Smithtown, A History: Lyman Beecher Smith

A farmer and politician, Lyman Beecher Smith was a well-liked resident in Smithtown during the 19th century.

A great-grandson of our town founder, Smith was born in 1804 in his family home, which was once located on Edgewood avenue. According to , the politician was named after Dr. Lyman Beecher. A friend of the family, Beecher was a noted Presbyterian minister and the father of abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Smith in his early years ran a livery business at Fulton Street in Brooklyn, according to . Eventually he became a farmer in Smithtown who specialized in sheep and wool. He also sold cordwood, and with 450 acres of land, Smith was able to sell 300 cords of wood annually for 25 years.

The farmer became town assessor in 1839 and held the office for eight years, and in 1840 he began seven terms as highway commissioner. These positions led to Smith serving as town supervisor from 1869 to 1880.

Judge Smith wrote of the politician and former member of the Whig party, “As a proof of his popularity and the esteem in which he was held by his townsmen, it is only necessary to say that his town had many times gone Republican, but he never failed of election on the Democratic ticket.”

The judge went on to write that Smith was known for his good common sense and justice. The politician became involved in the building of the Smithtown and Port Jefferson Railroad as treasurer and was chosen many times as an appraiser of properties. He became so well-liked during his lifetime that in his later years he was called Uncle Beecher by his fellow residents.

In 1881 Smith died of dropsy, which today is called edema. He left behind his wife Phebe who he married in 1829 and eight children. The family home that once belonged to Smith’s father as well as his grandfather and great-grandfather was passed on to his son Coe D.

According to Colonel Rockwell’s Scrap-Book, Coe D. died in 1925 and the home was bought by a Munson Morris in 1936. The structure was moved back from the road and remodeled by Morris. When the scrap-book was published in 1968, the property was owned by Albert Connett.

The former Smithtown YMCA bought the house and remaining acreage in 1995, according to The Times of Smithtown Township article published on April 26, 2006. The organization originally intended to expand their facilities; however they demolished the home and in 2003 closed for business eventually selling their entire property.

Once located in the vicinity of the future Mystic Falls community, the Smith homestead became the victim of progress. Today no evidence is left of the home that once belonged to a prominent member of the Smithtown community.