When Orval Spencer Smith was born on 4 June 1879, in Colfax, McLean, Illinois, United States, his father, Stephen East Smith Sr, was 28 and his mother, Amelia Wiley, was 23. He married Viola Ethyl Roberts on 26 July 1905, in Bayard, Morrill, Nebraska, United States. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 2 daughters. He lived in Bayard, Morrill, Nebraska, United States for about 20 years. He died on 25 August 1959, at the age of 80, and was buried in Bayard, Morrill, Nebraska, United States.
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Historical Boundaries: 1880: McLean, Illinois, United States
Garfield was shot twice by Charles J. Guitea at Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. on July 2, 1881. After eleven weeks of intensive and other care Garfield died in Elberon, New Jersey, the second of four presidents to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln.
This Act set a price at which gold could be traded for paper money.
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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