Early Memories of Saugatuck, Michigan : 1830-1930
Author: Heath, May Francis
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, Mich: 1930

CHARLES T. SMITH

When one thinks back to the days of steam boats and sailors in Saugatuck one cannot but remember Charles T. Smith, who was born in Avon. Ohio, in 1846, spending his boyhood at Oberlin: when at the age of fourteen he began the steamboat life with Capt. J. N. Upham, on Lake Erie. When 18 years of age he enlisted in the Union Army where his father and four brothers were then serving: he became a member of Company E, 60th Ohio Infantry and with the army of the Potomac saw hard service in the Battle of the Wilderness and in the Siege of Petersburg and Richmond; afterward having command of the Company during the Captain's illness. The Cleveland papers often alluded to "Little Charlie of the 60th."

After receiving his honorable discharge he came to Saugatuck and again entered steamboating under Capt. J. N, Upham, who had since moved here. He served many years on Captain Britain's barges as a marine engineer, also for the Rogers and Bird Co.

Mr. Smith was married to Ellen Isabel Upham in 1870, and *o this union were born six children, the oldest dying in infancy • Mrs. Isabel Thomson of Oakland, Calif.; Mrs. Laura Smith and Mrs. Fannie Scales of Grand Haven, Mich., survive, while Ellen died in 1894 in a sweet young girlhood, and Bennie, the only son, was killed by a horse in 1926.

Mr. Smith died from pneumonia in 1891; they had bought the Wallin home some forty-five years ago and here the family resided until 1925. Mrs. Smith passed away in 1930, after residence here for 67 years.