I stumbled across this delightful four-article-remembrance as I was looking for an obit in the old Port Byron Chronicle. It was written by Elizabeth E. Smith Case, who grew up in Port Byron in the 1880′ and 90s. Like all such memories, it recalls the happy times, because who really wishes to recall the bad? But it does offer a nice look at life in Port Byron through the eyes of a young girl. Plus it was written during the Second World War, so there would have been a desire to recall simpler and more pleasant times.

I only did a very quick look at her family. Her father Benson Smith ran the local wagon shop. The family later moved south and then returned to a farm in the Emerson area. Her brother was Arthur B Smith. Elizabeth married Samuel Case in the early 1900s as she has kids on the 1910 census. Her children were two daughters, Mrs. Lester Lundberg and Mrs. Charles Meaker (back when women did have first names), and two sons, Shirley B Smith, and Irwin W Smith. Elizabeth died in Dec 1967.