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ELIZABETH SMITH MILLER1Elizabeth Smith Miller (1822–1911), Gerrit Smith’s only daughter, was a women’s rights and dress reform activist. The Smith and Douglass families developed an unusually cordial cross-racial relationship in the 1850s. Elizabeth Smith Miller was also a cousin and confidant of the women’s rights leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In later years, Miller defended her father’s legacy, even causing the removal of any mention of a connection with John Brown from the “authorized” biography written by Octavius Brooks Frothingham. Norman K. Dann, Ballots, Bloomers, and Marmalade: The Life of Elizabeth Smith Miller (Hamilton, N.Y., 2016); Gordon, Selected Papers of Stanton and Anthony, 1: 383–84; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 16–17, 32, 42–43, 54, 118, 129, 454; John R. McKivigan, “The Frederick Douglass–Gerrit Smith Friendship and Political Abolitionism in the 1850s,” in Frederick Douglass: New Literary and Historical Essays, ed. Eric J. Sundquist (Cambridge, Mass., 1990), 205–32. TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS
New York[, N.Y.]2Miller added the additional details of her address to the letter following her signature: “60 Clinton Place / New York” 14 Jan[uary] 1875[.]
MR DOUGLASS,
MY DEAR FRIEND,
Of all the letters of sympathy that have poured in from all quarters,3Smith died of a stroke on 28 December 1874 in New York City on a holiday visit to his nephew John Cochrane. Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 490. none are to me quite like yours! It comes very near us because you lay so close to my Fathers heart—he loved you so dearly & was so proud of you! And knowing so well the tortures of your early life—your passage out of slavery into the season & prejudices of the north, & the many trials which
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clustered about you in your new life, we are sure of your love for one who never failed you, who was ever ready to stand at your side with words of cheer & encouragement.
We shall be very glad to see you, both in Peterboro & Geneva4Gerrit Smith purchased an estate of sixty-four acres on the western shore of Seneca Lake in 1865 and gave it to his son Greene. Greene, recently discharged from the Union army, wanted to become a farmer. Because of health issues, Greene sold the estate, which he had named “Lochland,” back to Gerrit in 1869. Gerrit then gave the estate to his daughter, Elizabeth Smith Miller. She and her husband, Charles Dudley Miller, moved in on 5 July 1869 and lived there until their deaths—his in 1896, and hers in 1911. Dann, Ballots, Bloomers, and Marmalade, 94.—We hope you will, in both homes, always consider yourself a most welcome guest. Greene5Greene Smith (1842–80) was the sole surviving son of Gerrit Smith. Educated by private tutors, Smith did not share his father’s appreciation for education and often clashed with his tutors. His relationship with his father also suffered because of Gerrit Smith’s strong belief in temperance. Greene briefly joined the Union army in 1864 as a second lieutenant in the Fourteenth New York Artillery. Following the war, Greene, a passionate ornithologist, continued his study of birds, amassing a large collection of stuffed specimens. Regarded as an eccentric, he died among his collection at the family estate in Peterboro, New York. Chattanooga (Tenn.) Gazette, 27 July 1864; New York Times, 24 July 1880; Harlow, Gerrit Smith, 42, 189–90. is still in Chicago6Greene Smith resided in the Chicago suburb of Kensington intermittently between March 1868 and his death in July 1880. He went there to seek help from Dr. Charles Gilman Smith (no relation) for the condition known today as fibromyalgia. Norman K. Dann, Greene Smith and the Wild Life (Hamilton, N.Y., 2015), 49, 53.—a great sufferer. When the first sad news reached him he was so ill with rheumatism, that he could not turn in his bed.
Will you please give us Julia Griffith’s address?7In 1875, Julia Griffiths Crofts resided at 14 Denmark Street, Gateshead-on-Tyne, County Durham, England. She would move in April 1877 to St Neots, Cambridgeshire, England. Julia Griffiths Crofts to Douglass, 12 December 1874, 26 March 1877, General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 201–06, 77R–79L, FD Papers, DLC. My Mother8Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith. will probably spend most of her time here, for several weeks. She is under medical treatment, which, so far, has proved most successful.
With very kind regards to you & yours, in which my Mother heartily unites,
Yrs sincerely
ELIZABETH J MILLER
ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 763–64, FD Papers, DLC.
