NOTES:  Lydia Smallwood SMITH
-----------------------------

b.  Higher Bebington, Cheshire, England, U.K.  [Family Register]
    West Derby  [Birth Certificate in possession of Muriel E. (Gregory)
    Sterner]
ba. Kirkdale, Kirkdale Parish, Lancaster County (Shire), England, U.K.
    [Cert. of Bapt. in possession of Muriel E. (Gregory) Sterner]
d.  at home, 158-3rd St., Newark, Essex County, NJ, U.S.A.
    [Death Certificate in possession of Muriel E. (Gregory) Sterner]
bu. Fairmount Cemetary, Newark, Essex County, NJ, U.S.A.
    [Death Certificate, Deed to Fairmount Cemetery Plot in possession of
    Muriel E. (Gregory) Sterner]

====================================================


- Certificate of Baptism of Lydia Smallwood Smith, found in a box of
  old items in the possession of Murial E. Gregory Sterner:

       ----------------------------------------------------------
                               Certificate

           of Baptism administered with water, in the Name of
           the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

            This is to certify that Lydia Smallwood daughter
            of   John  + Ann  Smith   of   Kirkdale   in the
            Parish of  Kirkdale  in the County of  Lancaster
            was born April 24th, 1853 and baptized  June 5th
            18 53    By    Mr. (?)
                                       Minister of the Gospel
            Given under my hand, thie  5  day of  June  18 53
       ----------------------------------------------------------


- From some notes found that Grammy (Murial E. G. Sterner) wrote on
  the Tolmies:

    "Robert (was a Baker in London) - b. Edinburgh, Scotland 7/2/48?
    d. 1920, cancer of Tongue, about 72, Newark.  This firm of caterers
    made the last Duke of Edinburgh's Wedding Cake."  [see notes for
    ROBERT TOLMIE, JR.]

  > "Married Lydia Smith in London - Lydia came of a good family - one
    antecedent was lady in waiting to Lady North.  Seven children - of
    whom 3 lived to adulthood - Ernest (California) Percival Clifford
    (Neptune City, youngest), + Anne Tolmie Gregory (oldest)."  [see]

    COMMENT:  When I asked her who this "antecedent" was, she couldn't
    remember.  But I have a feeling that it might have been Lilias
    Fisher, Agnes Fisher's sister.  Note that there are errors in her
    statements above.  Robert and Lydia were married at the Queen's Road
    United Presbyterian Church, Everton, Liverpool.  Also, Robert Tolmie
    was a baker in, as far as I know for sure, Bootle, Liverpool, accord-
    ing to the GLASGOW BAKERY Business Card [see notes for ROBERT TOLMIE,
    JR.].  And, the writing on the back of Lillias Fisher's picture states
    that Lillias was a "housekeeper" living "c. Lords North + Rendlesham".
    So, if Lillias was the "Lady-In-Waiting" referred to by Grammy, there
    is a question then as to which occupation it was that she held.  There
    is a big difference between a Lady-In-Waiting and a "housekeeper".
    [see also notes for LILLIAS FISHER]

- [For the Marriage Certificate of Lydia Smith and Robert Tolmie, Jr.,
  please see notes for ROBERT TOLMIE, JR.]

- From a picture of the Smith sisters owned by Murial E. Gregory Sterner.
  On the back was scribbled the following in Muriel's handwriting:

  Left-to-Right

  Aunt Maggie Sweet (Mrs. John)           \
  Aunt Annie Bratt (Mrs. James)            } Sisters
  (My) Grandma Lydia Tolmie (Mrs. Robert) /

         Mother of Ann Agnes, Ernest Geo., +
         Percival Clifford amoung others who died

  Aunt Annie had 18 children and
  a 19th was left on her door step
  Her husband, Judge James Bratt,
  founded the Dr. Bernardis children's
  homes in the area.  - They
  sent Grandma (Lydia Smith Tolmie)
  the money to come to America
  Aunt Maggie never had any children
  and Grandma's family are listed
  in the pages from her family
  Bible; The three out of seven
  survived (see above).

  COMMENT:  The above was what first let me know who the sisters of Lydia
  Smith were.  Before that, all that I knew was that Lydia was the "fifth
  daughter of John Smith."  The total number of Smith children before this
  was unknown to me, then.  Per our poor little Annie having that above
  total of *18* children -- that's a LOT of children for one woman to have,
  poor thing.  Also, note that the name of the Children's Home is slightly
  in error.  The proper name is "Barnardo (not "Bernardi") Children's Home".
  One in Hackensack, NJ was later renamed to the "Edna B. Conklin Child
  Welfare Home" [from a letter to Muriel from a Louise R. Brizzi, of the
  New Jersey Civil Service Association, Office of the President, dated
  December 5, 1974, where Ms. Brizzi also mentioned having worked with a
  `Bert Bratt'].


- Article from unknown newspaper:

                                AT SEA
                                ----
                            Swept from the
                             Campania in
                              Mid-Ocean.
                                ----
                          LINER IS HARD HIT
                                ----
                          Scoops Up an Enor-
                              mous Wave.
                                ----
                        ONE DIES, MANY INJURED.
                                ----
                      Steerage Passengers Knocked
                           About Helplessly.
                                ----
                         PANIC SPREADS TERROR
                                ----
                    Believed for a Time Big Vessel
                             Is Sinking.
                                ----

   On the big Cunarder Campania, in to-day from Liverpool and Queens-
 town, comes the story of a sea disaster almost unparalled in the annals
 of modern sea travel.  Caught in a gale on Wednesday, Oct. 11, the big
 craft shipped a huge sea that swept the steerage deck on the port side
 from end to end, dashed the helpless passengers against the iron work,
 crippling and maiming dozens, and finally burst the great steel doors in
 the vessel's rail and swept five passengers overboard.
   The list of dead may grow when the steerage passengers are counted at
 Ellis Island.  The dead are, John Graham, Mary Cosgrove, Annie Clary, un-
 known young woman, unknown man and Agnes Carleton, who died in the ship's
 hospital this morning after an operation.
   The injured in the hospital are: Mary Hooligan, 25 years old, right leg
 broken; Annie Firaly, 23, compound fracture of left leg; Kate McAuliffe,
 severe bruises and broken ribs; Lizzie Roman, right knee fractured; Annie
 Roach, contusions of body; James Kane, possible fracture of skull; William
 Green, right arm broken and contusions; James Graham, contusions; Thomas
 Maher, right arm broken and contusions, and James Cunningham, sprained
 ankles and severe bruises.
   Besides those seriously hurt dozens recieved injuries which were not of
 serious enough to confine them to the ship's hospital.
   The utmost secrecy was preserved amoung the company's officers as to the
 real seriousness of the losses.  Two of them stood guard over the captain
 and refused to allow him to be questioned.  The boast of Cunard company
 that it had never yet lost a passenger in an accident is a thing of the
 past.
   The disaster came very suddenly and unexpectedly on Wednesday afternoon.
 The ship had had a run of bad weather for several days, and the wind had
 veered around to a nasty gale that threw up a bad quartering sea.  By noon
 a gale was whipping the sea, so that the great vessel heaved and rolled
 badly.  Down on the steerage deck promenade, perhaps ten feet wide by a
 couple of hundred feet long, sixty or eighty of the passengers were sit-
 ting, lounging or walking up and down the stretch.
   The deck occupies the middle half of the ship.  Its roof is the first
 class passengers' deck.  Its rail is a cumbrous solid steel and oak bul-
 wark, nearly five feet high, with heavy metal doors put in at regular in-
 tervals.  Some of these doors are grated to permit air to enter and water
 to run out.  Others are solid and are opened only when the gangplanks are
 thrown out.
   It was just after the dinner hour and the steerage passengers had crept
 around to the lee side, out of the wind.  A number of Swedes were singing
 up near the forward end and many of the women were sewing, knitting, or
 gossiping idly as they clustered along the rail, sitting on odd foreign
 trunks and hampers or bunched up on the deck.  A ship's officer strolled
 up and down, and a woman sitting on an upturned fruit crate was crooning a
 baby.
   The big ship was pitching a good deal in the heavy rollers, but not
 enough to drive her passengers inside.  From the top of the solid rail to
 the deck above was stretched a heavy woven net, to keep any foolish steer-
 age man, woman or child from falling or being washed overboard.
   The ship began to run into heavier seas after a little and the steerage
 moved restlessly.  Many of the passengers went inside.  Suddenly the great
 craft shook at the attack of two huge rollers, then as she...

 [...parts of article torn at the top, where it began again...]

 mill race that ground... [...last part of sentence was torn away...]

 ...bulwark, steam pumps, braces, cleats and deck irons.  The great ship
 groaned and heeled until it seemed to the persons inside that she would
 never come back to her keel again.  The water tore the pen net from its
 lashings as though it were a lady's veil.  It smashed out the heavy steel
 gangway, drove in the rail like tinfoil, and then through the aperture
 spouted forth a stream of struggling emigrants.
   Three women and two men were caught like flies in the siphon jet and
 were shot through the hole into the boiling seas thirty feet below.  They
 went down like plummets; not once were they seen to rise to the surface.
   Three men who were caught in the last of this outpouring torrent caught
 the edge of the gates as they were dashed by them and by main force clung
 on, as they swung over the maelstrom beneath, until they were dragged
 inboard by the rescuers.
   The water subsided sullenly, held in by the solid steel rail, while
 dozens of wounded, strangling beings fought desparately in a struggling
 mass to keep from drowning on the deck.  Dozens of men were rushing out
 from the inside now and and hurling themselves into the ruck to save the
 helpless victimes.  A baby floated by, and a sailer tossed it through the
 door to a woman.  Two men were dragged from the flooded deck, having been
 knocked senseless and slowly drowning.
   Blind panic seized upon the steerage within; women shreiked and prayed
 alternately; men swore and fought to get out, crying that the ship was
 sinking.  They jammed at the doors and the crew had to fight them back to
 get at the wounded.  Sailors dived headlong at floating bodies.  A man
 stood in the water waste deep and laughing in hideous fear.  A woman,
 kneeling on the deck apparently, sobbed and fought like a maniac to keep
 her head just above the swirling water.  A steward yelled to her to get
 her feet just as she sank beneath the surface.  The steward leaped in and
 dragged her out unconscious.  When they had carried her to the hospital
 they saw why she hadn't risen to her feet.  Both her thighs were broken.
   Slowly the list of injured grew until the saloon was carpeted with them.
 Three physicians, Carl B. Davis, of Chicago, Bradley, of England, and
 Brady, of Rochester, volunteered thier services and performed heroic work
 assisting the regular ship's surgeon.  Suddenly a pretty little woman, who
 had been dragged unconscious from the water and who had been revived,
 began to scream, "My husband, my husband!"
   Then they found out for the first time that some of the passengers had
 gone overboard.  It had all happened in ten seconds; no one had time to do
 more than save himself if possible.
   Down in the big engine room the bells had already stopped the shafts,
 and the great craft lay rocking in the seas.  Not a sugn of a human being
 could be seen on the tossing water behind.  The pretty little woman was
 Mrs. John Gorham, of Milwaukee, Wis., and her husband had been swept away
 before her eyes.  The pair had been on a visit to Ireland and was
 returning home.  There are five little children out there, to whom she
 must break the news.
   The officers at once checked over the 600 steerage passengers.  There
 were five missing.  Ten times they checked the lists and each time the
 tally came to five.  Up on the bridge Second Officer Peel was thrown
 headlong by the force of the wave.  He caught instinctively at a rail as
 he was knocked senseless.  They had to pry his fingers from the iron when
 they picked him up.
   One man, who had his arm broken, was found to have $20,000 in a money
 belt when they put him on the operating table.  The surgeons had the ut-
 most difficulty in setting the delicate bone on the pitching ship.  Every
 man was completely worn out when the injured had all been attended to,
 because they worked day and night until thier work was finished.
   The women amoung the saloon passengers turned to with a will and did
 everything in thier power to aid the sufferers.  William Johnson, prom-
 inent in steamship circles, and Sir Charles Hudgens, started a subscrip-
 tion which netted $1,500.  The bulk of it goes to Mrs. Graham; the rest is
 divided amoung the most injured.  The aliens amoung the injured will be
 taken to the Long Island College Hospital.  The steamship company will
 care for the citizens who were hurt.
   A testimonial was given to Capt. Warr, signed by many of the passengers,
 in which they praised his seamanship and deplored the unhappy tragedy.
 This was the Campania's last trip this season, as she is to be replaced by
 the Carmania during the winter months.
   The wave smashed several portholes and drenched a number of the first
 cabin passengers who were at dinner.
   MILWAUKEE, Wis., Oct. 14 -- John Graham, the Milwaukee man who lost his
 life on the steamship Campania, was a China importer and repairer.  He
 left Milwaukee two months ago.  He was 37 years old and leaves a family.
 Mr. Graham was famous throughout the country as one of the most expert
 repairers of broken china in the world, and fragments of choice ware have
 been sent him from New York and cities in Europe for repairing.
                      ----------------------------

  COMMENT:  Note all those striking headlines before the actual article.
  Think they were looking for attention?  Along the bottom of the article
  Muriel wrote "Grandma Lydia Tolmie took this ship on a trip back to
  England."  Exact year of the paper is not definitely known, though I
  suspect it is 1905, since "Wednesday, Oct. 11," does occur in that year.

  o  On the back of the clipping happened to be the following:

                               MARINE NEWS
                                  -----
                        Arrived--New York, Oct. 14

     Ss. Campania, from Liverpool.  Left Quarantine at 7:40 A. M.
     [...]


- A postcard found hanging on the wall in Grammy's (Muriel E. (Gregory)
  Sterner's) kitchen wall in her apartment in Silver Springs Shores.

  o  Postcard front -

   (Picture of the "Bebington Church")

  o  Postcard back -  postmarked `ST. HELENS-3, 1:15pm, NO 5 13'; a red,
     one-penny stamp with bust of a male (probably King Henry VII).

   To:  Mrs. R. Tolmie          Writing:  My  dear  Auntie,
        72 Ogden Street                       Mama        recieved
        Newark, NJ USA                    your     very    welcome
                                          letter   +   will  write
                                          you   as   soon  as  she
                                          is  a  bit  stronger.  I
                                          think    she   has   got
                                          over   the   worst  part
                                          now, but she is terribly
                                          weak + shakey.
                                          Love From All to You all
                                           ----------------------
                                                              Dora

  COMMENT:  The postmark `NO 5 13' would translate to "November 5, 1913."
  "Mrs. R. Tolmie" of "Newark, NJ" would be Lydia Smallwood (Smith)
  Tolmie, wife of Robert Tolmie, Jr.  If Lydia is the "Auntie" then it is
  most likely that perhaps Dora would be the daughter of one of Lydia's
  sisters - one of the two sisters that we know exist [Lydia was "fifth
  dau. of John + Ann Smith" - from the Family Register] but for whom we
  have no names as yet.  I say "perhaps" because though under normal con-
  ventional use an "Aunt" would fit the description of a daughter of one
  of Lydia's sisters, people still to this day have a tendency to extend
  its use to include even non-relatives.  So, this is not a definite here.
  But to continue, we know that of the three known SMITH sisters, Lydia,
  Maggie, and Annie [Muriel's picture of the Smith sisters] - all were
  over in America at the time of writing of this postcard.  Since it came
  from St. Helens, and has affixed to it an English stamp, this must then
  come from one of the two other nameless SMITH sisters still living in
  England.  (We're assuming the St. Helens near Liverpool, where most of
  the family lived, though there are two other "St. Helens" about - one
  on the Isle of Man, the other in another part of the U.K.)

====================================================
Compiled by Todd L. Sherman/KB4MHH
01/25/1996