Recently I uncovered some interesting information about the Smith family … they were grave robbers! Not really, of course, but here’s the story.

According to the story of William Glidden in the book History of Clarendon from 1810 to 1888 (aka Copeland’s Clarendon) by David Sturges Copeland:  William Glidden and Abijah Smith were among the first settlers in an area which would be called Clarendon in Orleans County, New York.  It was the early 1800s.  William recalls that he and Abijah, with Noah Sweet, acquired their land by relocating some primitive graves to a central burying ground (Glidden burying-ground, where this Smith family was later burried) for the land owners (Poultney company).   Wm. states that the graves had no caskets, but they were given shrouds to wrap the bodies in as they were exhumed for relocation.  “We sat up with the dead, and cats would come in at times,” he says.  Abijah “took up two lots” and left the land to his son James A. Smith.  Abijah also built the saw mill on William’s land.  (Clarendon was an ideal place for mills because of the creeks running through the area; also a waterfall nearby.)

James A. Smith became a respected figure in Clarendon, holding several elected positions in the town including the school board.  He also wrote a mathematics textbook to be used in the schools at about age 20.  The only known existing copy is held by my uncle, James Smith.  James A. was the father of Amos Smith; father of James A. L. Smith; father of Fisk Smith Sr.

Read the full account here:  History of Clarendon from 1810 to 1888