A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Smith, Sarah Louisa P.
SMITH, SARAH LOUISA P.,
Was born at Detroit, in 1811, while her maternal grandfather, Major-General William Hull, so well known for his patriotism and Ms misfortunes, was governor of the territory of Michigan. Her father's name was Hickman; he died when Louisa was an infant; and her mother, returning to her own home at Newton, Massachusetts, there educated her two daughters. The uncommon quickness of talent exhibited by Louisa, soon attracted the attention of her instructors. She had a most wonderful memory, and gathered knowledge without any apparent effort—yet was she ever among the most active in mental pursuits. And the ease with which she acquired information was not more remarkable than the modesty which accompanied her superiority. She began to write when a mere child, and these juvenile productions were often so excellent, as to elicit great commendation from her family and their confidential friends; yet this praise never fostered pride or self-confidence in the youthful poetess. She wrote from the spontaneous overflowing of her own heart, which seemed filled with thoughts of beauty, and all tender and sweet emotions. By the persuasion of her friends, she was induced to send some of her effusions, anonymously, to different periodicals. These were greatly admired, and often reprinted. Before she was fifteen, her name had become known, and she was distinguished as a young lady of great intellectual powers.
In 1828, Miss Hickman was married to Mr. S. J. Smith, then the editor of a literary periodical in Providence. Soon after her marriage, her husband published a volume of her poems; some collected from the literary journals, and others written as the book was passing through the press. She was then but "careless seventeen," as she says of herself; and it was a hazardous experiment to give a volume of poetry, which must have been, however highly imbued with genius, more fraught with the feelings and sentiments of others, than with those teachings of truth and nature which experience in the real world can only bestow. But the book was popular; and though she would, had she lived till the maturity of her powers, no doubt greatly excelled her early writings, yet, as the blossoms of an original and extraordinary genius, these poems will ever be admired.
She died, February, 1882, in the twenty-first year of her age.