E. OAKES SMITH.
About twelve miles from the city of Portland, in Maine, a pretty cottage just on the edge of a thick wood is pointed out by the neighbours with a feeling of pride, as the birth-place of Mrs. E. Oakes Smith. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Oakes Prince. One of the earliest of the settlers of Maine was an ancestor of hers by the name of Prince, and there is a tract of land in Maine, called “Prince’s Point,” where her ancestors settled in 1630, having gone there from Massachusetts. Her grandfather died in the year 1849, at the age of ninety-seven. He is described as having been a tall, handsome, patriarchal man, in appearance. Her mother, too, is described as an imperious, intellectual woman, with strong characteristics, and exceedingly beautiful. Her name was Blanchard, and she is of Huguenot descent. On the father’s side Mrs. Smith is of a puritan family.
She gave early indications of genius. The only circumstance of her childhood, however, that seems particularly noticeable, is her habit while a mere girl, of dramatizing little extempore plays, when as yet she had never seen or heard of such a thing, and in a family where Shakspeare was regarded as an abomination, and his readers as——no better than they should be!
She was married at the early age of sixteen to Mr. Seba Smith, so widely known as the original “Jack Downing.” Mr. Smith at the time of his marriage was the editor of the leading political journal of Maine. They are at present living in New York.
Mrs. Smith’s poems have never been fully collected. One small volume has been published, and has run through seven or eight editions. “The Sinless Child” has been greatly admired, as also have been her “Sonnets,” and many other small occasional pieces. Her largest work in verse is a tragedy, called “The Roman Tribute,” which was acted in New York, but I believe has never been printed.
