Women of distinction/Chapter 62
CHAPTER LXII.
MRS. CHRISTINE S. SMITH.
Eleven years ago a girl of fifteen summers stood at a wash-tub in the kitchen of one of her neighbors in Muncie, Indiana. This neighbor, a white lady, was in need of some one to do her washing, and she engaged to do it the subject of our sketch, who lived next door and who was attending the city high school. As the girl stood at the tub with her bare young arms playing in and out of the foaming suds, the lady for whom she was working asked what she intended to make of herself. The brown-eyed girl, whose complexion was not less fair than that of the woman for whom she labored, quickly responded, "A school-teacher." Some years later this same lady told Miss Shoecraft that she never thought she would make a teacher. The gulf between the little washer-woman and a school-mar'm was too great to be bridged by this young colored girl—so thought her once employer. But she has changed her mind since she has seen how much Miss Shoecraft has accomplished by her indomitable will and strength of purpose. These essentials to success are so overshadowed by the womanly graces of our subject that even many of her friends fail at first to note these sterling qualities. Doubtless a short sketch of her life will be an incentive to girls who may find themselves surrounded by difficulties that rise as walls of adamant between them and long-cherished desires. Her hio-hest aim in life was to get a thorough education, and then touch the sleeping heart of the masses and set it throbbing with a newer and a better life.
Miss Christine Shoecraft was born July i, 1866, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her parents were A. R. and Mary B. Shoecraft. Her mother died when she was but two and a half years old, and the care of the motherless little one rested upon her father and grandmother, who, when Christine was eight years of age, moved to Muncie, Indiana. It was in this city that she received her education, finishing from the high school when seventeen years of age. During her last three years in school many difficulties barred her pathway. But, nothing daunted, she went right on, assisting in the house-work, washing and ironing, and at the same time keeping abreast of her class. When it came time for her final examinations. instead of using the intervals between them for cramming, she washed and ironed. In this way was the money earned with which she bought her graduating dress. The girlish heart thrilled with genuine joy when she received her diploma. She felt a long-cherished hope realized. She saw her efforts crowned with success. She had grappled with the stern difficulties that stood between her and the consummation of her desire, and she had conquered. At seventeen years of age she set her little bark adrift with no fear of the future. Had she not won in that dark, tried past as a girl, and would she not win in that as yet untried future as a woman? She trusted the Saviour. She learned to love and serve Him when she was thirteen years old. Now she went forth for battle filled with pure, noble motives, burning with pent-up zeal to do something in the world, and to do what she could in the awakening of the young minds of the race. Has she succeeded? Read her history in the school-room and in the A. M. H. Sunday-school Union and you will find an answer to your question. Miss Shoecraft was offered a lucrative position as assistant principal in the State Normal School of Alabama. She accepted it. Rev. W. H. Councill, its principal, in speaking of her work in connection with the school, says:
"Miss Shoecraft was a success in every particular. She gained and holds the hearts of her fellow-teachers, the students and friends of the institution. She is, indeed, not only a born and cultivated teacher, but a leader and a commander. She was faithful and competent in any position in which she consented to serve, whether in charge of the whole school, or a class, or laboring for the people in church or Sunday-school. A consistent Christian, she carried an earnestness and consecration into her work which would not admit of defeat. She kept constantly in view the greatest good of those whom she served. She is unquestionably the most popular teacher ever connected with the Huntsville Normal School. Under the greatest trials she was the most composed, and in the darkest hour her womanly virtues shone most brilliantly and placed upon her brow a halo which called forth the admiration of friend and foe.
"In her dealings with the community, as well as her conduct towards her pupils, she lost her self-interest in her efforts to serve others, and Fred. Douglass himself was never more devoted to the welfare of the race than she.
"As Hamlet said of his father we say of her:
"'A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a woman.'"
She resigned her position in December, 1887, and the following year married the distinguished Dr. C. S. Smith, Secretary of the A. M. E. Sunday-school Union, located at Nashville, Tenn.
In this age of advancement all avenues are open to both colored men and women. But few of our women have entered the business arena and by their ability proved to the world what a colored woman can do in this line. Mrs. Smith has successfully done this. In becoming the wife of Dr. Smith she allied herself to and became -interested in the largest publishing house in the world owned and controlled exclusively by colored people. During her connection with this institution she has held, at different times, every position in the clerical department—cashier, book-keeper, entry and order clerk. For a year she has been the assistant manager of the establishment. It is the first time in the history of the Union that such an honor has been conferred on a woman. At the annual meeting of the Board of Managers of the Sunday-school Union, in April, 1892, her efficient management was highly commended.
In the school-room, in the counting-room, or as manager of the Union, Mrs. Smith has been conscientious in the performance of duty, and has shown marked executive ability in every position she has held. Notwithstanding the arduous labor in connection with her position in the Union she superintends her household affairs and devotes not a small portion of her leisure moments to her baby boy, C. S., Jr., and to the study of art. To-day she is modest, unassuming, kind and tender-hearted; a friend to the needy, a pure and noble woman, quietly and unostentatiously performing her duties as if they were not out of the regular line of woman's work.