# Women of distinction/Chapter 40

CHAPTER XL.
MISS LUCY WILMOT SMITH.
One reads with a glow of enthusiasm the life and career of such women as Miss Smith. Great was her work for the race, and her noblest efforts were put forth in raising the standard of womanhood. She was the daughter of Margaret Smith and was born in Lexington, Ky.
MISS LUCY WILMOT SMITH.
Like the difficulties that come to many colored girls, she found it no easy task to satisfy her soul with the culture for which it longed. Her unusual brightness attracted much attention. Friends of the family took an interest in her and directed her reading by placing in ​her hands books which should prove the most beneficial. The result was at maturity she was considered among the best informed of the race. Seeing how hard her mother had to labor for the support of her children, Miss Smith felt that she must lend a helping hand. Though young she took a position under the Lexington School Board, where she labored faithfully and satisfactorily. In 1881 she was elected teacher in State University, taking charge of the model school as principal. She was a model teacher as well as an exemplary Christian woman, and left a lasting impression upon those under her care. She lifted the men up to the apprehension that a noble character and a cultivated intellect are more enduring graces than mere beauty of form—that to be manly was their first duty. She taught the young women to despise mediocrity, to trust their own brain and to aspire towards all that is noble and grand. Her indomitable will, perseverance and originality gave her success in all her undertakings. For some time she served as private secretary to Dr. William J. Simmons, by whom she was led into prominence. She was painstaking and accurate and sacrificed much of her pleasure and time that his work might not lag. All that she did was with that cheerfulness of spirit that not only sweetened her own life, but made life easier for others.
Dr. Simmons often spoke of her worth and helpfulness. Though burdened as teacher and private secretary, she took up the studies of the normal department and graduated in 1887. Out of her means she supported a sister in the University; after this sister's graduation ​she assumed the education, in the same school, of a sister's daughter and that of one of her own brothers at the same time. She never forgot her mother's comforts and provided for them. One loves to think of her as he knew her, and to know her was but to admire her.
In 1884, Miss .Smith left the State University to try the West. She there filled a position in Wyandotte, Kansas. Here her efficiency was recognized and honored, for she became President of the Sewing Circle of the Wyandotte Baptist Church, also of a society connected with the Methodist Church, and Secretary of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Upon the urgent request of president and trustees she returned to her old position at State University, September, 1885, where she served as financial clerk and city missionary for the Young Men and Women's Christian Association; she also served this body as president. She became a Christian, December, 1872, under the influence of Rev. James Monroe, and lived a consistent member of the Baptist Church. It was a point of her life to give one-tenth of her means to the Lord, and her large-heartedness never allowed her to turn her back on any worthy cause.
When the call was made in 1883, by Dr. Simmons, for the Baptist women of the State to come together and organize for the benefit of the educational work. Miss Smith was among its foremost workers and was secretary of the organization. Her interest in that work never weakened from the first, and she was willing to serve wherever placed. She was a member of the Board of Managers for years and was Secretary of Children's Bands, an ​auxiliary of that body. She wrote a pamphlet of thirteen pages, setting forth the work, constitution, order of business and work children could do to earn their own money, which proved beneficial and was quite instructive to the little ones. She was of a national disposition, and every such meeting she could reach was greeted by her smiles. The first National Baptist Convention, which met in St. Louis in 1886, listened to a paper from her on "The Future Colored Girl," which is published in the "Journal" of that meeting. She was also elected at that time as Historian of that body, and served it several years as one of the Executive Committee. In 1888 she again appeared before this body with a paper which showed carefulness of thought and logical arrangement.
Her newspaper work began in 1884, when she controlled the "Children's Column" in The American Baptist, of Louisville, Ky. In 1887 she accepted a position on the staff of The Baptist Journal of which Rev. R. H. Coles, of St. Louis, was editor. She furnished sketches of newspaper writers, among the women of the race, for the New York Journalist, in the interest of artists, authors and publishers. Her work was very much praised and also reproduced in the Boston Advocate, the Indianapolis Freeman and other papers. She was a forcible writer, using good English, and always produced something readable. She edited the department of "Woman and Woman's Work" in Our Women and Children, a magazine of Louisville, Ky. In this work she took much pride. She was greatly interested in the elevation of woman and was always outspoken on ​woman suffrage, as a clipping from one of her articles will show:
It is said by many that women do not want the ballot. We are not sure that the 15,000,000 women of voting age would say this, and if they did, majorities do not always establish the right of a thing. Our position is that women should have the ballot, not as a matter of expediency, but as a matter of pure justice.
It was her intention, had life been spared her, to establish a female seminary that a more thorough education might be given the girls of head, heart and hands. She had also begun a book on "Women and Their Achievements," which her friend, Miss M. V. Cook, would gladly finish and publish if the manuscript could be gotten. Miss Smith was a warm enthusiast on temperance, and was always ready to talk or write on that subject.
She felt that the mortality of women is due to their timidity in expressing themselves freely to male physicians, and with this fact in mind, she determined to alleviate their suffering by making herself proficient in medicine, especially to that part which pertained to female ills and their remedies. Like all else she did she threw her whole soul into it, having a private teacher from among the best and most skilled physicians of lyouisville. What woman, who reads this sketch, will take up the work she so nobly began and make the most of it for the good of the race and humanity at large?
As a writer the following is said of her:
She frequently writes for the press, and wields a trenchant pen; is ambitious to excel, and will yet make her mark.—The American Baptist.
​Mrs. N. F. Mossell says:
Miss Smith writes compactly, is acute, clean and crisp in her acquirements, and has good descriptive powers. Of strong convictions, she is not slow in proving their soundness by a logical course of reasoning. Her style is transparent, lucid, and in many respects few of her race can surpass her.
But, alas! "Death loves a shining mark—a signal blow."
MISS ADA C. HAND.
​matron, Mrs. Jane McKamey, and Rev. C. H. Parrisb. Before leaving she said to the matron, "I waited to see Miss Cook," who was then in the New England States, "but I must go now." She arose every morning, dressed and received her friends till the morning of her death, December i, 1888, at 5 A. M., when she rested from her labors.