In the tradition of Sleeping at Granny’s and Trading Places, both stories from my grandmother’s time but told to us by my dad, I wanted to share a really special find with you.
This is the beginning of a relic in my family: the journal of my great-great-grandfather, Dr. Samuel Aven Smith, who lost a leg during the American Civil War while fighting for the Confederacy, among other things. Today, I’m just reading the intro my dad wrote, along with a quote from Dr. Aven himself, showing just how different I am from him.
If you’d like to listen to the audio, just hit the play button here. If you’d prefer to read instead, here’s the full story. I hope you enjoy it!
Notes & Incidents of Life
A Doctor’s Story of 19th Century York County, South Carolina
An Annotated Paraphrase of
The Journal of Dr. Samuel Aven Smith
Samuel Eugene Smith
Great-Grandson of Dr. Aven
I would state here for the benefit of my children and the satisfaction of all my friends, that there are three evils to which mankind is addicted and to which I am not. 1st The Use of Ardent Spirits, 2nd Swearing, 3rd Bad Society.
I have never indulged in intoxicating drink up to this period of life, never used profane language, and stood apart from bad society.
Dr. Samuel Aven Smith
A farmer from York County, South Carolina, poor and barely literate, Samuel Aven Smith rose up to become a businessman, soldier, teacher, student at the Medical College of South Carolina, and finally a doctor in Clover, SC.
When he was 35 years old Dr. Aven began keeping a journal, of which eighteen pages survive in private hands.
This “translation” of the original journal is an attempt to tell Dr. Aven’s story in fluid fashion. I condensed his original text, refreshed some of the spelling and grammar, and added transitional phrases when they were true to the original document. Thus I hope to present his character, integrity, and determination.
I left some of the creative spellings, believing with President Andrew Jackson that a man is not much of a man if he cannot think of several different ways to spell a word. Here are examples of spelling that appear in the journal: labour (labor), unhappie (unhappy), potatoe (potato), necked (naked), Gan green (gangrene), and satisfie (satisfy).
Ruth Smith Mathis and Grace Smith Bigger, granddaughters of Dr. Aven, added some personal details of the doctor’s life. Rebecca Adams Grigg, a great-granddaughter, shared the information she gathered from her mother and other descendants.
The military record of Samuel Aven Smith describes him as “5 ft. 10 inches high, light complexion, hazel eyes, red hair, farmer.”
In October 2005, I had the opportunity to examine the journal. Each page measures about 6 inches by 14 inches. The pages are lined and their original purpose was most likely accounting. The journal ends abruptly on page 18. Upon close inspection, I observed that about 100 pages had been cut from it. Boyce Caldwell, another of Dr. Aven’s great grandsons, offers two possible explanations.
Dr. Aven’s first wife died and he married her younger sister, Suilla. Caldwell suggests that Dr. Aven wrote something unfavorable about Suilla and she cut out the offensive pages.
The more likely explanation is that Parks and Jessie, the children of Dr. Aven and Suilla, wanted the use the pages for paper airplanes. And, at about the same time, they discovered some of the old doctor’s medical tools.
Now I knew Parks Smith, a man who favored Dr. Aven. Uncle Parks had a mischievous twinkle in his eyes and a spirit of adventure. I believe him fully capable of doing the deed.
SES, great-grandson of Dr. Aven
December 2005
