Early Life in Pennsylvania
Emily Rebecca Thompson was born about 1834 in Pennsylvania, the daughter of John Thompson and his wife Mary.¹ Her early life is documented indirectly through later census records and family relationships rather than through a surviving birth record, a common circumstance for women born in rural Pennsylvania during this period.
Emily appears consistently in federal census records under the name “Rebecca,” suggesting that Rebecca was the name by which she was most commonly enumerated, while later records and newspapers refer to her as Emily.² This dual usage is not unusual for nineteenth-century women, particularly when a middle name or preferred given name was used interchangeably.
Marriage and Family
Before 1854, Emily married Abraham Possinger Smith, a Pennsylvania native born in 1833.³ The couple established their household in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, where they raised a large family. Their known children include:
- Frank E. Smith (born 1855)
- Hannah Smith (born about 1856)
- Jude Smith (born about 1858)
- Elmira Smith (born about 1862)
- Robert Smith (born 6 May 1864)
- Susan Rosetta Smith (born 1865)
- Fanny Florence Smith (born 1870)
- Abraham Edward Smith (born 1872)⁴
The family is enumerated in Tobyhanna Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, in both the 1860 and 1870 federal censuses, with Emily recorded as “Rebecca Smith,” wife of Abraham.⁵
Migration to Michigan
Sometime between 1872 and 1880, Emily and Abraham Smith relocated with their family to Michigan, settling in Beaver Township, Bay County. This move reflects a broader pattern of post–Civil War migration from Pennsylvania to the Midwest, particularly among families seeking agricultural or lumber-related opportunities.
The 1880 federal census places Emily, again enumerated as “Rebecca,” in Beaver Township, Bay County, Michigan, where she is listed as a married woman and wife of the household head.⁶
The Tragedy of 1890–1891
Emily’s final years were marked by extraordinary family trauma. On 6 December 1890, her son Jude Smith was shot and killed by his brother, Robert Smith, near Linwood in Bay County.⁷ The killing resulted in Robert’s arrest, trial, and eventual conviction for first-degree murder.
Contemporary newspaper accounts describe Emily as physically frail even before the shooting and report that she took to her bed shortly after Jude’s death. She did not attend her son Jude’s funeral and never saw Robert again following the crime. As Robert’s trial commenced in the spring of 1891, Emily’s condition worsened dramatically.⁸
Death
Emily Rebecca Thompson Smith died on 9 May 1891 in Garfield Township, Bay County, Michigan. Her death was recorded in multiple contemporaneous sources under slightly varying forms of her name.
A Bay County death register lists her as “Emily S. Smith,” married, aged 52 years, with parents John Thompson and Mary, residing in Garfield Township.⁹ The cause of death was recorded as dropsy, a term commonly used at the time for edema associated with chronic illness.
Newspaper coverage published shortly after her death attributed her decline to overwhelming grief following the killing of one son by another. One account stated that she “grieved to death over the killing of a son by another,” reflecting both the emotional tone of the period and the family’s widely known tragedy.¹⁰
Emily’s burial followed soon after her death, and she was survived by her husband Abraham Possinger Smith and several of her children.
Name Variations in the Records
Across her lifetime, Emily appears in records as Rebecca Smith, Emily Smith, and Emily S. Smith. These variations do not indicate multiple individuals but rather reflect common nineteenth-century record-keeping practices, especially for married women. Census enumerators frequently recorded women under a familiar or household name, while newspapers and civil registers often used a formal given name or abbreviated married form.
The consistent convergence of spouse, children, residence, parents’ names, and death date confirms that these records all refer to the same woman.
Conclusion
Emily Rebecca Thompson Smith lived a life shaped by migration, motherhood, and endurance. Like many women of her era, her story must be reconstructed from the records left by institutions rather than from documents created in her own voice. Yet through census records, civil registers, and contemporary reporting, her presence remains clear.
Her death in 1891 closed a chapter defined by family, loss, and resilience—leaving behind a lineage whose history would continue to be shaped by the events she lived through but did not survive.
Sources
- Bay County, Michigan, Death Register, 1891, entry for Emily S. Smith.
- 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Tobyhanna Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania.
- Michigan county marriage records; Abraham Possinger Smith and Emily Thompson.
- Family structure compiled from census and vital records, 1855–1872.
- 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Tobyhanna Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania.
- 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Beaver Township, Bay County, Michigan.
- Bay City newspapers, December 1890, reports on the killing of Jude Smith.
- The Bay City Times, spring 1891, coverage of Robert Smith’s trial.
- Bay County, Michigan, Return of Deaths, year ending 1891.
- The Bay City Times, May 1891, obituary and death coverage for Mrs. Abraham Smith.
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