Matthew Smith (1773 - 1834)

Born 4 Apr 1773 in Salem, Westchester, New York

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 16 Aug 1834 at age 61 in Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Ohio, United States

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Biography

Matthew Smith married Mary Wright in 1797 at Eden Valley, New York. After their first child was born, Matthew Smith and his brothers, Jabish, Seth and Joel went over the border to Canada. At Fort Erie in 1797, they built a mill on the Niagara River. Another record states that they were hired under contract to the Crown, to clear the land of trees for 50 cents per tree at Fort Erie. Considering that this was old timber, it was quite a task to accomplish. Pictures of their descendants show tall, well built young men, to accomplish all of the physical work that they did, they must have been physically powerful as well as very entrepreneurial.

They dammed the river on the Canadian side with a stone race for an ice breaker and built a mill. This is now the site of the Peace Bridge between the U.S. and Canada. This mill stood for many years until it was burned by smugglers, years after the Smiths had abandoned it. After building this mill, they sold it and went up Lake Erie about ten miles to a stony ridge where they built a "windmill" or "grist mill". This is now known as Windmill Point, it was used by British soldiers as a shelter in War of 1812.

They sold the mill at Windmill Point in 1806. Matthew returned to Buffalo, New York to get his wife and children and and returned to Fort Erie where they met Benjamin Canby from Connecticut who had purchased 18,000 acres of land from Chief Brant of the Mohawk Indian Reserve near the Grand River and the Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, later Canboro Township. Canby engaged the Smith Brothers as millwrights to provide lumber for the new settlers he was attracting to Canada.

The Smith brothers built four punt boats at Fort Erie. They loaded the boats with their families and goods and each of the brothers manned a boat. They went down the river near the falls of the Niagara River following the shoreline. T hey ascended the Chippewa Creek to the mouth of the Oswego Creek, followed it until they came to a point on the river where it was difficult to go any further. They commenced at once to cut timber to erect a log hut and then built a sawmill for Canby. They built the mill by falling trees for a dam. This was later Canboro Village. They had to make several trips back to Buffalo, New York for machinery at the mill. (Today (2001) the millstones are on exhibit at the Haldiman Museum.) (He also had a hotel and a shoe maker's shop and a blacksmith's shop behind that. The mill was powered first by horses and the grinders were made from common hardheads. This mill was enlarged to provide a flour mill and was operated by the Melick family until 1860 or 1870, from History of Canboro).

They had surveyed the land for Canby, so they picked the best land for themselves. When Canby came himself he decided to make a village at that point and bought out Matthew and Jabish Smith's Mill and called it Canboro Village.

Matthew Smith then bought another 200 acres on Dunnville Road in Canboro from Canby in 1805, then went two miles down the Oswega Creek and build a grist mill and woolen mill (his daughters ran the loom) run by horse power with hard heads for stones. Shortly horses were substituted with water power and the mill enlarged for sawing as well as for flour making. This is now now the Melick farm and cemetery. His father Joel Smith was buried there. His son, Ezra, later bought the mill back from Canby and later gave it to his son, James B. who ran is for years and then sold it to Folensby.

His daughters ran the loom. He had completed the grist mill when the War of 1812 started. British Captain Hinton took possession of the grist mill because Matthew was an American. Matthew pleaded with him to let him go on grinding corn as the people would starve to death without it. Hinton told Matthew that he would allow him to grind corn if he would send his eldest son, Ezra to the front with Hinton's regiment. Matthew took his musket down from the wall and put it in his son's hand, a boy of fifteen.

That same night, Matthew's brother, Seth Smith took his punt boat and escaped to the American side, by way of the Grand River. The Indians who were engaged by Captain Hinton discovered his boat was gone and followed him. He had expected they would so he ran his boat into the bulrushes and laid down. He heard the Indians pass and waited until they returned again before leaving the hiding place. Under cover of night he then made his way down to Lake Erie, crossed the lake to Dunkirk.

Earlier, Captain Hinton had sent Indians to the homes of all of the settlers from the United States to molest and take from them all of their possessions.

The Indians had tried to kill Matthew and Seth Smith, so Seth decided to leave his wife and two sons, Lemuel and Hiram, in safety, with his brother Jabish who lived near him on the Grand River, and escape to the American side to notify the U.S. Army of their predicament. This he succeeded in doing and after the war was settled, he returned and took his family to Olean, New York State where he built a sawmill and settled eleven miles from Olean.

In 1847 his son Lemuel built a sawmill at the mouth of Smith's Creek where it empties into the Allegheny river and also a dock to ship lumber. Soon a village grew up around the mouth of the creek and it was named Smithport, Pennsylvania. He became very wealthy. His sons succeeded him. Two large steam barges, the Lemuel Smith and Lyman Smith named for his sons plied the Allegheny river. It was on Seth's farm in Canboro that gypsum was discovered.

Matthew remained in Canada. While on a visit to his wife's brothers, Thomas and George Wright at Fairport and Ashtabula, he died of cholera on board a vessel on Lake Erie and was buried at Ashtabula, Ohio, August 16, 1834. They too were millwrights from New York State. Their father was James or Thomas Wright.

Jabish and Seth Smith married and bought land from Canby on the east side of the Grand River. Jabish died in 1844. Joel his brother settled on a farm at St. Catharines, Ontario. He later sold it and went to Oakville, near Hamilton where he built a mill on the falls of a river near there.

From Fred Piper's notes to Joyce Cribbie: An Affidavit from Ezra Smith records "I, Ezra Smith, received the deed of land I now live on, No. 2 and No. 3N and S. Darlington Road, the 18th May 1835, from Benjamin Canby. I, the said, Ezra Smith, have been well acquainted with the said place since 1807, as my uncle Joel Smith commenced to improve it and I was with him when he marked the road to it, though out the woods before he commenced. And my grandfather and grandmother (Joel Smith Sr.) lived on the place and my uncle cleared and fenced where the fence now stands from the road over 30 years ago."

From Biographical and Genealogical Record p. 585: " His children settled around him and the family was one of prominence there. In his religious belief he was a Methodist and died in that faith in Canboro, at a very advanced age."

He was a member of the Canboro Methodist Episcopal Church.

Burial

Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Ohio, United States

Sources

• Ancestry File, IGI LDS Family History Center.
• Joyce Hamilton Cribbie Research Files, Willowdale, Ontario, Canada.
• M. Joyce Cribbie Genealogy Research and Chart. Copy sent by Ellen Piehl

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Bobbie Bicknell for creating WikiTree profile Smith-45259 through the import of ArthurBicknell Ancestor 2.ged on May 29, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Bobbie and others.