The Detroit News
Thursday, June 17, 1933
Contributed by Judy Quinn

Father Veteran of 1812

Daughter, 80, says he was 2 when Washington died

Wayne, Mich., June 17 - Mrs. Phoebe Rhead, for 76 years a resident of Wayne, is only 80 years old but she is a daughter of a veteran of the War of 1812. Her father, Ebenezer Smith, was born two years before the death of George Washington.

Mrs. Rhead's memory of her father and his activities during the war is dim, she says, but the family Bible records that he was born 135 years ago at Phelpstown, N.Y., on July 4. He received a pension for service in this war against England until a week before his death, April 1, 1866, at the age of 90.

That Ebenezer Smith enlisted in the American Army at the age of 15 at Phelpstown, Mrs. Rhead is positive. She believes he participated in struggles in and near Detroit. History records that General William Hull surrendered Detroit to the British, August 16, 1812 and Mrs. Rhead said her father took part in these battles or in later ones in this vicinity. Detroit was recaptured from the British in 1813, following the victory by Commodore Perry on Lake Erie.

After the close of the war in 1814, following General Andrew Jackson's victory at New Orleans, the youthful Ebenezer Smith settled in Wayne County, according to Mrs. Rhead. He married twice and was the father of 15 children, Mrs. Rhead being the last born and the only one now living.

Mr. Smith is buried at the Newburgh Cemetery, six miles northwest of Wayne. Three of his sons fought in the Civil War.

During the many years Mrs. Rhead has lived in Wayne, her home has been on one street, her present address being 34846 E. Norris Street. She married three times, death taking each husband. She lives alone. She likes to read, and her home contains many treasures of old literature, newspapers and manuscripts. She has a splendid knowledge of local history and delights of telling of the days when Wayne was hardly more than a village of 400 inhabitants.

Recently Mrs. Rhead offered to give Wayne two lots and a house if the village would guarantee to supply her needs until her death. The commissioners have her proposal under consideration.

Mrs. Rhead is the mother of Alfred C. Johnson, 4494 Mt. Clair Avenue, Detroit.