Julia A. (Newton) Smith
Julia A. (Newton) Smith
Born: November 1837, South Carolina
Died: November 14, 1904, St. Armand, Essex County, New York
Married: Charles Henry Hazzard
Children: Clara Smith, Genevia Smith, George W. Hazzard.
Julia Smith was an African American pioneer and farmer. She was born enslaved in South Carolina but was liberated during the Civil War. While in Beaufort, Julia met Charles Hazzard, who was serving in the 26th US Colored Troops. They married there and returned to the Adirondacks, where she lived until her death in 1904. Julia is buried in Bloomingdale’s Brookside Cemetery, Town of St. Armand.
She was born Julia Newton in November of 1837, enslaved in coastal South Carolina. There are individuals with the last name of Newton on lists of enslaved people at the Ponpon and Hope plantations in the 1830s, where Julia may have been born if her parents were both enslaved. It is also possible that her father was her enslaver.
As a teenager Julia had two children, and the father is listed as Samuel Smith. Julia later reported that she had never married before meeting Charles Hazzard. If Samuel Smith was enslaved, the marriage may have been unofficial. If he was Julia’s enslaver, then his name may have been applied to her without a marriage.
Regardless of who Samuel Smith was, or how Julia carried his family name for a time, she had two daughters with him who were born when she was only 16 and 19 years old. Clara was born in 1853 in Gillisonville, and Genevia was born at an unknown location in 1856.
Julia later reported that she and her daughters were freed from slavery in 1863. That date coincided with Union troop movements around the Ponpon River and Gillisonville, and it is likely that Julia and her daughters were liberated then. Whether the plantation they were enslaved on was itself taken by Union soldiers, or simply abandoned due to their presence in the area, is unknown. It is likely that Julia and the girls moved to Beaufort then, which was liberated in 1861.
It was there in 1865 that Julia met Charles Hazzard, who was serving in the 26th US Colored Troops. They were married in Port Royal on May 6th of that year. Charles returned to civilian life at the end of summer, and later in the fall of 1865 Julia, Clara, and Genevia traveled to the Adirondacks with him and his friend Josiah Hasbrook (who had also served in the 26th). Both Charles and Josiah had lived in the Adirondacks before the war.
In 1866 and 1867 Charles and Julia lived on the Hazzard family farm in Saint Armand, which was located beside the Saranac River along the main road between Saranac Lake and Bloomingdale. This is where Charles had grown up. Around that time, Julia’s elder daughter Clara moved to Burlington, VT, where she began a family of her own with a barber named Abial Anthony. In 1868 Charles and Julia purchased lot 66 a short distance down the main road and started their own farm, despite several lingering injuries and illnesses Charles carried from the war. Julia supplemented their income by weaving and selling cloths and occasionally working for neighbors. In 1877 Julia’s younger daughter, Genevia, married a hosteler named Jate Johnson. They shared the household with Julia and Charles and had three children of their own (Charles, Mabel, and Laura).
According to the 1880 St. Armand census, the 110-acre Hazzard property produced corn, wheat, potatoes, and other crops as well as cows, pigs, and poultry. Charles was listed as “disabled” and Julia as “farmer,” indicating that she took over the operation of the farm, presumably with assistance from Genevia and Jate.
Genevia died in 1887 and was buried in Bloomingdale’s Brookside Cemetery. Jate moved to New York City around that time, but their children remained in the area. Sometime in December of 1892 Charles and Julia had their first and only biological child together, but George W. Hazzard died at the age of seven months.
On September 27, 1899, Charles Hazzard died at home (aged 70 or 71 years). Julia continued to run the farm for several years after Charles’ passing, which was considered an unusual occupation for women at the time. Her widowed sister-in-law Mary Elizabeth Hazzard also ran the original Hazzard family farm nearby at the same time. Julia deeded her land to her grandchildren before she passed away on November 14th, 1904. She was buried in Brookside cemetery.
Several of Julia’s descendants through Genevia and Jate still live in the Tri-Lakes region. Clara and Abial died in Burlington in 1916 and 1938, respectively. One of their 3 children, Grace, returned to the Adirondacks later in life and lived in Saranac Lake until her death in 1964.
--By Eliot Soderholm