EDITOR’S NOTE: Columnist Christi Baron continues her vignettes of independent West End women in recognition of March as Women’s History Month.
“While women of the West End may not be nationally known,” Christi wrote March 2, “there are many who have made their mark as early pioneers and businesswomen in an environment of tough loggers and manly men.”
FIFTEEN YEARS BEFORE Mary Schutz Clark arrived in Clallam County [West End Neighbor, March 2 PDN], 1-year-old Mina Smith, her parents, Andrew Jackson Smith and Mary Jane Stewart Smith, and seven siblings arrived at Neah Bay.
The year was 1877.
The road which bears her name is located off Quillayute Road. At the corner is the Quillayute Prairie Cemetery, and Mina Smith Road wanders five miles up the Dickey River near Smith’s former homestead.
In 1879, the Smith family moved from Neah Bay to the Quillayute Prairie.
Smith’s father paid a local tribal member $8 to paddle the family and all their belongings to LaPush.
From the Quileute Reservation, they went to the place later to be called Mora at the mouth of the Dickey River, and then followed a trail that started at James Lake and ended at the west end of the Quillayute Prairie.
Smith’s father had prepared a small log house for his family, and upon their arrival they set about planting a garden and orchard.
Smith was the yarn spinner, her older sisters the cloth, clothes and bedding makers and her brothers cut wood, built things and helped with the farming.
By 1899, Smith found herself waiting for her suitor to return from the Alaska gold fields.
When it became obvious he was not coming back, the 23-year-old was getting past her prime — so in 1900, she met and married Oren Smith a surveyor for the government geodetic survey.
Smith had already filed her own homestead claim at the junction of the East and West Dickey River.
The Smiths built a home and proceeded to raise a family.
Twelve years and five children later, Mr. Smith decided he wanted to go to Alberta.
Mrs. Smith had family nearby and did not want to move her children to an unknown life.
Mr. Smith took the horses and the wagon and was never heard from again.
Smith and her children survived by hunting elk and deer.
They sold the sheep’s wool plus cream and butter.
Smith built a larger house and one of the room served as a school for her children. The county supplied a teacher and wood to heat the rooms.
In 1920, Smith met and married a veteran of World War I, an Italian named Gusseppi Romeo.
Romeo was a city guy, and although he tried, the country life just was not for him.
Also, the children had an intense dislike for him.
The union ended in divorce, and Romeo left.
But Smith was expecting a baby, and on Jan. 18, 1921, Stewart Francis Romeo was born.
Eleven days later, Smith went to visit friends. Late that afternoon, the wind started to pick up.
She thought she should get home to her newborn — just as the biggest windstorm to ever hit the West End began.
Abandoning her horse, she ran for her life as trees fell all around, arriving at her home around midnight.
Smith’s life included many dangers but it also included many good times, music, parties and dances.
In the days before public assistance and welfare, Smith spent many years of her life as a single mother, breadwinner and teacher, carving out a life for her and her children in an environment that was amazingly difficult.
One of her children, the late Dorothy Smith Klahn, recounted her mother’s life in her book called Mama’s Dickey River Homestead.
Quoting from Klahn’s book:
“She died as she lived, with a great deal of courage, determination and independence.”
Mina Smith Romeo died Dec. 25, 1949, and from her place of rest in the Quillayute Prairie Cemetery, she watches over the road that honors her memory.
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Christi Baron is a longtime West End resident.
She is the office and property manager for Lunsford & Associates real estate in Forks. She and her husband, Howard, live in Forks.
Call her at 360-374-3141 or 360-374-2244 with items for this column, or e-mail her at hbaron@ centurytel.net.
West End Neighbor appears on this page every other Tuesday.
