Published July 15, 2020
By HELEN BREEN
LYNNFIELD — The last Smiths to live at 163 Lowell St. were Lynnfield town father Joseph F. Smith (1881-1963) and his wife Della Rich Smith (1899-1990).
Joe’s property on Lowell Street was part of a grant of 640 acres given to the Smith clan by King Charles I of England in 1640. At the time of Joe’s death in the early 1960s, he still retained some 100 acres of the original grant.
Joe attended Center School, now the Children’s Room in the Lynnfield Public Library. He was among the few who could recall the dedication of the “new” Town Hall in 1892. After graduating from Wakefield High because Lynnfield had no high school in those days, Joe operated his own dairy farm, where he raised prize Holstein cattle.
Businessman and farmer
An entrepreneur, Joe “re-discovered” bubbling fresh water on his property that became the Pocahontas Springs Water Company in 1902. In the early days, Joe drove a wagon full of water jugs to Salem, but had few customers. Discouraged on the way home, he dumped all the water.
Yet after the Great Salem Fire of 1914 when marshal law was declared, he was one of the few allowed into the city with his fresh water. Joe recalled later that his horses lifted their hooves high and pranced quickly because the pavement was so hot.
In 1928, he built Pocahontas Tavern, a huge stone structure, on his land near the intersection of Main and Lowell Streets. Originally planned as a tearoom, the business unfortunately ended because of the Depression and the gas shortage during World War II. Being adaptable, Joe continued to rent out the facility for picnics and outings for years afterwards.
Meanwhile, Joe continued to manage his farm on his extensive acreage, employing many hands according to the season. Joe was the “last man standing” in Lynnfield’s dairy business. Town folks were saddened when he sold off 135 head of cattle shortly before he died.
Town moderator
In addition to his many years serving as town moderator (1929-1946), Joe was active as a volunteer firefighter, special policeman, delegate to the Republican Massachusetts Convention and exalted ruler of the Wakefield Elks. He also held many ancient titles, including those of town pound keeper, wood measurer and field driver.
Zoning was a controversial subject in Lynnfield in the 1950s. Because the town was growing rapidly, the Planning Board determined that building lot size had to be controlled. According to an account in A Heritage Preserved 1976, “Lynnfield was still largely populated by those who grew up on the farms and had independence… resenting anything to restrict doing what they wanted with their land.” Joe Smith opposed these bylaws to the end. After his death, his family sold much of his acreage off Lowell Street that became the lovely residential neighborhoods of Smith Farm Trail and Pocahontas Way.
Long remembered
In the 1998 Town Report, Gertrude Hatch’s 1960 essay about Joe was reprinted in a retrospective about past town moderators. Two of Joe’s children, L. Marie Vazzana and John C. Smith, added their reflections about their father and his older brother Rutherford E. Smith, who had served as town moderator before Joe.
Marie described her father, “He was a kind and gentle, but had strength of character… He had wisdom and an abundance of Yankee common sense.” Her brother John then praised his Harvard Law School educated uncle Rutherford, recalling how things were at Town Meeting in “those days:”
“…when life was simpler, the Annual Town Meeting was without question the best entertainment in town,” he said. “Sharp tongues and wit were always at their best — if you couldn’t take a ‘zing’ in good humor, best you stay home. The town moderator … was often called upon to control strong independent tempers particularly when it came to any potential infringement of personal freedom. That’s where ‘the buck stopped’ in the old days.”
Then the younger Smith added, “Great times, great ideas, and great people. We live well because of them.” To which we say, “Amen.”
Della Rich Smith (1899-1990)
When Joe was a young man, his wife died, leaving him to raise six children on his farm, five boys and a girl. Three years later, he fell in love with his children’s popular teacher at the Center School, Miss Della Rich. They married and had two children of their own, John and Marie.
At the time of the 1976 Bicentennial, the Lynnfield Historical Society’s president Shirley Northrup interviewed Della about her life with Joe. After telling Shirley the story of the hardships of her youth in Vermont, she reminisced about her marriage and her life in Lynnfield, where she became a leading citizen in the ensuing years.
At first, Della and Joe, who was 18 years her senior, tried to keep their romance quiet, slipping out of town for dinner in Salem on occasion. But, as Della confided to Shirley, “I knew a good thing when I saw it.” Della at first declined Joe’s proposal because she was still paying the mortgage on the family home in Vermont. But Joe quickly dispatched that obligation, and they were wed.
Domesticity
Shirley then asked Della how she kept such an immaculate home, raising the eight Smith children. She answered, “Raising boys was not that hard as long as they were well fed – they always wanted to be outside.” Shirley recalled dropping in on the Smiths years earlier at their home on Lowell Street, when Della had just finished making twelve pies. This was routine for Della, feeding her family and several men who worked on the farm, and tended their herd of cattle. Probing further, Shirley asked her to describe a typical breakfast for this crew. Della replied, “It started with an orange (cut in half, couldn’t squeeze them all for juice), soup plates full of hot cereal, two boiled eggs, and two donuts, and plenty of fresh bread.”
In her “spare time,” Della also managed the catering functions at Pocahontas Tavern.
Mid-century
During this conversation, Della also described to Shirley her involvement with the rehabilitation program for veterans operated out of the Bedford VA Hospital. Her son John had served in World War II. Her stepson, Teddy Smith, had been a prisoner-of-war for four years in the Pacific Theater. She confessed, “I always knew that Teddy would come home, and I wanted to do something for other boys who were affected by the war.” So she and Joe welcomed several of these vets, suffering from what we would call PTSD today, to work on the farm until they recovered. The family’s experience with these young men was most rewarding.
Joe died in 1963 at the age of 82. Della mused of their life together, “He needed me, and I needed him. We were very much in love.” Della lived on until 1990, enjoying a full life in community service. A few organizations mentioned in her obituary include the American Legion Auxiliary, Girls State chair, Center Women’s Club, Republican Club and the Lynnfield School Committee. She was voted “Lynnfield Woman of the Year” in 1963.
I have only a vague memory of Della Smith at the Lynnfield Historical Society in the late 1970s. Whenever her name was mentioned, it was with reverential respect. Listening to her conversation with Shirley Northrup, I can understand why. The interview is available on CD at the Lynnfield Public Library or online:
• https://www.noblenet.org/ (or just noblenet.org) – scroll down to NOBLE Digital Heritage (seascape) – click – Click on Lynnfield Public Library – Click on Lynnfield Oral History Project. Two rows of icons will appear. Della’s interview is the 12th out of the 14.
— Send comments to helenbreen@comcast.net.