist Youth Fellowship) meetings, if his friends were
there. Otherwise, he would even hide to avoid going. However, one year Charles was even
elected president of his youth group!
Lucille was a Junior in high school in Belen, and found most classes rather lax, except for
Spanish! Most of the students were Hispanic-American and could already speak it!
Papa always had a large garden with plenty of corn in Belen (it was watered from
irrigation ditches and a weir box fed by the Rio Grande), and he and the boys helped provide the
family with meat. They would return from hunting in the outlying "flats" (mesas) with a car
loaded with rabbits. "4-H" kept the boys pretty busy caring for beautiful Rhode Island Reds and
Black Minorcas hens. Charles enjoyed his cooking class where one could eat the goodies
afterwards! He also enjoyed playing "Spin the Bottle" with some of the local girls. He was
about 11 or 12 years old, and his first love was Lonita Campbell, a Baptist.
Once, after receiving a shot of Diptheria anti-toxin in Pacific Beach, Charles found it
theologically, for whatever reason.
Indeed, Walter even arranged a pacifist concert in Anaheim just before the outset of WW II.15
McPherson built that 5300-capacity temple in 1923, and put an illuminated cross atop it which could16
be seen 50 miles away. One of her young preachers was Anthony Quinn, who later became an actor.
difficult to swallow solid food, and was subsisting on liquids. Walter thought that this was a
result of the shot, and took Chuck to see doctors in San Diego. They could find nothing wrong.
Chuck says "no," it had nothing to do with the diptheria shot. He had just read a local newspaper
story about people who were unable to swallow, and he became convinced that he couldn't
swallow. It was all in his mind. Jim correctly thought Chuck impressionable and considered it a
psychological problem. Whatever the case, Chuck was already too skinny and weak -- Woody
was even heavier and stronger than Charles! Mom helped by feeding Charles bananas, and
(while en route to Belen, New Mexico) Jim finally got him to eat some rabbit meat. Charles
remembers this whole episode vividly, and says that he began eating thicker and thicker food
until he was eating normally. Woody says that Chuck later attempted to gain weight and muscle
mass with the yeast diet of Erle Liederman, but it had no effect.
In the summer of 1927, Marjorie had a job as a salesgirl in the one big dry goods store in
Belen. It belonged to an important family who were "pillars" in that little church. They liked
Marjorie and she them (Lucille imagines a lot of the remnants were available to Marge "for
free").
At Christmas they had a real little donkey (burro) in the Nativity scene at church in Belen.
Charles says that the burro was just his size and that he rode it all over the mesa. That donkey
proved useful also in the retrieval of a Christmas tree that winter, and James loves to retell the
story of the long trek with the donkey hunting for just the right tree out across the hills outside of
Belen.
Yucaipa (Cali-Mesa/South Bench), California. Papa, the "Oskaloosa farm boy," sold
some real estate holdings and bought a 5-acre apple ranch in Yucaipa as an invest-ment; he also
bought a horse & plough, plus a small house to go with it! A neighboring rancher, Mr.
Highbecker, took care of it most of the time; but Mom and the boys stayed there one year (while
Papa and Marge were in Belen). Jim says that, at age 14, he, Charles, and Woodrow took care of
an orchard of about 450 apple and a few peach trees there (Rome Beauties, Winesaps,
Crabapples, etc.). Woody recalls watching Jim spray arsenic of lead on the trees to kill Coddling
moth larvae, and speculates as to whether that later affected Jim's, Chuck's, and his sinuses --
perhaps causing them all to become afrin and neosynepherine addicts.
The horse they had was named “Old Bill,” a 25-year-old horse used to furrow to rows for
irrigation on each side of a row of trees (a local farmer sold him to them for $15). Irrigation
water came to the rows from a weir box to risers on each row, and the boys would irrigate one or
two rows at a time. Old Bill was too old to actually plow, but the boys used to ride him the 2
miles to town (Yucaipa). Papa would ride his bicycle. They eventually took him to a rendering
plant where he was shot and perhaps made into dog food or glue.
Woody tells a story about a crime committed by him, Chuck, and Jim back in the days
when they were operating that very apple orchard: Not far down the road from the orchard, in the
rolling hills on the way to Beaumont, Old Man Short had a farm growing corn and watermelon.
Word was that he also had a shotgun loaded with rock salt in case any young whipper-snappers
tried to steal his watermelon. Woody says that he and his older brothers filched one anyhow, and
that it was the best watermelon he ever tasted.
Woody also recalls the occasion when the three boys were skinny dipping in the weirbox
(irrigation box) at the upper corner of that apple ranch, and Lucille mischievously stole their
clothes. Marjorie was attending Redlands University then (about ten miles distance), and visited
them on weekends. The boys attended Yucaipa and Redlands schools. James won a DAR gold
medal as the best scholar in his Redlands High School junior History class -- a decade later,
when the DAR refused to allow Marian Anderson to sing in their Constitution Hall in
Washington, D.C., James threw the gold medal away.17
Meanwhile, Papa had taken a church assignment in Oklahoma, frustrated that he was not
accepted by the Southern California Methodist Conference. His wife and son James (back in
Yucaipa) sold his 1923 four-door Hupmobile touring car and purchased a blue 1927 two-door
Chevrolet with red trim for $275. Jim then drove the family out to meet Pop at their next
Pastorate in Oklahoma.
Morrison, Oklahoma, was the only place Walter Grant could get a foothold in the Kansas-
Oklahoma Conference (1932, or 1928, from Pacific Beach?). However, there were Morrisons
and Cowans in town (some of Papa's distant Scotch-Irish relatives). From there he went to
Kansas.
As a rejection of that racist act, Aunt Jennie Smith Davis resigned from the DAR (Daughters of the17
American Revolution). As for Marian Anderson, she sang at the Lincoln Memorial instead, on April 7,1939, before a huge outdoor audience.
Kanopolis, Tescott, Formosa, & Courtland, Kansas (Formosa is just north of Tescott,
Courtland is west of Belleville in northern Kansas, while Kanopolis is west of Salina, in central
Kansas), would be Walter's last assignments -- especially since he had his first heart attack in
Tescott. It was during this period that both Woody & Chuck took high school Latin 1 & 2
together from Florence Welbert, who was from Kearney, Nebraska.
While at Kanopolis, where Walter Grant had been assigned to a basement church (the
congregation ran out of money to complete the structure), all the family except Mom went to an
Epworth League Institute (MYF) at Kansas Wesleyan in Salina. Charles was then a high school
junior, and ran away, caught a freight car to Salina, and spent a rainy night in a barn to avoid
going to the Institute. Charles had had enough church! After everyone had gone, Charles18
returned home to Mom and went to his job at Henry's Drug Store (Muriel Henry was Woody's
girlfriend) in Kanopolis. There he entered a puzzle contest and won! The prize was a new
Philco Lowboy console radio. The Smiths had never had a radio at home before, and Walter
Grant had thought that the programs were mostly trash. From then on, however, Walter's favorite
program was "Amos & Andy."
Walter Grant then got a double pastorate at Formosa and Courtland, Kansas (Formosa
was just north of Courtland). All the children were gone, except Woodrow, who was then a
junior in Tescott High School(1933-1934). It was while at Tescott that Woody entered an
American Legion oratorical contest – Walter wrote his speech!
It was at Tescott, during lunch one day that Walter Grant had his first heart attack.
Woody was there and recalls that Papa began to sweat, then turned white, but remained
conscious. Woody ran to get the Doc. Jim then came home from Kansas Wesleyan in Salina,
where he was student body president, and took over for Papa. Papa's second heart attack took
place in Formosa or Courtland, and it was clear that he had to retire from the ministry.
While at Kansas Wesleyan, Jim had occasion to stand up for a black student's right to
swim in the college pool. Later, at Yale, he took part in a civil rights march on behalf of the right
of Professor Jerome Davis to express his views in Capitalism and Its Culture, which had become
very controversial.
Meantime, Marjorie had finished at Redlands University and then gone through
Chuck also had a self-esteem problem related to a severe case of acne.18
deaconess training at the Deaconess Training School in Kansas City (1931-32), followed by paid
positions as Director of Religious Education (Deaconess/Associate Pastor) in the Portland,
Oregon, Helen Kelley Manley Community Center, then at Redlands Methodist Church, and
finally at Whittier Methodist Church, Whittier, California -- where she met and married Fred
Blaser of Seattle, Washington (1942).
Lucille would finish High School & Junior College in Pasadena, graduate from U.S.C.,
and teach in Buena Park & Anaheim schools, before going to San Francisco to teach (1943). She
married Henry Wieser the following year (1944).
James would finish at Kansas Wesleyan in Salina & at Yale Divinity School, in New
Haven, receive ordination as a Methodist minister, and take positions at Trinity Methodist in
Berkeley (as youth minister), then at Pasadena, and then at Penn State as Youth Chaplain during
World War II, before returning to California with the Southern California Council of Churches,
and the American Bible Society.
Together with James, Charles spent the summer between his junior and senior high
school years staying with Aunt Jennie in Oskaloosa. James went to Lawrence Business College,
while Charles worked the family farm north of Oskaloosa with his Uncle Morrison Waite Smith
(who committed suicide that September after Charles went back to school).
Uncle Waite had a dairy cow herd on the farm, and Chuck helped with the twice-daily
milking. Waite (like many another farmer) mixed water with the milk in order to increase the
volume and value of it when taken into Oskaloosa to be mixed with the milk from all the other
farms. Chuck says that one day he accidently mixed in kerosene with the milk. When he told his
Uncle Waite, Waite replied that, once it was mixed with all the other milk, no one would notice
the difference; he was right.
Charles graduated from Kanopolis High School in 1932 (where he was editor of the
school newspaper, lettered in track, tennis, basketball, was "Snake Hips" on the football team,
and played clarinet in the band), and then, in 1933, he (& finally Woody in 1935) left Kansas, to
stay with Lucille, who was by then teaching in Buena Park, California.
Both Charles & Woody successively attended Fullerton Junior College and then
proceeded to the University of California at Berkeley (Charles graduating from UC in May 1938,
Woody in 1939). At Fullerton J.C., Charles and his close buddies Earl Alcorn and Bill Turpin19
were the "Big Three" (Phil Intorf was another acquaintance there, with whom he graduated, and
whom he would later meet again at the Ranger Station in Canby, Calif.). Each had worked for
the CCC summers (Charles was an assistant leader and got paid $36/mo), and each later became
a U. S. Forest Ranger. Unlike his buddies, however, Charles first went on to Yale University for
his master of forestry, which he obtained in 1939.20
Woody went to New Haven (mostly via Route 66) to be with his brothers for Christmas
of 1938 through New Year's of 1939 (Woody's birthday). En route in a 1927 Studebaker,
however, Woody and travel buddies (at $15 each for the trip) got taken into custody by police in
Texas. Seems a murder had just occurred and a dragnet was out. After a few hours they were
released. Once in New Haven, Jim, Chuck, and Woody headed for New York City to see the
sights – including a burlesque show at the end of Broadway, and a Rockefeller Center Christmas
program. These "Three Musketeers" also managed to visit their cousin Virginia Davis Voorhees
and her new baby girl (Mr. Voorhees was an Edison employee and a Captain in the N.Y.
National Guard), and their remarkable Aunt Eva Florence Smith. Eva, a diminutive lady with a
wig, lorgnette, and a grand style, had a studio apartment in the Carnegie Hall bldg. The three
young Smiths visited her there, and she took Woody to a Carnegie Hall production of "Aida" (she
had only two tickets, and it was Woody's birthday). At the intermission, she invited Woody to
have a Dubbonet with her. Woody declined. Eva had originally gone to New York City to study
art, and, though she was unable to make a living at it, paintings by her still exist and are quite
good.
Charles went to a Congregational Church in Anaheim, since that is where his friends
went, for the reasons mentioned above. Summers (1934-36), as noted, Charles worked in the
federal Civilian Conservation Corps (WPA).
At one point, Charles asked Lucille (then in Buena Park) to let him have the $300 he had
saved in the CCC, in order to invest in a gold mine in Nevada. But, thankfully, Lucille wouldn't
Earl Alcorn's family owned a ranch in Fallon, Nevada, and Ruby S. Cox went to high school there with19
Earl. When Earl brought his buddy Chuck home to work for the summer, Chuck met Ruby and the rest ishistory.
His master's thesis was on "The Basis and Methods of Fuel Type Mapping in the Regions of the United20
States." Some of his research was conducted in Urania, Louisiana.
let him have it at that time, a fact which he only later appreciated.
Mom & Pop retired in 1936 (he was 66 and in ill health) and returned to California to be
with Lucille, and were with her in Buena Park (1936-37), where Walter built a small trailer on a
chassis. Later they were with Lucille in Anaheim (1937-43). Lucille bought her father's
Plymouth from him. They witnessed the flood in Anaheim on March 3, 1938. The Methodist
Church paid him a quarterly annuity for the rest of his life
Then came World War II. As part of the War effort, even though a retired minister and in
his 70s, as a Goodwill Volunteer, Walter Grant walked to work every day to his job as a riveter
in the Douglas Sub-Assembly aircraft plant in Anaheim until the war was over. In late 1943,
Charles, Ruby, Robert & Madeline made a trip by train from Northern California (Hoopa Valley)
to Anaheim for a family gathering. Woody then was an Army Air Corps 2nd Lieutenant based at
Santa Ana Airfield, having recently returned from teaching flying in Pecos, Texas, from February
to September 1943. He would soon serve in Europe as a medium bomber pilot in the B-26
"Silver Streaks."21
Two years after Lucille went to San Francisco to teach in 1943, Mom & Pop moved to
415 South Newlin Avenue in Whittier (1945).
Walter Grant finally died of a heart attack at home in bed on 27 August 1947. He was 77.
His daughter Marjorie was there. His funeral on August 30th was at White Temple Methodist22
Church in Anaheim (on Broadway), where he had personally baptized his granddaughters Bonnie
and Barbara.
Woodrow spent a total of 14 months in Europe as an "orphan" pilot of B-26Gs for various Bomb21
Groups of the 9th Air Force based in France. He arrived in September 1944, as part of an emergencycontingent requested by Omar Bradley for operations in the Netherlands, but that operation was canceledafter the Remagen Bridge disaster. However, he soon saw action in the Battle of the Bulge. On onemission, he broke a tooth on a frozen candy bar (cold at high altitude). It took some time for the dentiststo find enough gold to fix it. That is the closest he came to a "Purple Heart"! After hostilities were overhe made a regular mail run from Paris until able to return to the States. The B-26 was a MartinMarauder, a very difficult to fly, high wing-load aircraft, sometimes called "The Widow Maker." SeeLambert D. Austin, ed., 344th Bomb Group "Silver Streaks"; History & Remembrances of World War II(St. Petersburg, Fla.: S. Heritage, 1996). The last known operational B-26 was recently restored atChino, California, and is housed at the Kermit Weeks Museum in Florida.
He was survived by two sisters, Alice Cary Nowlin of Kansas City, Missouri, and Jennie Gail Davis of22
Oskaloosa, Kansas. He had been preceded in death by sisters Ida May, Eva Florence, Mara Etta,Elizabeth Frances, and Maude Dell, and by his brothers Charles Lincoln, and Morrison Waite.
Kathryn Zane Frank Smith continued to live on Newlin Avenue in Whittier for some
years, stayed with Woody and Mildred for some months, then went to the Jernegan Rest Home in
La Habra. Later she stayed with Lucille in Modesto, Calif., for a year or so, and then moved to
the Todd Guest Home, 1552 Ohio Avenue, in Modesto. She died there November 3, 1963,
funeral services being held shortly thereafter at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier. She and23
her husband are buried next to each other at Rose Hills in grave II, plot 1424, of Ivy Lawn.
Little is known about her sisters, Bertha, Tillie, and Mary, or her half-brother Harry, since she was not23
raised with them; she and the family did occasionally visit her sister Annie Frank Boyer (b. 27 Nov1877), who lived on the Belmont Shore in Long Beach in the 20s through the 50s, and they had likewisehad earlier contact with her half-sister Minnie Frank (b. 24 Oct 1885), who spent most of her years inNorman and then Enid, Oklahoma.
THE RESIDENCES & FAMILY HOMES
OF
WALTER GRANT SMITH & FAMILY
1. Oskaloosa, Kansas (1870-1889)
2. Emporia, Kansas (1889-1895)
3. Butte, Montana (1895-1899)
4. Boston, Massachusetts (1899-1901)
5. Delaware, Ohio (1902-1904)
6. Boston, Massachusetts (1905-1906)
7. Topeka, Kansas (1906-1908) July 1906 married Kathryn Zane
8. Maywood, Missouri (1908-1910) Jan 1909 Marjorie born & later baptized
9. Akron, Iowa (Nov 1910 Lucille born)
10. Norton, Kansas (April 1913 James born)
11. St. Francis, Kansas (1913?-1914?)
12. San Diego, California (Feb 1915 started Trinity M.E. Church; July Charles b.)
13. Taft, California (1916)
14. Butte, Montana (1916)
15. Los Angeles, California (1917-1918)
16. Elsinore, California (1918-1920)
17. La Habra, California (1920-1922)
18. Brawley, California (1922-1923)
19. Dewey, Oklahoma (1923)
20. Medford, Oklahoma (1923-1924)
21. Huntington Beach, California (Summer 1924)
22. South Pasadena, California (1924-1926)
23. Alhambra, California (Summer 1925)
24. Pacific Beach (1925-1926)
25. Belen, New Mexico (1926-1928)
26. Yucaipa (Cali-Mesa), California (1928-1930)
27. Morrison, Okla / Wynona, Kansas (1930-1931)
28. Kanopolis, Kansas (1931-1932)
29. Tescott, Kansas (1933-1934)
30. Formosa & Courtland, Kansas (1934?-1936)
31. Buena Park, California (1936-1937)
32. Anaheim, California (1937-1945)
33. Whittier, California (1945-Walter Grant died 1947)
34. La Habra, California (Journigan Rest Home)
35. Modesto, California (Kathryn Zane died 1963)
FORMAL EDUCATION OF
KATHRYN LUCILLE SMITH
Kindergarten San Diego, Calif (1914-1915) @4
1st grade San Diego, Calif (1915-1916) @5
1st grade Taft, Calif (1915-1916) @6
2nd grade Butte, Montana (Mar-Aug 1917??) @6
2nd grade Los Angeles, Calif (Jefferson School) (Aug-Sep 1917)
2nd grade Lake Elsinore, Calif (Oct 1917-1918) @7
3rd grade Lake Elsinore, Calif (1918-1919) @8
4th grade Los Angeles, Calif (summer & early fall 1919)
4th grade Lake Elsinore, Calif (1919-1920) @9
5th grade La Habra, Calif (1920-1921) @10
6th grade La Habra, Calif (1920-1921) @10
6th grade Brawley, Calif (1921-1922) @11
7th grade Dewey, Okla (Oct 1922-1923) @12
8th grade Medford, Okla, and Huntington Beach, Calif (1923-1924)
9th grade South Pasadena, Calif (1924-1925) @14
10th grade La Jolla, Calif (1925-1926) @15
11th grade Belen, New Mexico (1926-1927) @16
12th grade Pasadena H.S., Calif. (1927-1928) @17 (with the Bairds)
13th Pasadena Junior College (1928-1929) @18 " " "
14th Pasadena J.C. (1929-1930) @19 " " "
15th University of Southern California, L.A. (1930-1931)
16th USC (1931-1932) @ 21 (B.S. in Educ.)
teaching in Buena Park (fall 1932)
FORMAL EDUCATION OF
MARJORIE LOUISE SMITH
?? St. Francis, Kansas ?? (1913-1914) @4-5
1st grade San Diego, Calif ?? (1914-1915) @5-6
2nd grade Taft, Calif (1915-1916) @6-7
3rd grade Butte, Montana (Mar-Aug 1917) @7-8
4th grade Los Angeles, Calif (Jefferson School) (1917) @8
4th grade Lake Elsinore, Calif (1918) @9
5th grade Lake Elsinore, Calif (1918-1919) @9-10
6th grade Los Angeles, Calif (summer & early fall 1919)
6th grade Lake Elsinore, Calif (1919-1920) @10-11
7th grade La Habra, Calif (1920-1921) @11-12
8th grade La Habra, Calif (1921-1922) @12-13 BRAWLEY GRAD
@12
9th grade Brawley, Calif (1922-1923) @13-14 H.S. @12
10th grade Dewey/Medford, Okla, and Hntg Beach, Calif (1923-1924)
11th grade South Pasadena, Calif (1924-1925) @15-16
12th grade South Pasadena, Calif (1925-1926) @16-17
13th Redlands Univ., Calif (1927-1928) @17-18
14th Redlands Univ., Calif (1928-1929) @18-19
15th Redlands Univ., Calif (1929-1930) @19-20
16th Redlands Univ., Calif (1930-1931) @20-21
17th National College, Kansas City, Kans (1931-1932)
FORMAL EDUCATION OF
JAMES THEODORE SMITH
1st grade Lake Elsinore, Calif (1919-1920) @6
2nd grade La Habra, Calif (1920-1921) @7
3rd grade La Habra, Calif (1921-1922) @8
4th grade Brawley, Calif (1922-1923) @9 3RD GRADE IN
BRAWLEY
5th grade Dewey/Medford, Okla, and Hntngt Beach, Calif (1923-
1924)
6th grade South Pasadena, Calif (1924-1925) @11
7th grade La Jolla, Calif (1925-1926) @12
8th grade Belen, New Mexico (1926-1927) @13
9th grade Belen, New Mexico (1927-1928) @14
10th grade Yucaipa, Calif?? (1928-1929) @15
11th grade Redlands/Yucaipa H.S. (1929-1930) @16
12th grade Wynona, Oklahoma?? (1930-1931) @17
13th Kansas Wesleyan, Salina (1931-1932??) @18
14th Kansas Wesleyan (1932-1933??) @19
15th Kansas Wesleyan (1933-1934??) @20
16th Kansas Wesleyan (1934-1935??) @21
17th Yale Divinity School, New Haven (1935-1936??) @22
18th Yale Divinity School (1936-1937??) @23
19th Yale Divinity School (1937-1938??) @24
20th Yale Divinity School (1938-1939??) @25
FORMAL EDUCATION OF
CHARLES FOSTER SMITH
Kindergarten Los Angeles, Calif (fall 1919) @4
Kindergarten La Habra, Calif (1920-1921) @5
1st grade La Habra (1921-1922) @6
2nd grade Brawley, Calif ? (1922-1923) @7
3rd grade doc Medford, Okla, & Huntington Beach, Calif. (1923-1924) @8
4th grade South Pasadena, Calif. (1924-1925) @9
5th grade Pacific Beach, Calif (1925-1926) @10
6th grade doc Belen, New Mexico (1926-1927) @11
7th grade Belen, New Mexico (1927-1928) @12
8th grade Yucaipa, Calif (1928-1929) @13
9th grade Redlands/Yucaipa, Calif (1929-1930) @14
10th grade Morrison, Okla??/ Wynona, Kans?? (1930??)
11th grade doc Kanopolis, Kansas (1930-1931) @15
12th grade Kanopolis, Kansas (1931-1932) @16
(1932-1933) @17 took year off from school??
13th doc Fullerton, Calif., Junior College (1933-1935) @18-19
14th doc Fullerton J.C. (1935-1936) @19-20
15th doc Berkeley, Calif., U.C. (1936-1937) @21
16th doc Berkeley, UCB (1937-1938) @22
17th doc New Haven, Conn., Yale (1938-1939) @23
FORMAL EDUCATION OF
WOODROW WALTER SMITH
Kindergarten Dewey, Oklahoma (1922-1923) @4-5
1st grade Medford, Okla, & Huntington Beach, Calif (1923-1924) @5-6
2nd grade South Pasadena, Calif (1924-1925) @6-7
3rd grade Pacific Beach, Calif (1925-1926) @7-8
4th grade Belen, New Mexico (1926-1927) @8-9
5th grade Belen, New Mexico (1927-1928) @9-10
6th grade Yucaipa, Calif (1928-1929) @10-11
7th grade Morrison, Oklahoma (1929-1930) @11-12
8th grade Wynona, Kansas (1930-1931) @12-13
9th grade Wynona & Kanopolis, Kansas (1931-1932) @13-14
10th grade Kanopolis, Kansas (1932-1933) @14-15
11th grade Tescott, Kansas (1933-1934) @15-16
12th grade Fullerton, Calif (1934-1935) @16-17 Fullerton H.S.
13th Fullerton, Calif., Junior College (1935-1936) @17-18
14th Fullerton J.C. (1936-1937) @18-19
15th Berkeley, Calif., U.C. (1937-1938) @19-20
16th Berkeley, UCB (1938-1939) @20-21
teaching at Chaffey H.S. (1942-1943) @24-25
teaching at Chaffey H.S. (1946-1948) @28-29
17th Claremont Graduate School, Calif (1948-1950) @29-31
Whittier summer sessions (1951)
James T. Smith letter to Family and Friends, July 1992:
"When the clergy men and women meet in an executive session they sing an old but meaningful
hymn composed by John Wesley in the midst of the 1700's entitled 'And are we yet alive.' Two
verses go like this: 'And are we yet alive, And see each other's faces? Glory and thanks to Jesus
give, For his almighty grace. What troubles have we seen, What mighty conflicts past, Fightings
without, and fears within, Since we assembled last!' My father was a Methodist clergyman. He
and his family moved too often so lots of new parishes (often quite poor) was our lot as a
growing family. We saw many parsonages but money was scarce even to what dad explained as
a 'irreducible minimum.' There was some politics in acquiring a better heeled parish or charge in
those days. A good salary was about $2,000 per year plus house. During the course of a
conference there is great music, but 'Are We Yet Alive' began the session and always reminded
me of the early years when my father and mother brought their five children through happy and
stressful times."
-----------------------------------------
Additional notes
Woody was at least ages13 & 14 (8 & 9 grades) when he was in Belèn – 1926 thruth th
1928. According to the records found in Belèn, Grandad went to New Mexico to head the Belèn
Federated Community Church of Christ there from September 1926 to September 1929. He went
at the request of the Methodist Missionary Board, which helped support that church. During his
tenure, the Ladies Aid Society (the Federated Pastor’s wife was usually the President) renovated
and enlarged the church kitchen, built cabinets, and acquired a banquet set of dishes and
silverware by spending two years selling a couple hundred dollars worth of subscriptions to
Holland Magazine throughout the town. Each member donated two or three dish towels.
Lumber was purchased and tables enough made to seat 100 for dinner. Fabric was bought, and
hemmed table cloths were made to fit the tables. The village installed a sewage and water system
at this time, so the church tied into it and water was now piped into the kitchen, and a sink
installed. A hand pump was also installed at the back door, while water was heated in tubs and
pans for the frequent church suppers. Grandad started a Daily Vacation Bible School, which ran
for three weeks each summer, was well-attended and very successful. These BVBS terms
continued until 1933.24
One set of authors notes that Grandad performed the marriage of Dorothy Helen Dalies
and Austin Dee Lovett on December 29, 1928, at 1:00 pm.25
Chuck and Woody went to Central Grade School at 600 West Reinken Avenue (now
Lowe’s Market). Jim may have gone there one year, then to the red brick Valencia County26
High School the following year (at 4 & Castillo, very near the current High School in Belèn). 27 th
The High School had over 200 students, and a faculty of 11. Lucille was a junior in the High28
School, and found the classes easy, except for Spanish (because most of the students were native
speakers!). The family lived in an adobe and stucco parsonage next to the 1911 adobe Church,29
and only a couple of blocks east of Central Grade School.
The region had a population of about 25,000 during the 1920s, but Belèn village itself
had a much smaller population of around 1,500 to 2,000. In cold winters, ice-skating took30
place in the frozen swamps throughout the Valley, but especially on the beautiful desagua or
“pond” belonging to John Becker located on Reinken Street, facing the Federated Church (now
Bess Campbell (Mrs. Tom B. Campbell), “History of Belen and the Federated Church,” 1952 (Loneta24
Campbell’s mother).
Austin & Dorothy Lovett, “History of Our Church,” Sept 30, 1976, p. 4.25
It was of two stories, built from 1905-1907, with an adjacent building as a pump house with toilet26
facilities – 1910 & 1920 photos and description in Margaret E. McDonald & Richard Melzer, ValenciaCounty, New Mexico: Through the Photographer’s Lens (Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co., 2002), 95-96.
Margaret Espinosa McDonald, “Vamos Todos a Belèn”: Cultural Transformations of the Hispanic27
Community of Belen, New Mexico from 1850-1950, doctoral thesis (Univ. of New Mexico, Dept ofAmerican Studies, 1997), 187-188. Goebel’s Dance Hall was used as a make-shift gym for High Schoolbasketball, and (195) even the girls had a basketball team there in the 1920s. See McDonald & Melzer,Valencia County, New Mexico, 113. I got to speak personally with author Maggie McDonald, who nowworks for the Consolidated School District in Belèn.
McDonald & Melzer, loc. cit.28
Built in 1917, along with the social hall, with half-basement and coal shute.29
McDonald, thesis, 248.30
filled in as part of Anna Becker Park). It was probably the Becker dry goods store for which31
Marjorie worked as a salesgirl in the summer of 1927. The Beckers were rich and pillars of the
village and of the Federated Church.
Nine denominations were part of the Federated Church when it was founded in July 1922,
but eventually as many as nineteen joined in. As he had done in Elsinore, Grandad had a circuit
of churches he ministered to, including one in Las Lunas (just to the north of Belèn). The mayor
of the village of Belèn at that time was Manuel Garcia, and the large Hispanic population
controlled most political and civic offices in the area (city council, courts, law enforcement,
school board, etc.). There was no public library or public swimming pool in the village until32
1929, but there was a Commercial Club (Chamber of Commerce), an American Legion Post, and
a Woman’s Club.
The area was always one of rich bottom-land (El Río Abajo), as it is today. It was first
explored by Francisco Coronado in 1540, then first settled by Don Juan de Oñate in 1598. The33
name of the region came from the royal Spanish land grant of 121,633 acres made to a group of34
32 men and women headed by Captain Diego de Torres, who became the Alcalde Mayor. The35
grant was titled Nuestra Señora de Belèn “Our Lady of Bethlehem.” The new village rose
primarily on the west side of the Rio Grande river, although the Camino Real from Mexico City36
to Santa Fe went up the east side of the river.37
Crops in this fertile area were primarily corn, wheat, fruit, squash, and chili, while sheep
McDonald, thesis, 188, 192-193, and figures 73-74; McDonald & Melzer, Valencia County, New31
Mexico, 114-115 (with photos).
McDonald, thesis, 242.32
McDonald, thesis, xix.33
The number of acres in F. Stanley, The Belen, New Mexico Story (Pantex, TX: author, July 1962).34
The Spanish alcaldia system subsumed within one man (El Alcalde) all military, judicial, and35
executive power.
McDonald, thesis, xxii-xxvi. The village of Belèn was formally incorporated in 1918, and kept its36
“village” status until 1940.
McDonald, thesis, 227.37
were grazed on the high, grassy mesas. Later on, as Dr. McDonald says, “every family in the38
valley had fruit trees,” and some “had large orchards.” This eventually included Grandad’s39
excellent garden, where he grew plenty of corn – probably very near the parsonage and church at
418 West Reinken Ave. – which was watered by a weir box fed by the Rio Grande (possibly via
the El Chamisal irrigation ditch built in 1927). However, the parsonage was recently torn down,
and the old Federated Church there is now the headquarters of the Riverside Funeral Home, Inc.
(as of 1998).40
An old Spanish Roman Catholic Christmas hymn has a verse as follows:
Vamos todos a Belèn Let us all go to Bethlehem
Con amor y gozo With love and rejoicing
Adoremos al Señor, To adore the Lord,
Nuestro Redentor. Our Redeemer.
Which should remind us of that occasion when Jim, Chuck, and Woody went on that long
journey across the high mesas with a burro to find a decent Christmas tree. The burro was also
used in the Nativity scene at the Church. Chuck said that the burro was just his size and that he
rode it all over the mesa.
The Ku Klux Klan attempted to frighten the local Hispanics in the 1920s, but failed. 41
Perhaps that is where Jim found a Klan robe under a bridge, but left it there.
At age 11 or 12, Chuck’s first girlfriend or “crush” was Loneta Campbell, one of the four
daughters of Tom Bell Campbell and Martha Elizabeth (Bess) Campbell, who came to Belen in
1918. They were Baptists. It is unknown whether Chuck’s feelings were reciprocated (he did
claim to have played “spin the bottle” in those days), but Loneta eventually married a man named
McDonald, thesis, 24-25.38
McDonald, thesis, 23.39
For a nice 1911 photo of the church, see McDonald & Melzer, Valencia County, New Mexico, 89.40
McDonald, Vamos Todos a Belèn, 238-239.41
Zinn. One cute story told about Loneta is that she used to take a lunch to her father each day,42
skating on her roller skates as far as the sidewalk and street would allow, then taking off her
skates to walk the remaining distance on a dirt path. Then home again in the same fashion.
The powerful importance of Belen as the “Hub City” lay in its location: It was not only a
key stop on the old El Camino Real from Mexico City to Santa Fe. It was also eventually
situated at the confluence (transcontinental rail head) of four branches of the Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fe Railroad, going north, south, east, and west – with the “Belèn Cut Off” of 1909. If43
that were not enough, it was also on Route 66 (Steinbeck’s “Mother Road”), which opened
officially in 1926. It was not until 1939, that the route bypassed Belèn/Los Lunas, going over a
high pass and straight into Albuquerque from Laguna.44
Of course it was along Route 66 on the way to Belèn that Jim shot a rabbit, cooked it, and
fed the meat to Chuck – who had been subsisting on liquids since the Diptheria shot in Pacific
Beach, California, had supposedly affected him somehow (although Jim and Chuck both
considered it a purely psychological problem). Grandma had already been feeding him bananas.
He began eating normally again in Belèn, but it was quite some time before he gained real weight
(Woody even weighed more that he did for some years).
Grandpa and the boys often went out rabbit hunting on the mesas or “flats” in order to
supply the family with meat. Also, the boys engaged in 4-H projects, such as raising Rhode
Island Red and Black Minorca hens. Otherwise the family subsisted on the weekly collection
plate and on donations-in-kind. Such was the life of an itinerant minister.
Valencia County Historical Society, Rio Abajo Heritage: A History of Valencia County (ca. 1981), 73.42
McDonald, Vamos Todos a Belèn, viii.43
Quinta Scott, Along Route 66 (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2000). An excellent detail map44
shows which cities the Smith family surely encountered on their cross-country trips. See also T. S. Last,“On Route 66: It Headed North and South Here – The Only Place in the Nation,” Valencia County News-Bulletin, 2001-2002, Welcome to Valencia County, 22,24,26.
