businessman, his brother William A. Smart (William Smart, Rhodes Grant says Bill Smart) and their sister Maria Smart, a teacher. Born probably at Martintown, GC. Parents: Mr and Mrs Roderick Smart, of Martintown. Toward the end of 1884, William Smart, who once had a grocery business in Cornwall, Ont., was awarded “the police barracks contract” at Battleford, N.W.T. (now Sask.). William Smart died at Battleford, reportedly of fever, on 27 Dec. 1886 or on 1 Jan. 1887. Meanwhile, Frank A. Smart had been killed by Indians in the Battleford area in the spring of 1885, during the North-West Rebellion. He left a wife and child. In June of 1888, his widow and their son, of Battleford, were visiting Martintown. By one account he was killed while defending his home at Battleford against Indians. By another account he “was treacherously shot while doing patrol duty in Battleford during the North-West Rebellion.” Rhodes Grant reported that both the Smart brothers had been killed by Indians. He adds that “The two Smart boys were part Indian themselves” and that they “were brothers of the well known school teacher, Miss Maria Smart.” Rhodes Grant reported that she left the reputation of being a splendid teacher, also that she went to live in Wales, United Kingdom, “but suddenly returned in 1919.” At a meeting of the Glengarry Teachers’ Association in 1881, “Miss Smart read a Caudle Lecture in a very pleasing manner.” (Cornwall Reporter, 15 Oct. 1881) The reference here is to a work of humour once a great favourite, Mrs Caudle’s Curtain Lectures, by the British writer Douglas Jerrold (1803-1857).
Their father Roderick Smart, son of Adam Smart who had been a cooper on a whaling ship sailing from a Scottish port, was also a cooper. Roderick invented the “Hercules” sawing machine, the patent for which was issued to him in Jan. 1882. In 1882 the Martintown people were reported to have bought one of these machines for use by a boy of the Tyo family who had lost an arm. (Cornwall Reporter, 11 Feb. 1882)
Rhodes Grant, i, 114, 124-125 * William: DTL Standard Freeholder 27 Dec. 1947 based on Cornwall Freeholder 26 Dec. 1884 & DTL SFH 4 Jan. 1947 based on CF 7 Jan. 1887; Cornwall Standard 3 Feb. 1887 * Frank : DTL SFH 11 June 1949 based on CF 15 June 1888, DTL SFH 19 April 1947 based on CF 24 April 1885; CS 3 Feb. 1887 * historical note on GC and Cornwall men involved in suppression of 1885 North-West Rebellion: DTL SFH 14 May 1949 based on CF 15 May 1885 * Lovell 1857 543 & Elliott 286 (Andrew Smart, cooper, of Martintown, but not Adam or Roderick) * Robert Neil Campbell, “Early Days in Martintown,” CF 8 April 1926 (for Adam and Roderick) * Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Patent No. 13,820