Jessie Craig WADE was the daughter of Jessie Boyd CRAIG & Frederick Albert WADE, born 3 November 1902.
The Jessie was born in Taunton, Ma. and the family moved to East Killingly, Ct., when Jessie Craig WADE was six weeks old.
Jessie Craig WADE married Clarence Erastus SMITH on 19 December 1918 at
the Baptist Parsonage, Danielson, Ct.
Clarence Erastus SMITH was born 5 Dec. 1892 in Oneco, Ct., the son of Jonathan
Hill SMITH and Carrie Eugenia SMITH.
Jessie Craig WADE and Clarence Erastus SMITH had two children:
living SMITH
Marilyn Alice SMITH, born 21 May 1937. Marilyn married Robert Charles SLATER. Marilyn passed away on 2 November 2006.
Our thanks goes to the daugther of Jessie Craig WADE for preparing the following wonderful narative about her mother, Jessie Craig WADE:
As a child she lived first at the Bartlett homestead and then at the three-story "block house" in the center of East Killingly on Rt. 101. During her childhood she attended East Killingly Grammar School and Killingly High School. She always went to the services at the Baptist Church in East Killingly because "she loved to sing".
The Bartlett homestead was razed in the summer of 1976. It was located on thge north side of Rt. 101, being the first house after the general store run by Almond Paine. Across the driveway, Almond Bartlett had built a house which later became the property of Mary Burton. It was called "The Block House" and was purchased by Frederick and Jessie Wade. The basement was open on the west and south sides. It contained five rooms and a pantry. On the eastern end there was a cellar for the convenience of the first floor. The first floor had five rooms and a pantry. The ceilings were ten feet high. The Wades had a circular staircase built to the next floor. The second floor also had an outside entrance consisting of a flight of stairs on the back side of the house. This floor had six bedrooms. At some periods of time three of the bedrooms were converted to an extra tenement which was rented. There was pantry in the west end. The third floor had four rooms, three of which were furnished as bedrooms and the fourth room was a storage room. Along the front of the house, at the first floor level, there was a long piazza. There was a long rose arbor on the side of the house and a porch on the back of the house. In back of the long shed (which contained a garage to house Grandpa's automobile), there was a vegetable garden and apple trees. At one time, there was also a small chicken coop and a patch of rhubarb near the corner of the garden.
Almond Bartlett later built and lived in the small house on the right side of the South Road just around the corner from Jim Smith's store. He would tolerate no curtains and no rugs in the house for fear of germs. I (Geraldine) remember his wife, Lydia. When I was a child in the 1920's, she was a chubby little white-haired lady who was always running on her short legs. She was frequently seen slipping and sliding on the most minute pieces of ice in the winter months. Mostly, I was attracted to her home because she maintained a bookcase full of children's books. At her home I also met Mrs. Brown, who was one of my father's (Clarence Smith) teachers. She recalled the day she caught my father dipping the curls of the girl in from of him in his inkwell.
Jessie also remembered Postmaster Reynolds who tended the post office located at Robert Smith's store next to the hotel at the bottom of Chestnut hill. When I was a small child the postoffice was still located at that place. Later, it was moved up the hill to the center of the town in Jim Smith's general store and Robert Smith's store was closed. The Post Office remained in this location until 1933 when there was a change in politics. Phillip Lewis then moved it down the hill to the old hotel building. He maintained a barbershop in the back of the postoffice.
In 1905, when Jessie was three years old, she was taught to waltz by Merrill Jacques in the ballroom of the old hotel. At that time the hotel was still in operation.
The meadow land and the land on the westerly side of the north road was originally owned by the Peckham family. At the time my mother was a child, the Sayles family owned the store at the beginning of the North Road. This store was located across the corner from Almond Paine's store and later became known as Shippee's Dance Hall. The meadow land was known always as "Granny Peckham's Meadow" and at least three generations of children played on sleds on that meadow hillside. The "island" was also approached from the lower part of the meadow. The "island" was formed as the waterfalls from the mill changed to a brook running through the meadow.
When Jessie was a child, school picnics were held on the "island", which was approached on a wide beam stretched across the brook. When on the island, there were ledges and huge rocks on which the children played. Wild grapevines provided natural swings. School picnics continued through the years until 1930 when it was deemed "far too dangerous for children". Future picnics were held in the schoolyard on the last day of school.
It might be mentioned in passing that the waterfalls themselves provided cool showers in the summertime for the boys and girls of the village.
The school was on the North Road. It had two floors. Three grades were on the first level and sometimes as many as five grades were on the second floor. In later years the seventh and eight grade attended Junior High School in Danielson at Killingly High School Frederick Wade, Jessie Wade and Geraldine Smith attended the East Killingly Grammar School.
Jessie was married at the age of sixteen and Clarence built a home for them on his father's land. Jessie was lonesome for the town life so they moved to the center of East Killingly, purchasing the Sayles place (which had formerly belonged to Seamans). There they resided until after the death of her husband. At that time she purchased a home on Woodward Street in Danielson.
Jessie loved to dance and that was their chief recreation. They also attended the movies in Danielson once a week and traveled about the countryside on family picnics.
Jessie did all of her own sewing and spent many hours doing beautiful hand work. She was still doing hand work at the age of 89, while residing with her daughter at South Daytona, Fl.
She died at the Fairview Manor in Daytona Beach. She had a massive stroke, resulting in paralysis of the throat. She is buried with her husband.
This page was last updated on February 9, 2008