BIO: Alexander D. Bache Smead, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.

                            CHAPTER XXXVIII.

                          BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.

395  BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.

  ALEXANDER D. BACHE SMEAD was born in Carlisle, March 24, 1848.  He is 
the youngest child of Capt. Raphael C. Smead, Fourth United States 
Artillery.  The latter was a New Englander by birth, descended from a 
family established in Massachusetts two centuries ago.  His parents, 
Selah and Elizabeth (Cummings) Smead, removed to Genesee County, New 
York, and from there the son was sent to the West Point Military 
Academy in 1821, graduating four years later.  In 1829 he married Sarah 
M. Radcliffe, daughter of John and Jane (Van Ness) Radcliffe, of 
Dutchess County, New York, a woman of beauty and talent and of 
remarkable force of character.  He thus allied himself with several of 
the oldest colonial families of New York, which have furnished that 
State with some of her ablest judges, both for the supreme and inferior 
courts, as well as men prominent at the bar in official life.  Both of 
Mrs. Smead's parents were of Dutch extraction, some of her father's 
ancestors having emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam as early as 
the year 1630, and their descendants intermarried with later English 
and Huguenot settlers.  Capt. Smead passed unhurt through the Florida 
and the Mexican wars, but had barely reached American soil, on his 
return from the latter, when he fell a victim to yellow fever 
contracted at Vera Cruz.  Having, in 1847, been sent North for a short 
time to Carlisle Barracks to recruit additional men for his regiment, 
he had left his wife and children in Carlisle when he himself rejoined 
Gen. Scott's army.  Her husband's sudden death, in 1848, left Mrs. 
Smead among comparative strangers and in very straightened 
circumstances.  But adversity could not overcome her energetic nature.  
Deciding to make Carlisle her home, she at once took up her increased 
burden of responsibility, and carried it to the end without flinching.  
She still (in 1886) resides in the town where she so successfully 
reared and educated her sons and daughters.  Raphael C. and Sarah M. 
Smead

396  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

had the following children:  First - JOHN R. SMEAD.  He graduated at 
West Point in 1854 and was commissioned lieutenant in the Second United 
States Artillery, spent a couple of years on the Indian frontier, acted 
as assistant professor of philosophy at West Point, and was on 
topographical engineer duty when the war of the Rebellion broke out.  
The disloyalty of the captain of the "National Rifles," of Washington, 
led to Capt. Smead's detail, by their request, to reorganize and 
command them until Northern troops could arrive for the defense of the 
Capital.  With this company he led the first advance of the Union Army 
into Virginia.  He was soon promoted captain in the Fifth United States 
Artillery, commanded his battery through the Peninsular campaign, and 
was killed in battle August 30, 1862.  He married Annie B. Ege, of 
Carlisle, and left one child, Raphael C. Smead, now a civil engineer.  
Second - ELIZABETH C. SMEAD.  She died in infancy.  Third - ELIZABETH 
C. SMEAD.  She has made music her profession.  She has been a member of 
the faculty of "Metzger Institute" since its foundation, and has charge 
of the department of instrumental music.  Fourth - JANE V. N. SMEAD.  
Since 1865 she has been the wife of John Hays, Esq., of Carlisle.  
Fifth - RAPHAEL C. SMEAD.  He was book-keeper of the First National 
Bank of Carlisle, and died May 25, 1869, unmarried.  Sixth - SARAH 
CORNELIA SMEAD.  She resides with her mother in Carlisle.  Seventh - A. 
D. B. SMEAD. 
  The latter graduated in 1862 from the public schools of Carlisle, 
then studied until 1863 at the preparatory school of Dickinson College, 
and in 1864 entered that college, from which he graduated June 25, 
1868, with the first honors.  In the spring of that year he was 
nominated by the President for a commission in the Regular Army, and 
passed an examination before a board of military officers convened for 
that purpose.  On August 1, 1868, he was commissioned second lieutenant 
in the Third United States Cavalry.  He was an officer of that regiment 
for over eleven years.  He was stationed in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, 
Arizona, California, Nebraska, Wyoming, Dakota and Montana; was much on 
active duty in the field and occasionally engaged in Indian 
hostilities.  He was promoted first lieutenant in 1871, and regimental 
adjutant in 1878.  In 1879 He resigned from the army for the purpose of 
practicing law, to the study of which he had devoted much attention in 
connection with his military duties.  His legal studies were completed 
in Philadelphia, and he was admitted to the bar of that city as well as 
to that of Cumberland County.  He then settled in his native place for 
the practice of his profession.  Mr. Smead has spent over two years in 
European travel and study.  He has long been a member of the Second 
Presbyterian Church, of which he is also a trustee.