Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/634

 518 THE HISTORY OF BAREINGTON. life to teaching, and was at one period the Preceptress, or Assistant Principal of the Warren Seminary for Young Ladies. Another influential teacher was Miss Eliza C. Smith, the daughter of Asa Smith. Miss Smith was one of the ablest and most valuable women Barrington ever produced. She was endowed with dignity of person and bearing, with fine in- tellectual qualities, well trained and disciplined for teaching, with a moral and spiritual nature, actively ruling her life^ and inspired by the highest ideals. She taught in all the school districts of the town, and her influence over the boys and girls who came under her instruction can never be meas- ured. I regard it as the greatest privilege of my early life to have felt the awakening and guiding influence of this noble woman, and her pupils have always borne testimony to her power, not only as a teacher, but as a true, earnest. Christian woman. Miss Eliza C. Smith was a positive force in helping to create a new Barrington. Of this fraternity of workers, I must name another Bar- rington woman whose labors and influence in the upbuilding of society have been most abundant, — Mrs. Judith R. Smith, daughter of Capt. James Bowen of New Meadow Neck. Her work as a teacher and as an influential member in society and in the church has been constant and self- sacrificing for more than two generations, and she still lives to enjoy the fruits of the labors of the band, whose motto was so well illustrated in their lives. Among the personal agencies which labored for town and society the most influential and thorough-going worker was Lewis B. Smith, who devoted the strength of a long life to the upbuilding of public interests in town, church, and state. He was a thorough-going Barrington man, loyal to its his- tory and devoted to its welfare. He was a well-balanced man, strong in his physical, mental, and moral natures. He was a man of broad views and sympathies, natural and acquired, The school of life was his educator, for he owed but little to the schools of his youth, which were of an infe-