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All Forums Category: US Stamps and Covers Discussions Forum: US Covers

Anyone Heard Of Smiths, Massachusetts?

 
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wt1
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Posted 04/26/2013   12:09 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this topic Add wt1 to your friends list Get a Link to this Message
Thought some might find this research interesting:

I came across this recent ebay listing for a postcard and was curious about the town name of Smiths, Mass., as even as a lifelong Massachusetts resident, I've never heard of the town before:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SCARCE-1907...em5af08c8c6b

Here's an image of the postcard/postmark from the above link:



Jim Forte's Postal History Website suggests the post office was in operation between 1892-1936, but no example of a postmarked cover from that location is shown.

I then discovered why I had never heard of it. The post office was apparently closed and merged (?) with Enfield, Massachusetts, which was one of the lost Massachusetts towns drowned in the 1930s to make way for the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir:



I found it to be interesting research about a long forgotten post office.
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Edited by wt1 - 04/26/2013 4:45 pm

I_Love_Stamps
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Posted 04/26/2013   12:23 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add I_Love_Stamps to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Very interesting! I love when stuff like this surfaces. Are you Familiar with Maynard from the other side of the card?
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wt1
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Posted 04/26/2013   1:00 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add wt1 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
Are you Familiar with Maynard from the other side of the card?


Yeah. Maynard is a "bedroom community" of 10,000 about 20 miles west of Boston. An interesting Wiki read about the mills that were commonplace there in the last century and the history of the family for which the town is named:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynar...assachusetts

Anyway, getting back to the named addressee on the original postcard, I found this listing from the 1900 US Census, suggesting that the family did indeed live in Enfield, Mass., with Agnes A. Lisk having been born in October 1895, meaning that she would have been about 11 years old at the time the postcard was sent. I find it rather amazing that a postcard from a child of that age would survive all of these years.

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dlambert1
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United States
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Posted 04/26/2013   3:23 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add dlambert1 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Maynard, MA, was also the original home of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), a major manufacturer of microprocessors/minicomputers, that is now defunct. I believe it was rolled up into Intel, but could be wrong. My wife is from Hudson, MA, about 10 miles from Maynard, so we know the area: Bolton, Stow, Maynard, Hudson, Sudbury, Wayland, Weston, etc.

Very interesting about Smiths; I had never heard of it.

Donald
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wt1
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Posted 04/26/2013   4:49 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add wt1 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
A poor image I know, but this is an example of how obscure a location it was ... this was the railroad station at Smiths, Mass.:




Quote:
The Swift River Company was the dominant business in Smith's Village, which was about a mile north of Enfield Village (the two of which comprised the Town of Enfield). Smith's was indeed a company-store type of arrangement, with most of the village's buildings and property - including tenement dwellings and houses occupied by company employees - owned by the Swift River Company. Expanded from property acquired from Packard Ford in 1822, founder David Smith included relatives Alvin and Alfred Smith in the mill's ownership in 1845, selling each partial interests. In 1852, the Smith's formed the Swift River Company, which continued under family control until 1913, when the property was sold. The mill was owned by the Federal Fabrics Corporation when it was sold to the Massachusetts Water District Supply Commission (MWDSC) in 1926.
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Edited by wt1 - 04/26/2013 4:55 pm
doug2222
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Posted 04/26/2013   5:16 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add doug2222 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
The reason that postcards survived: until World War I, every parlor had a velvet album of postcards, received from friends and relatives, and if you visited on a Sunday afternoon, you were expected to OOH and AHH over the cards. As we have seen from some of the threads on SCF, there were also many Postcard Exchanges, some with thousands of participants. [Most] Cards cost a penny, postage cost a penny. Cheap entertainment for the masses. The finest cards came from Germany, but World War I shut off the supply permanently.

Unfortunately, World War II paper drives then destroyed millions of these old albums. Rarely do they now show up intact and unpicked.

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doug2222
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Posted 04/26/2013   5:19 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add doug2222 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
The present roster of "Smiths" does not include Massachusetts.

Smiths, Alabama, United States [CDP]; population was 3,456 in 1990; housing units was 1,331 in 1990; location is 32°32'N 85°5'W; land area is 16.05 square miles (10,275 acres); water area is 0.15 square miles (99 acres); FIPS code is 71136 [SourceCBP]
Smiths, Alabama, United States Postal Service Zip Code is 36877 [SourcePSZ]
Smiths, Iowa, United States [Place] is in Jackson County; location is 42°19'21"N 90°25'51"W [SourceGSP]
Smiths, Mississippi, United States [Place] is in Hinds County; location is 32°20'21"N 90°40'23"W [SourceGSP]
Smiths, North Carolina, United States [Place] is in Robeson County; location is 34°39'10"N 78°52'4"W; elevation is 147 feet [SourceGSP] (from www.placesnamed.com)
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