Our Story

Elmer was born in Pennsylvania in 1862 to Mary Catherine "Kate" Smith. His father presumably died in the Civil War, but tracking his identity has been challenging. By 1870 Elmer is living with his mother and step-father, Ferdinand Broll, in Baltimore, Maryland. He retained his father's surname.

By the age of 17 Elmer was working as a cooper and by the age of 20 he had married Sara E "Lillian" McCardell. Lilly's father (Samuel E McCardell) was born in Pennsylvania, but her mother (Mary Jane Ellison) came from Ireland. Together they had three girls, but when Lillian's sister Anastasia died during or shortly after the birth of her fourth daughter, they adopted her two youngest daughters, Irene and Stacy.

By 1917 daughter Edna, her husband and three children moved into the family home at 250 South Clinton Street and remained there through John's death in 1926 and until Edna's remarriage in 1931 to George Uhl.

Left photo: Elmer Ellsworth Smith. Right photo: Lillian Smith (middle) with daughter Mary Catherine Smith Ripple at her Cheltenham home, and adopted daughter Anastacia.

Elmer worked as a cooper, a foreman, and later a machinest in a tin can company in Baltimore, while Lillian kept house and raised the five girls. By 1920 the family owned their home without mortgage at 250 S Clinton St. The home, a two-story townhouse [or Baltimore rowhouse] built in 1900, still stands in 2020 and is described as having 1.5 baths, being 1,310 sq ft with a 938 sq ft lot and estimated value of $299,200.

Elmer and Lillie are buried beside each other in a family plot in Loudon Park Cemetery (Rose Hill Section, Plot 748) in Baltimore, Maryland. Daughter Edna Holtgrefe Uhl and her first husband are also buried in the family plot. [Son-in-law John Holtgrefe is buried on the opposite side of the headstone.] The other two spaces may be vacant.