As the last surviving child of Fannie Lippard and John W. Smith, I have made a tape and I am now writing this account to recall and relate whatever I can remember of their antecedents, descendants and the life and times of their family.
My father's father was named John also, born somewhere in Canada. His mother, (my father's) was born in Edinborough, Scotland on September twelfth in eighteen thrity, came to Canada in 1833. My father, John, was born April 5th, 1868 some where in Canada, I believe as one of the younger children. There were four others, Ellen, Harriet, William and James. In 1870 the family moved to Grindstone City, Michigan.
I never knew my grandparents, never knew much about them, but was told my grandmother spoke French with a Scottish accent, so they must have lived in a French speaking part of Canada. I also heard that she smoked a clay pipe. Both of them had died before I was born, where and when I don't know. I did know some aunts and uncles as a child, and their families.
My father, Papa, as we called him, lived as a boy and young man with is sister Harriet in Grindstone City, Michigan, up in the "tip of the thumb" area. (Carol's note: Michigan is shaped like your hand.) It was a small village, but had the biggest quarry for grindstones that were shipped all over the world.
Papa went to Normal School, was trained as a teacher, later moved up to Cheboygan, Michigan and was a lumberman. His sister, Ellen and her husband, Jim Kirkpatrick, had gone there, too, and had a boarding house for lumbermen. That is where he met my mother who worked for them. ,
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