Background on Nelson Smith
Nelson Smith was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, late in the year 1810, the first child of Justin and Rebecca Smith of Pownal, Vt., who married the following June. In his early thirties, Nelson married Sallena Burnett of Granby and moved to the Pioneer Valley, and when Burnett's father, Bela, died in 1846, Smith inherited the family farm of 125 acres. Now situated on Burnett Street, the farm became home for the Smiths, who raised a family of at least seven children, including daughters Mary and Eliza and sons Lewis, Osmun, Harvey, Willard, and Edson.
Nelson Smith died of kidney disease in Granby, Mass., on July 15, 1892, aged 81.
