Individual Details

1901 , McHenry, Illinois Plaindealer
Miss Hitty Hawley, then less than seventeen years of age married Aaron Smith on Nov. 10, 1787, at Springfield, Mass.
Smith served in the Continental army during the Revolution with the rank of Captain.
In 1788, after the close of the Revolution, he moved with his wife to northern Vermont. They travelled on horseback and their only guide was blazed trees the greater part of the way, for there were few roads. They located in Johnson, Lamoille county. Not long afterwards his brother Samuel joined him there. At that time, the town was almost an unbroken forest, infested with wild beasts and far from every trace of civilization. But the brave young couple were not daunted; the great trees were cut down to clear the ground for their cabin, and the logs were used to build it. It had no door, and they hung up a quilt in its place. It was a shelter from the inclemencies of the weather, but not much protection from wild beasts. In that cabin there was not much furniture and that of the rudest kind, made by themselves, and, perhaps a few dear house-keeping treasures brought by the young wife from her distant home. They had but little with which to begin life, except hope and health and energy. These they used to good prupose. To clear the land of its heavy growth of trees,--to break the ground and prepare it for its first crop with the few tools they had, was a task for them that would daunt most any one. but they overcame these difficulties by courage and perseverance, and provided food for the little family from the forest and streams till the first crops could be raised.
Aaron Smith was a man of great physical strength, blue-eyed, kindly, fearless and resolute, a man who did his duty well and quietly,--one whose best qualities showed best in difficult circumstances. Of his wife's ability to share the duties of a pioneer life, there can be no doubt, nor of her courage to face its dangers.
The few necessities of life they could not provide were brought many miles through the woods, and during the earliest years, Aaron carried them on his back. During those absences the little home was left unprotected. There were no roads and he found his way by marked trees. Once, Aaron carried a table on his shoulders from Cambridge to Johnson a distance of thirteen miles; at another time he carried a five pail iron kettle over the same long road. During her husband's absence, at one time, the young wife, Hitty Smith, heard wome wild animal tramping round outside her little cabin with a quilt for a door. The next morning, moose tracks were found in the little garden and she knew what her visitor had been.
One spring they had planted some potatoes, but before they had the time to grow into a crop, they became so pinched for food, that they dug up the potatoes to eat. Another time food became so scarce, they caught a woodchuck an ate his meat. Again, Aaron shot a moose and "backed" its quarters home for miles on snow shoes as it was the only way he had to get them there.
In that little log cabin, on Feb. 12, 1789, their first child, Samuel Johnson, was born. He was the first white child born in the area. He lived but a short time, his death recorded Aug. 9 1791.
A little later on, when they had more cleared ground and more settlers had come in to the country around, and their circumstances improved, they took their wheat to mill on horse back to Peacham, forty miles away. On Aaron's way home from one of these trips, night came on, and his horse suddenly shied at some object and made a partial circle away from it. He went back to find out what the horse had seen, and found a large bear sitting there.
There is a sad story of a defective title to a large tract of land for which Aaron had paid and of which he supposed himself the owner. Certain statesmen of New York, corruptly combining with land speculators, procured, by their intrigues at the British court, a decree making the Connecticut river the boundary between New Hampshire and New York, thus throwing the New Hampshire Grants within the jurisdiction of New York. The settlers had the choice of abandoning their farms, which they had honestly bought and paid for, with all the improvements they had made, or of purchasing them again on such terms as the Yorkers might choose to offer. The settlers petitioned and remonstrated, but in vain. Sheriffs and bodies of armed men were sent against them; a long and bitter struggle grew out of it in which the "Green Mountain Boys" led by Ethan Allen and Seth Warner were, in the main, successful. This struggle lasted many years and was not fully settled until Vermont became an independant state March 4, 1791. As an outgrowth of this controversy, Aaron Smith lost the title to his land and was obliged to re-purchase, but contented himself with a smaller tract the second time.
The death of his brother, Samuel Smith, under very sad circumstances was the cause of great grief to him. They were clearing a piece of land across the Gihon river, a branch of the Lamoille; Samuel attempted to swim across with his axe. It was a time of very high water with a strong current. He miscalculated his own strength or the strength of the current and was swept down stream and drowned. Search was made for days to find his body, but without success. At last, it is said, Aaron dreamed it was in a certain place in the river. When he awoke, he said "I know where Sam is." They went to that place and found him. When he was swept away by the current, his body was stopped by some brush and was found there, partially imbedded in sand.
In spite of sorrows, difficulties and dangers they prospered,--their home became more comfortable, their fields became broader and richer and sons and daughters were growing up around them. In 1801 they built them a substantial home which is still standing in good condition, though nearly a century has elapsed.
To do what this young couple did, and other pioneers of the class to which they belonged, required courage, will-power and endurance that would compel success anywhere. It was slow work to convert a forest into a field with the few tools they had and their own unaided strength. The labor was hard and they needed nourishing food. It was not easy to get flour and meal; they could have fish and game and could make sugar from the maples in the spring. It was difficult to get the necessities, they had few comforts and no luxuries for many years. There was not much time for idleness or repining among those early settlers. while the men were busy making fields from soil covered with dense forests, the women were not idle. They had the same courage, the same hopefulness and the same determination to succeed in the face of all the hardships of pioneer life.
One winter, Hitty Smith made a visit to her old home in Massachusetts. when she came back she brought four apple trees, carefully wrapped up. They were placed in a warm spring till they could be planted out. Those were the first apple trees planted in the town of Johnson. They grew and prospered, and retained their vigor for many years and even Hitty Smith's grand-children enjoyed their fruit. As late as 1850, William smith gathered twenty-five bushels of apples from on of those trees.
Aaron and Hitty Smith lived to see the town of Johnson changed from a forest with scarcely an inhabitant to a thriving community with comfortable homes, school, churches, mills and other business places. They had the pleasure of knowing they had done their full share toward its development, and had earned the right to be proud of their life work.
They were the parents of twelve children, five of whom died at an early age. The remaining seven grew to sturdy, energetic manhood and womanhood. Trained to habits of industry and economy by the necessities of their early life as children of pioneers, they had in them the material of which good citizens are made,--the material to make them foremost in the development of any country whether in the making of homes, the cultivation of the soil or in more complex business transactions. They knew how to overcome difficulties and make the most and best of any position they were called upon to fill. They were prepared to do their duty well in all the relations of life. Three of the sons married and settled near them, the fourth, and youngest, lived with them after his marriage. The daughters were unmarried when their parents died.
From the "Family History of John Wire Smith" compiled and edited by Mrs. H. P. Buckland

Birth	9 Jan 1771	Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts
Marriage	10 Nov 1787	Hadley, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. - Aaron Smith
Death	7 Oct 1835	Johnson, Lamoille County, Vermont

Spouse	Aaron Smith (1765 - 1830)
Child	Lemuel Hawley Smith (1799 - 1868)

Father	Lemuel Hawley (1748 - 1797)
Mother	Rebecca Tilden (1753 - 1850)