Brief Life History of Mary Viola
When Mary Viola Smith was born on 7 November 1872, in Grinnell, Poweshiek, Iowa, United States, her father, Robert Edmund Smith, was 32 and her mother, Auerilia Jane Nelson, was 31. She married John Alexander Stoaks on 30 June 1892, in Malcom, Poweshiek, Iowa, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 2 daughters. She lived in Woodward, Oklahoma, United States in 1936 and Union Township, Woodward, Oklahoma, United States for about 10 years. She died on 9 October 1956, at the age of 83, and was buried in Mooreland, Woodward, Oklahoma, United States.
Photos and Memories (1)
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Family Time Line
Sources (34)
- Unknown, "United States 1950 Census"
- Legacy NFS Source: Mary Viola Smith - Individual or family possessions: birth-name: Mary Viola Smith
- Mary V Lane, "Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995"
Spouse and Children
Parents and Siblings
World Events (8)
1875 · A Treaty with Hawaii
In the Mid 1870s, The United States sought out the Kingdom of Hawaii to make a free trade agreement. The Treaty gave the Hawaiians access to the United States agricultural markets and it gave the United States a part of land which later became Pearl Harbor.
1884 · There is now a Capital Building
The capitol building in Des Moines originally had a budget of $1,500,000 but complications arose because of the need of a redesign. The building was dedicated on January 17, 1884, but it wasn’t completed until 1886. On January 4, 1904, a fire started and swept through the areas that housed the Supreme Court and Iowa House of Representatives. A major restoration was performed and documented, with the addition of electrical lighting, elevators, and a telephone system. By the early 1980s, the sandstone exterior of the Capitol had started deteriorating and prompted the installation of canopies to protect pedestrians from falling rubble. The entire reconstruction process took around 18 years to complete.
1896 · Plessy vs. Ferguson
A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities if the segregated facilities were equal in quality. It's widely regarded as one of the worst decisions in U.S. Supreme Court history.
Name Meaning
English and Scottish: occupational name denoting a worker in metal, especially iron, such as a blacksmith or farrier, from Middle English smith ‘smith’ (Old English smith, probably a derivative of smītan ‘to strike, hammer’). Early examples are also found in the Latin form Faber . Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents in other languages were the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is also the most frequent of all surnames in the US. It is very common among African Americans and Native Americans (see also 5 below). This surname (in any of the two possible English senses; see also below) is also found in Haiti. See also Smither .
English: from Middle English smithe ‘smithy, forge’ (Old English smiththe). The surname may be topographic, for someone who lived in or by a blacksmith's shop, occupational, for someone who worked in one, or habitational, from a place so named, such as Smitha in King's Nympton (Devon). Compare Smithey .
Irish and Scottish: sometimes adopted for Gaelic Mac Gobhann, Irish Mac Gabhann ‘son of the smith’. See McGowan .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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