This is an American story that you probably have never heard about. It is the story of a black woman in the civil war named Lydia Smith. Please take the time to read her story…
A woman of great heart, Lydia Hamilton Smith was born on Valentine’s
Day at Russell Tavern in Adams County, Pennsylvania, to an African American
mother and an Irish father. She married a free black man named Jacob Smith
and bore two sons but they separated before he died in 1852 and she raised
the children alone. Thaddeus Stevens of Lancaster, whom Lydia Smith and her
mother knew when he was an attorney and abolitionist in Gettysburg, offered
her a position as his housekeeper. She moved there with her young sons in 1847.
In 1848 Stevens was elected to the U.S. Congress, where he advocated ending
slavery. In recent years, archeologists have discovered evidence that the cistern
at his Lancaster house was used as a hiding place for freedom seekers and suspect
that Stevens and Smith participated in the Underground Railroad. Smith accompanied
Stevens on his trips to Washington, D.C. She was a close friend, included in
Stevens’s social gatherings and addressed as “Madam” or “Mrs.
Smith.” A noted artist, probably Charles Bird King, painted her portrait.
In 1860 Smith purchased her home from Stevens, on a lot adjacent to his.
The 1860s brought hardship and Civil War. Lydia Smith’s oldest son William
died in 1860 and Isaac, a noted banjo player and barber, enlisted in the 6th
U. S. Colored Troops in 1863. He and his regiment served primarily in Virginia.
After the Battle of Gettysburg in July, Lydia Smith acted upon her compassion
for the tens of thousands of wounded soldiers. Driving a borrowed horse and
wagon through Adams County to a field hospital, she collected donations of
food and clothing and distributed them among the wounded men, Union and Confederate
alike.
One person said about Lydia, "She was a poor colored woman who had saved a little money by years of
hard labor. After the battle, she hired a wagon and horse and traveled
through the farms, telling of the thousands of suffering men. She
accepted donations of food and clothing and, when the donations dried
up, began spending her own money. Each day, with her wagon heaped high,
she turned toward the hospitals; and when she reached them, weary from
miles of travel, she began to distribute the articles she had brought.
To Union soldiers only? No. Union and Confederate alike. In the latter,
she was able to see past their role as warriors who were fighting to
perpetuate slavery and view them only as wounded, suffering humans. She
continued to provide the makeshift hospital populations around
Gettysburg with food, clothing and delicacies until she had spent her
entire life savings."
Smith and Stevens’s partnership lasted twenty-four years, until “the
Great Commoner” (as Stevens was known in Congress) died in 1868. He left
$5,000 to Smith in his will. She purchased Stevens’s home in Lancaster
and a large boarding house across from the prestigious Willard Hotel in Washington,
DC. She spent most of her time operating the establishment and earned a reputation
as an astute businesswoman, but she returned often to Lancaster. Lydia Smith
died on Valentine’s Day 1884 in Washington, D.C., and was buried in the
cemetery of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Lancaster, where she had long
been a member.
I have a belief (not Biblical) that certain days that people are born or die on are symbolic. To die on one's birthday for me is a gift from God, telling the whole world that God was pleased with the efforts of this person. Corrie Ten Boom for example not only died on her birthday, but it was also Passover, the holy day for the Jews (and Christians) that she helped save during World War II. It should be noticed that Lydia died on her birthday… Yes, on a pagan holiday, but nonetheless still a sign from God that maybe He was pleased!
