Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-09
AGED WOMAN TO
BE HONOR GUEST
JOHN VANCE CHENEY WILL
MEET REAL PIONEER
WHlTEzHAlRED WOMAN STILL
ABLE TO ENJOY LIFE
Memory Harks Back to Time When
She and Her Husband First
Visited the Wisconsin
Wilderness

An honored guest at the reception to
meet John Vance Cheney which will
be given Tuesday for the Southern
California Woman's Press club by the
president. Mrs. David Chambers Nc
Can. at her West Adams street resi-
dence. will be the mother of the hos
tess, Mrs Laura Chase Smith, VINO
was made an honorary member Of the
club at a meeting of the board Of di-
rectors last week. Mrs. Smith last
September celebrated her eighty-sec-
ond anniversary.
Born at Royalton, VT, in 1927, Mrs.
Smith watched the young American
nation adjust itself first to steam rail-
roads, then to the wonders of electric
ity as developed in telegraph and tel
ephone, and now, still keenly follow
ing the course of events, Is familiar
with that annihilater of space, the au-
temobile and is planning to be pres
ent next week when the wonder OF the
twentieth century, mans conquest of
the air. is celebrated on the Pacific
coast by fight of airships.
Mrs Smith, who with her daughter,
Miss Laura Grover smith, lives at
1911 West Twenty-fourth street, where
many friends and acquaintances de-
light to do her honor, has for years
taken the greatest interest in news
concerning the discovery Of the north
pole, and when the Cook-Peary con-
troversy first drew public attention
last summer she became, and has
since remained, an ardent supporter
of Lieutenant Peary.
Lived Years on Frontier
Essentially a gentlewoman, with a
menner to which even strangers pay
Difference, this white haired wo-
man has carried from her youth
the heart of the pioneer, and she has
known not only the cultured life of
the city and the poys of European
travel, but has lived years on the from
tier
She is a niece of former Chief JUS
tice Salmon p. Chase, and a grand
daughter of Bishop Philander Chase,
founder of Kenyon and Jubilee col
leges. and the pioneer bishop of the
great northwest, a man whose eager
interest in his work took him as far
as the court of King George " to OBJ
tain funds for the establishment of
the first-named college, and who was
presented and widely entertained Mrs.
Smith's biography of Bishop Chase,
written when she was 70 years old, is
accepted as an authority both histori-
cally and enthusiastically.
Married Sixty=six Years Ago
All her life this gifted woman has
been a student and a writer, and
among the most treasured possessions
of her daughters is her story of her
wedding day, an occasion whose sixty
sixth anniversary was celebrated De-
--eember %, 1909.
When with her husband, Horatic
Nelson Smith, and their children she
went to Sheboygan, Wis. and later to
Plymouth, Wis, they were pioneers
and had an active part in the develop
ment of that section, establishing cir
culating libraries and schools and
everywhere acting as couriers Of civil
lization. Mr.. Smith, a man of affairs,
was warden of Wisconsin state prison
six years and later became an author
ity on prison reform.
With her daughter, Miss Laura
Grover Smith, and a granddaughter,
this snowy haired woman with the
heart of youth, made her second trip
to Europe when over 70 years old.
Today, wearing gowns of gray, of
lavender or white, and with her soft
hair crowned by delicate lace caps,
this lady of the old school basks in the
sunset glow of life-a sunset whose
chief radiance is the reflected rays
from the golden days of her youth.
And this week she will see the air
ships.