* Name: Elizabeth Horton Dill [1-2]
* Sex: Female
* Father: Thomas Dill (1755-1839)
* Mother: Hannah Horton (1761-1797)
* Alternate Name: Elizabeth H. Smith [4-6, 8]
* Alternate Name: Elizabeth H. Dill [11]
* Alternate Name: Elizabeth Dill [3, 13–16]
* Alternate Name: Eliza Smith [7]
* Alternate Name: Eliza H. Smith [10, 12]
2) INDIVIDUAL FACTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):
* Birth: 9 May 1791, Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States [3]
* Baptism: 22 March 1822 (age 30), Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States [1]
* Confirmation: 23 March 1822 (age 30), St. Paul's [Episcopal] Church, Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States [2]
* Census: 1 June 1840 (age 49), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States [4]
* Deed: 18 August 1841 (age 50), Elizabeth H. Smith to Lucy Butterfield; Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States [5]
* Census: 1 June 1850 (age 59), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States [6]
* Census: 14 September 1855 (age 64), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States [7]
* Census: 1 June 1860 (age 69), Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States [8]
* Death: 28 November 1869 (age 78), Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [9-10]
* Burial: after 28 November 1869 (after age 78), Vine Lake Cemetery, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States [11]
* Mortality Census: 1 June 1870 (age 79), Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States [12]
2) MARRIAGES AND CHILDREN (with source citations as indicated in brackets):
* Spouse 1: Alpheus B. Smith (1802-1840)
* Marriage Intentions: 5 November 1826 (age 35), Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States [13-14]
* Marriage: 30 November 1826 (age 35), Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States [15-16]
* Child 1: Lucretia Townsend Smith (1828-1884)
* Child 2: James Alpheus Smith (1833-1902)
4) NOTES (with source citations as indicated in brackets) - revised July 2025:
Elizabeth
Horton Dill was born 9 May 1791 in Eastham in Barnstable County on
Cape Cod. The birth entry in the Eastham, Massachusetts town
records provide a list of children of Thomas and Hannah (Horton)
Dill, who married in 1782[3] Elizabeth’s siblings were
Ezekiel Dill (1784-1872), Obediah Dill (1786-0????), Seth Dill
(1787-????), Isaiah Dill (1788-????), Jabez H. Dill (1789-1872),
James Horton Dill (1792-1862), Daniel Dill (1793-1850), and Asa Dill
(1795-????). Her mother, Hannah (Horton) Dill died in 1797,
and her father, Thomas Dill married two more times, dying in about
1839.
Elizabeth
Dill became a schoolteacher, and received a call to Dedham,
Massachusetts by 1821.
Elizabeth
Horton Dill of Eastham was baptized as an adult on 22 March 1822 in
Dedham, Massachusetts at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.[1] The
record says:
"Mar. 22 1822. Mary Godfrey Fisher,
adult. Elizabeth Horton Dill, adult. Mary Fales Mason, adult."
The
published Dedham town records provide church records also. Elizabeth
Horton Dill was confirmed one day after her adult baptism, on 23
March 1822, as a member of the St. Paul's [Episcopal] Church in
Dedham, by the Right Reverend Abner N. Griswold.[2] Also
confirmed on the same day was Lucretia Townsend.
These
are the only two records that provide a middle name for Elizabeth -
other records have a middle initial of H. or no middle name at all.
The
marriage intentions for Elizabeth Dill and Alpheus B. Smith were
published in both Dedham[13] and Medfield[14] records.
The Dedham town record book says:
"Mr.
Alpheus B. Smith of Medfield and Miss Elizabeth Dill of Dedham Nov'r
5 1826."
The
Medfield vital records book says:
"DILL,
Elizabeth of Dedham, and Alpheus B. Smith of Medfield, int. Nov. 5
1826."
The
marriage was recorded in both Dedham[15] and
Medfield[16] records also. The marriage record in
the Dedham town record book says:
“[1826]
Nov. 30 Mr. Alpheus B. Smith of Medfield to Mis Elizabeth Dill
of Dedham"
The
marriage record in the Medfield vital record book says:
"Nov.
30 [1826] Alpheus B. Smith of Medfield & Elizabeth Dill of
Dedham."
Tilden's
book, History of the Town of Medfield, Massachusetts, 1650-1886, says
this about Alpheus Smith and Eliza Dill:
“Alpheus
B. Smith married in 1826 Eliza Dill of Eastham, and the same year he
bought the place on High Street near the South School-house. He
died in 1840, his wife in 1869."
Alpheus
and Elizabeth (Dill) Smith had two children:
Lucretia
Townsend Smith, baptized 6 September 1828 in Medfield,
Massachusetts, who married Isaac Seaver on 9 September 1851 in
Walpole Mass., and died 24 March 1884 in Leominster, Massachusetts.
James
Alpheus Smith, baptized 6 June 1833 in Medfield, Massachusetts, and
married Annie Eliza Stewart in 1864 in Boston, Massachusetts, and
died on 5 April 1902 in Detroit, Michigan.
Alpheus
B. Smith died intestate in February 1840, and Eliza H. Smith declined
administration of the estate, which was administered to Hinsdale
Fisher. During the probate process, James H. Dill, Esquire
bought the widow's third of the land, and apparently gave it to
Elizabeth. James H. Dill was born in 1792 in Eastham, the son
of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill, and was a brother of Elizabeth
Horton (Dill) Smith..
In
the 1840 US Census, Elizabeth H. Smith was a head of household in
Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts[4] with one male
age 5-10 (certainly son James), one female age 10 to 15 (certainly
daughter Lucretia), and one female age 40 to 50 (certainly
Elizabeth).
Elizabeth
H. Smith sold land in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts to Lucy
Butterfield on 18 August 1841 for 100 dollars.[5] The
land was all of her right, title, and interest to Dower in her late
husband's estate as set off by Order of the Court of Probate,
consisting of a house and barn with about three quarters of an acre
of land, and bounded northerly and easterly on land of the heirs of
Elisha Clark, Southwardly on the land sold to the said Lucy, and
Westwardly on the road leading from Medfield to Walpole.
In
the 1850 U.S. census, Elizabeth H. Smith (age 52, female, born MA)
resided in Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts with Lucretia T.
Smith (age 22, female born MA).[6]
In
the 1855 Massachusetts State Census, the Eliza Smith household in
Medfield, Norfolk County included:[7]
*
Eliza Smith - age 58, female, born Mass.
*
Lucy Butterfield - age 65, female, born Mass.
In
the 1860 US Census, Elizabeth H. Smith headed a household in
Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, which included:[8]
*
Elizabeth H. Smith - age 60, female, widow, born MA
*
Daniel D. Hammet 0 age 40, male, $2000 in real property, $400
in personal property, born MA
*
Cynthia Hammet - age 45, female, born MA
*
George D. Hammet - age 18, male, born MA.
Eliza
H. Smith died 28 November 1869 in Leominster MA, according to the
Medfield, Massachusetts town records,[10] aged 75 years,
6 months, 9 days, of apoplexy. She was a resident of Medfield,
birthplace was Eastham, Massachusetts, and her parents names
were Thomas Dill of Eastham and Mary Horton of Wellfleet. The
age at death works out to a birthdate of 19 May 1794.
A
second death record is in the Leominster MA town records:[9] she
died 28 November 1869, aged 75 years, 6 months, 13 days, of apoplexy.
Her birthplace was listed as Eastham, Massachusetts and her
parents names were listed as Jabez Dill of Eastham and Mary Horton of
Wellfleet.
Eliza
H. Smith was enumerated in the 1870 U.S. Census Mortality Schedule in
Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts.[12] She
is listed as age 75, a widow, died in November [1869], of apoplexy,
with no occupation. The note at the bottom of the page says
"The five last names taken from the town records, the families
are not known."
The
gravestone for Elizabeth H. (Dill) Smith is in Vine Lake Cemetery in
Medfield, Massachusetts.[11] The inscription reads:
Erected in Memory
of
ELIZABETH H. DILL
Wife of
ALPHEUS B. SMITH,
Died Nov. 17, 1869.
Aged 77 years.
There
is no probate record for an Eliza or Elizabeth Smith in Worcester
County or Norfolk County, Massachusetts after 1869.
5) SOURCES
1. Don Gleason Hill (editor), The Record of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Town of Dedham, 1635-1845 (Dedham, Mass. : Town of Dedham, 1886), page 218, baptism of Elizabeth Dill, an adult.
2. Don Gleason Hill (editor), The Record of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Town of Dedham, 1635-1845 (Dedham, Mass. : Town of Dedham, 1886), page 224, confirmation of Elizabeth Horton Dill.
3. "Town Records, 1654-1873 [Eastham, Massachusetts]," US/CAN Microfilm 907350, Items 2 - 6, Elizabeth Dill birth entry.
4. 1840 United States Federal Census, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Medfield town: Page 196, Eliza Dill household, online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M704, Roll 192.
5. Norfolk County (Massachusetts) Register of Deeds, "Land Records - Deeds, 1793-1890," on 373 microfilm reels, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, Volume 139, Page 109 (accessed on FHL US/CAN Microfilm 841833), Deed, Elizabeth H. Smith to Lucy Butterfield, dated 18 August 1841.
6. 1850 United States Federal Census, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule; Medfield town, Page 348A, Dwelling #488, Family #632, Eliza Smith household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, Roll 331.
7. "Massachusetts State Census, 1855," indexed database and digital image, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org), Norfolk County, Medfield, Page 21 (penned), Dwelling #2, Family #2, Eliza Smith household.
8. 1860 United States Federal Census, Population Schedule, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Medfield; Page 851, Dwelling #780, Family #841, Eliza Smith household; online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, Roll 515.
9. "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1915," indexed database and digital images, New England Historic Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (http://www.AmericanAncestors.org), Deaths, Volume 222, Page 264, Leominster, 1869; Eliza H. Smith entry.
10. "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1915," digital images, New England Historic Genealogical Society, American Ancestors (http://www.AmericanAncestors.org), Deaths, Volume 221, Page 262, Medfield, 1869; Eliza H. Smith entry.
11. Jim Tipton, indexed database, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com), Vine Lake Cemetery (Medfield, Mass.), entry for Elizabeth H. Dill Smith (????-1869).
12. "U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1885," online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts; Page: 619, Line 6, Eliza H. Smith entry; citing National Archives Microfilm Publication T1204, Roll Number 23.
13. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), Dedham Births, Marriages and Deaths, image 255, Alpheus Smith and Elizabeth Dill intention of marriage entry.
14. Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (Boston, Mass. : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1903), Marriages, page 135, Alpheus B. Smith and Elizabeth Dill entry, intentions.
15. Massachusetts, Town Records, 1620-1988, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), Dedham Births, Marriages and Deaths, image 260, Alpheus B. Smith and Elizabeth Dill marriage entry.
16. Don Gleason Hill (editor), The Record of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Town of Dedham,1635-1845 (Dedham, Mass. : Town of Dedham, 1886), Marriages, page 221, Alpheus B. Smith and Elizabeth Dill entry.
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Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver