Mr. Christmas of the 19th Century

Picture a man who so loved celebrating Christmas with his children and grandchildren that he spent months at a time preparing gifts and planning gatherings.

When Christmas Eve arrived he engineered a party that included the singing of songs about Christmas and Santa Claus, the hanging of stockings and telling of the stories of Jesus and St. Nicholas.

As the children and the grandchildren would be put to bed, he trekked outdoors to leave evidence of Santa and reindeer in the snow.

When they awakened and rushed to their stockings, their joy and anticipation complete, this man’s Christmas was made.

Sounds completely normal, right?

This man, a literal Mr. Christmas, did this in the 19th century.

He was my great-great-grandfather, Albert Smith, Jr.

~ The Story of Albert Jr and Mary Ann Smith ~

I have long shared the history of my 4th great-grandfather, Albert Smith, Sr – a pioneering, faithful settler who was a founder Manti, Utah – a historic Utah community.
It was there, with his third wife, Grandma Sophie, their son, Albert Jr was born in 1861.

Albert Jr and Mary Ann, not long after they married

The sons and daughters of western pioneers rarely get their due. We fail to remember their stories because they are largely absent from better known stories of conversions and treks. They were born in the west after their parents had settled.

These children of the pioneers were community builders.

They had large families, broke sod, and lived lives in toil over a desert terrain that was unforgiving. Their labors and sacrifices were no less impressive than their parents who first came to these unsettled places.

Albert Jr, born when his father was nearing 60 years of age. Albert Jr learned heavy labor at a young age.

Not only was Albert Sr aging but he was handicapped through an injury he had experienced during his service in the Mormon Battalion.

Albert Jr, as many children of these generations were, was needed for farm production to help keep the large family going.

At the age of 22, he married Caroline Nelson.

Together they had three children and, sadly, Caroline died. A few months after her passing, their youngest baby died too, leaving Albert Jr a single father of two. Albert Jr was helped for a while with his children by a sister who lived in a nearby town.

But she too was ill and would soon pass away.

A local woman, a single mother by the name of Mary Ann Humble, occasionally helped with Albert Jr’s children.

One day when Albert Jr was in town he saw Mary Ann outside chopping wood. He stopped to offer his help with the chore and from that brief encounter a friendship began.

Mary Ann was the plural wife of a busy man who didn’t have time to attend to her. Together they had a child but seeing that his business in faraway Colorado did not allow him time to be there often Mary Ann filed for a divorce, which was granted.

So the friendship between the single-parents, Albert Jr and Mary Ann, grew into love and they married in Manti, Utah – a Christmas wedding, held on December 16th, 1891.

The blended family grew to include nine other children.

~ A Pioneer Christmas ~

Christmas among the pioneers, like it did with other Americans, evolved over time.

By the late 1880s, thanks to the journals of Albert Sr, we know that the Smith Family Christmas was celebrated with large gatherings.

For Albert Jr and Mary Ann, the celebration of their wedding anniversary was made sweeter with the gathering of family at Christmas. It was an event every year.

Albert Jr would use his hammer and a whittling knife to make toys. Mary Ann would sew and craft other creations for their children. Nobody was forgotten and nothing was store bought.

As the family matured, and grandchildren were added, Albert Jr relished his role in creating Christmas magic.

He wasn’t only a toy maker.

He also was a musician and he loved to write about Santa Claus:

I wonder who is Santa Claus and from what land he comes-
And where he get so many toys, and such nice sugar plums.
From his home in ice-bound land with reindeer swift as light-
He travels all around the world in just one single night.

I Wonder Who Is Santa Claus by Albert Smith Jr.

It became his Christmas tradition, as soon as the children were asleep, to hitch his team of horses to his sleigh and make tracks right up to the front door, proving Santa Claus had actually come to the house.

These Christmases for his children and grandchildren were legendary in their day – and that legend continues to be celebrated.

~ A Final Christmas ~

As the grandchildren came Christmas celebrations continued and grew sweeter. Wrote one daughter:

“…things were very hard to buy. At Christmas time it was hard to find toys….But Albert, being handy at carving with his pocket knife, would make such as dolls, doll beds, cradles, tables and all kinds of toy animals. Also wooden fans, trimming them with ribbon. He would carve about anything out of wood.

…When the children and grandchildren were small he enjoyed giving them a delightful Christmas. He would take them on his knee, tell them stories, and sing the song “I Wonder Who is Santa Claus”. He always got a big tree from the mountains and trimmed it with colored paper and beads of popcorn and cranberries. They never had tinsel in those days.”

At the age of 66, in 1927, Albert Jr was a grandfather blessed to have one last Christmas with his family, where all the old Christmas songs were sung, the stockings filled, and the tracks of Santa were made in the snow.

Doting daughters and grandchildren all wanted to give Grandpa Smith a good Christmas but he begged them not to spend money on needless things, as he felt he would never have a chance to use them.

He had developed a bad cough and by the day after Christmas, the doctor was sent for who informed the family that Albert Jr had pneumonia.

On December 29, 1927 Albert Jr passed away.

Albert Jr and Mary Ann Smith in 1927

~ Reflections on Grandma and Grandpa Smith ~

Often our pursuits of family history tends to tie the lives of our ancestors to notable historical events. We become laser-focused on details of where they lived and what they did for a living.

Too often that leads us to judge them by the standards of the world.

What they did, where they went to school and how much they accomplished in terms of worldly acquisitions or wealth somehow define those we never had the chance to actually come to know as individuals.

As great as all that is we seldom find details of the little things that made them human.

In Grandma and Grandpa Smith I find so much to admire because those who were with them and spent their lives and Christmases together with them provide insight and details that warm my heart.

When Grandpa died, no one suffered more at his loss than Grandma.

Their devotion to each other was palpable. Grandma, who was soon to find out she was suffering from stomach cancer, would not allow his memory to be forgotten.

No matter where she went, even with her own children who knew all the stories, Mary Ann made sure the legendary tales of what Grandpa did were re-told.

Among those were stories of him bringing home the Christmas tree cut down in the mountains, the many dolls, doll houses and toys he crafted and, of course, of the singing and story telling all the classic tales of Christmas.

To my knowledge, neither Grandma or Grandpa Smith left a journal.

But their stories have been passed down – and cherished and heralded and celebrated – by their children and their grandchildren.

In my view, it’s almost better coming from them.

Because between the cracks of the details glows the love of family. You can feel of their love for them – and it makes me love them too.

I know I will someday get to meet these great-great-grandparents of mine. And we will know each other as we really are.

Of course, our Christmases are not the same. And of course, they are the same.