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Note: 50 Year Anniversary of Ordination
The Mena Evening Star
Mena, Arkansas. Friday June 3 1949
One Mena pastor will round out 50 years of service in the ministry onJune 11, 1949 when Rev. Henry Brownlee Smith, serving the ChristEpiscopal church in Mena will celebrate a half-century of work
Rev. Smith was born September 25, 1873 at Mt. Forest, Ontario Canada,the son of Thomas G. and Margaret Drew Smith. After completing highschool at Mt. Forest he attended Toronto university where he as an honorstudent and later the Seabury Divinity Seminary at Faribault, Minn.
He was ordained to the ministry June 11,1899 at St. Barnabas church,Denver, by Rt. Rev John F. Spaulding
Rev. Smith married Miss Mable Claire Sutton in 1904 in the Church of theHoly Communion at St. Louis, by Rt. Rev. Daniel Sylvester Tuttle, MissSutton being the daughter of Wm. And Margaret Sutton of St, Louis
The Mena couple have three children Mrs. H. B. White of Jacksonville,Florida, Henry Brownlee Smith of Seminole, Oklahoma and Mrs. Forrest E.Love of Bandera, Texas each of the children being university graduates.
Rev. Smith had served as pastorates in St. John, New Brunswick, and inPennsylvania, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas.
For seven years he was archdeacon of eastern Oklahoma and had sixteenmissions under his care. His travel to cover his territory reached some30,000 miles a year, By bus, car and train His service in Oklahoma was atotal of 18 years and he served three Episcopal bishops, Bishops Brooks,Thrust and Casey.
The Mena minister remembers much building being done in the variousministries, with a rectory at Stroudtsburg, Pa., and paying off a parishhouse debt of $2,800 and starting of a new church at McAlester, Okla., agarage at Lawton, Okla., a building site at Miami, Okla. and clearing aparish house debt and construction of a new $8,000 brick church atShawnee, Okla.
Rev. Smith had the distinction of confirming a class of 45 men atLawton, Okla, the largest class of men ever confirmed at that city and44 persons were confirmed in one class at Harrisburg, Pa.
Retiring from active ministry in 1946 Rev and Mrs. Smith came to Menaand he serves as supply for the Mena church one Sunday each month andone Sunday each month at Foremen but gives his services to Mena theother Sundays.
In 50 years of service, Rev. Smith has missed but two Sundays in holdingservices for his various churches.
Christ Episcopal church Mena will have special Golden Jubilee serviceSunday, June 5, honoring their pastor
From Episcopal Archives, Austin, TX plus notes from Aunt Alice
Smith, Henry Brownlee (Tex) - diocese?
201 Church St.
Mena, Ark
25 September 1873 Born: Mt. Forest, Ontario
Parents:Thomas George Smith and Margaret Drew
High School:Mt. Forest
Trinity University, Toronto
Seabury Divinity School, 1899
From Christ Episcopal Church, Castle rock, Colorado:
According to Mr. Breck, Henry B. Smith received his Theological Trainingin Canada. The book does not say where in Canada.
Father Smith served churches in La Junta and Las Animas Colorado in1896. Both of these towns are in Southern part of the state. From 1899to 1902 it lists your grandfather as being at St. Paul's in Littleton.This probably would have been the time he served St Peter's (Christ'sChurch) in Castle Rock.
As for Bishop Williams who performed your grandfather's ordination in1901, Bishop Arthur Williams was the Bishop of Nebraska at that time.He and two other bishops from other states filled in for then ColoradoBishop Spalding who had to leave the city to be with his sick son. I'msure these Bishops did ordinations in Bishop Spalding's absence alongwith other duties of the church. There is no record of where yourgrandfather was from 1896 to 1899 or after 1902
June 1899 Deacon, , Bishop Spalding
July 1901 Priest, Bishop A. L. Williams
16 November 1904 Married, Mabel Claire Sutton,
Children, three
1905 Drew - Pennsylvania
1910 H B jr - Stroudsburg, PA
1913 Alice - Maine
1901-1919 (Aunt Alice says Pennsylvania, Maine, and Detroit, MI)
1919 - 1923 McAlester, Okla (Oklahoma was still a mission territorysupported by the nation church while he was there. Aunt Alice wasprobably 6 in second grade.)
1923 - 1927 Archdeacon Eastern Oklahoma (lived in Muskogee and served28 small towns - also started the church in Seminole during this periodwith the help of a Dr. Collins who had moved to Seminole during theboom.)
1927 - 1932 Lawton, Okla
1932 - 1937 Rector Emmanuel Church, Shawnee, Oklahoma
1937 - 1940 Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania (Aunt Alice says Mabel hatedMt. Carmel which was a coal mining town.) From write up of Ruth &Brownlee wedding: "son of Reverend and Mrs. H. B. Smith, Sr. of the St.Stephens Rectory of Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania. Reverend and Mrs. Smithare formerly of Shawnee."
1940 - 1945 Rector St. Luke's Church, Belton, Texas (also servedRichmond)
Retired 1945 ? According to Aunt Alice he served Hope, Arkansas andTHEN retired to Mena (Mena had no full time rector and had a parsonageso they let the Smith's live in the parsonage in return for servicestwice a month.) Rev. Smith also took the train and held servicesmonthly? In Foreman, near DeQueen, Arkansas. - See Alston's for moreon DeQueen. (Newspaper the DeQueen Bee !!)
September 9, 1949 - died - Mena, Arkansas
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Note: Christ's Church
(Episcopal)
615 Fourth Street
Castle Rock, Colorado 80104
Frederick W. Meyers D. Min Rector
Alan Brownlee Smith
315 Sunnyside Lane
Columbia, TN 38401
Dear Mr. Smith:
Concerning your letter about your grandfather, Henry Brownlee Smith.The oldest record book we have begins in 1905. Before services wereheld in Christ's Church after it's construction in 1906, Episcopalservices were held in a general store in downtown Castle Rock. At thattime St. Peter's (as it was then called) was served by priests from StPaul's Church in Littleton, Colorado. St. Paul's later burned and mostof their records were lost.
I found some reference to your grandfather in a book by Allen du PontBreck, The Episcopal Church in Colorado 1860-1963
According to Mr. Breck, Henry B. Smith received his Theological Trainingin Canada. The book does not say where in Canada.
Father Smith served churches in La Junta and Las Animas Colorado in1896. Both of these towns are in Southern part of the state. From 1899to 1902 it lists your grandfather as being at St. Paul's in Littleton.This probably would have been the time he served St Peter's (Christ'sChurch) in Castle Rock.
As for Bishop Williams who performed your grandfather's ordination in1901, Bishop Arthur Williams was the Bishop of Nebraska at that time.He and two other bishops from other states filled in for then ColoradoBishop Spalding who had to leave the city to be with his sick son. I'msure these Bishops did ordinations in Bishop Spalding's absence alongwith other duties of the church. There is no record of where yourgrandfather was from 1896 to 1899 or after 1902
This is all the information I could come up with on Henry B. Smith. Youmight want to write the Diocesan Archivist, The Rev. Canon Cyril P.Coverley, 26006 Rea Ave., Conifer, CO 80433-8515 and see if he hasother information about him.
I hope the above has been of some help to you
Gook luck in your research
Sincerely,
Peggy Theriault
Parish Secretary
August 7, 2002
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