When Nelson J Smith was born on 8 March 1854, in Iowa, United States, his father, Andrew Jackson Smith, was 34 and his mother, Mahala Ann Cooper, was 27. He married Ann Electa Johnson in 1880, in Denison, Crawford, Iowa, United States. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 1 daughter. He lived in Kansas, United States in 1905 and Ford Township, Ford, Kansas, United States in 1910. He died on 20 November 1930, in Marshalltown, Marshall, Iowa, United States, at the age of 76, and was buried in Riverside Cemetery, Marshalltown, Marshall, Iowa, United States.
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Abraham Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in Confederate states to be free.
Historical Boundaries: 1867: Ford, Kansas, United States
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.
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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