Smith, Thomas & Beatrice

Thomas & Beatrice Smith

Swanzey, NH

During the 1940s, Thomas Lestrange and Beatrice Smith resided in North Swanzey, New Hampshire. Thomas, an experienced screw manufacturing worker in Massachusetts, was employed as a foreman at the New England Screw Company on Emerald Street in Keene. The couple would have been one of a few Black families residing and working in the region at the time.

Thomas Lestrange Smith was born in Somerset, Bermuda in 1902 to Annie Smith. While his father has yet to be identified, Thomas had two younger siblings. Sydney Smith was born in 1904 and Viola Smith in 1906.

The Smith family immigrated to Boston, MA, in 1912, residing at 47 Warwick Street by 1920. Mother Annie, a widow, worked as a laundress to a private family while the children, all teenagers, attended school. Thomas’ cousin Gladys Nias, a 22 year old widow, also lived with the family and worked as a domestic servant to a private family, helping to supplement the family income.

On June 25, 1925, at the age of 22, Thomas Lestrange Smith married a 19 year old woman named Beatrice. A Black immigrant from Nova Scotia, Beatrice had just arrived in the United States a year prior to her marriage. The young couple lived with his family into the 1930s. Thomas found work as a service operator at a screw factory. By 1933, Thomas and Beatrice Smith had saved enough money to move out of the family home, relocating to 117 Quincy Street in Boston.

On at least two occasions, Thomas Smith declared his intention to become a naturalized citizen, once in 1929 and again 1939. The 1939 document describes Thomas as a 38-year old Black man, 6’ tall, and weighing 200 pounds. The Smiths resided, at the time, at 14 Elmore Street in Lynn, MA, where he worked as a machine operator.

In 1939, the New England Screw Company began negotiations with the Boston & Maine Railroad to take over their railroad shop buildings in Keene, NH. Thomas Smith most likely relocated to Keene around 1941-1942 as part of the planning stages of the move. He and his wife purchased a house on Sylvan Way in North Swanzey and he commuted to Keene for work.

New England Screw Company building, Keene, NH. HSCC Collections #Abbott27.

The early years of the screw company in Keene was riddled with issues as the company tried to work with the B&M Railroad to retrofit their machinery for the manufacture of screws. Thomas worked as a foreman for the New England Screw Company in those early years until he became ill in 1946 and was unable to return to work.

Keene Sentinel newspaper accounts from 1946 reveal some details about Thomas’ ailing health and the couple’s good standing in the community. Family and friends from work and from Massachusetts were noted as having visited Thomas once he was well enough to sit up in bed. This continued throughout the summer and into the fall of 1946.

By November 1946, Thomas Smith had realized that his health was not getting better and he would need to leave his employment at New England Screw. About 30 employees from the factory gathered at Parkers Pines in Swanzey to treat Smith to a steak dinner and bid him farewell. He was presented with a purse of money and testimonials of service.

Thomas and Beatrice moved back to Lynn, MA, in 1946 where he worked as a greenhouse keeper for a local florist and she worked as a typist for the tax bureau. In June 1950, the Keene Sentinel newspaper published a notice that former residents Thomas and Beatrice Smith had celebrated their 25th (silver) wedding anniversary. Residents from Keene had traveled to Lynn, MA, to their home to celebrate with the couple’s family and friends over a homemade fried chicken dinner.

On August 2, 1975, Thomas L. Smith died while on a vacation with Beatrice in Nova Scotia.

GENEALOGY

THOMAS LESTRANGE SMITH was born in Somerset, Bermuda in 1902 to ANNIE ___. In 1925 he married BEATRICE ___. Thomas Smith died on August 2, 1975 in Lynn, MA.