James McCune Smith - Marriage and Family

Marriage and Family

After his return to New York and getting established, in the early 1840s Smith married Malvina Barnet (c.1825 - ), a free woman of color who was a graduate of the Rutger Female Institute. They had seven children and five survived to adulthood:

• James W., born 1845, became a teacher and was married and in a separate household by 1870.
• Henry M., (1847 - d. before 1860)
• Amy G. (c.1848-1849 - d. December 1849)
• Mary (also called Maude), born c.1855-56; never married; became a teacher and was living with her widowed brother Donald in 1900 in Queens. (Note: In the 1900 census, her birth was reported as September 1842, but this is not consistent with her age in the 1860 and 1870 censuses, and she did not appear in the 1850 census.)
• Donald (1858 - ), became a lawyer, married and was a widower by 1900, living in Queens. His household included his older sister Maude and two siblings of his late wife: his widowed brother-in-law Edward, a physician born in England, and sister-in-law Emma Callaghan, an unmarried teacher.
• John M., (b. February 1860 -), worked in Florida in an orange grove in the 1880s, per the Florida 1885 census. He married and by 1900 had returned with his family to Brooklyn, where he worked as a printer. He married in 1888, and their three children were born in Florida.
• Guy B., born 1862, first worked as a seaman. By 1900, he was married with several children and worked as a salesman. His youngest daughter was named Antoinette.

In 1850, Smith's household included four older women: Lavinia Smith, age 67 (his mother: b. c.1783 - d. bet.1860-1870), born in South Carolina and listed first as head of household; Sarah Williams, 57; Amelia Jones, 47; and Mary Hewlitt, 53, who were likely relatives or friends. By then Smith and his wife Malvina had three children: James, Henry and Amy. Each member of the household was classified as mulatto (or of mixed ancestry), and all but Lavinia Smith were born in New York. They lived in a mixed neighborhood in the Fifth Ward; in the census, nearly all other neighbors on the page were classified as white; many were immigrants from England, Ireland, and France.

By 1860, Smith was doing very well; he had moved to Leonard Street within the Fifth Ward and had a mansion built by white workmen. His total real property was worth $25,000. His household included a live-in servant, Catherine Grelis from Ireland. Listed as a separate household at his address were Sara D. Williams, 57, and Mary Hertell (should be Hewlitt, as above), 50. (These were likely the same Sara and Mary as in the 1850 census, although their ages did not change.) No one on this census page had a racial designation. By the conventions of the time, this means that they were classified as white by the census enumerator; totals of white persons only are given at the bottom of the page.

After the 1863 draft riots, Smith and his family were among prominent blacks who left New York and moved to Brooklyn, then still a separate city. He no longer felt safe in his old neighborhood. In the 1870 census, Malvina and her four children were living in Ward 15, Brooklyn. All were listed as white. James W. Smith, who had married a white woman, was living in a separate household and working as a teacher; he was also classified as white. The Smith children still at home were Maud, 15; Donald, 12; John, 10; and Guy, 8; all were attending school.

Five survived to adulthood: James, Maud, Donald, John and Guy. The men married white spouses, but Maud never married. All were classified as white from 1860 on.