Acknowledgement

This article is taken from the introduction of The Settlement of Horsham Township by Charles Harper Smith, by DT Shannon, President of The Millbrook Society which reprinted this book in 2016. You can read the first chapter here. This book is available in the HPHA library.

Charles Harper Smith

It has been 70 years since Charles Harper Smith (1878-1946) passed into memory. He was a common man of uncommon intellect who embraced his own heritage and that of our nation with great interest. His attention to in-depth research, no matter his choice of subject, was a hallmark of his work as an educator and historian. As an enthusiast of his own family history, and because of his schooling in the classics, becoming a historian was an avocation to which he was naturally drawn.

Charles Harper Smith was born on July 11, 1878 in Prairie Township, Henry County, Indiana. He specialized in the classics while attending Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana and graduated in 1901 with a BA degree. In 1902, he graduated from Haverford College in Haverforf, Pennsylvania with a second BA degree. Charles went on to Harvard University, graduating in 1906 with the degree Master of Arts.

From 1906 to 1917, he taught at Boston Latin School in Bostonm Massachusetts. Upon the entry of the United States into World War I, Mr Smith, although a Quaker, enlisted and served, first as a Lieutenant and thenm Captain in the air services of the United States Army. He waa ,married in Berkeley , California by a Friend’s minister on August 22, 1918 to Miss Josephine Helen Stubbs (1890-1987) of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Millbrook

After the war, Charles taught at several schools in the Midwest and was involved in industry for a time. Then he and his wife retired to Horsham Township, Pennsylvania, purchasing the old Kenderdine house and gristmill in 1926. They named their new home “Millbrook”. It was here that he wrote, with his wife’s help. his first book, The Livezey Family: A Genealogical and Hisrtorical Record , published in 1834.

He quickly fit himself into the affairs of the neighborhood, becomin president of the Montgomery County Historical Society, vice president of the Old York Road Historical Society, president of the Horsham Farmer’s Association, president of the Union Libary of Hatboro, and historian of the Livezey family, of which he was a descendant. He went on to write numerous articles and papers, many of which he presented to various historical societies. Charles died at “Millbrook” on September 4, 1946 at the age of 68.

The Millbrook Society

In 1984, Helen Smith was instrumental in forming The Millbrook Society to honor her late husband and to continue hia legacy in teaching and preserving both national and local history.