Compiled by my dad, Beth’s son, Warren, assisted by extensive chronicles of the Smithson Family in the upper Shasta River Watershed in northern California, including the anthology of California history 1822-1888 by Helen Boggs, “My Playhouse Was A Concord Stage” as well as extensive research of family history by Kelley Kreitzmann, Beth’s niece.
Beth Halsey (Elizabeth Smithson) was born in Kennett, California, Feb. 3, 1903. She married Frank Halsey, DDS, January 16, 1932, and died July 30, 1988.
Until 1917 Beth lived a rural life in the Sacramento River Canyon, north of Redding. California. Her parents had lived in the same area where her Grandfather, James Smithson, the family patriarch, had spent most of his life after moving to Shasta County in 1859. James was an esteemed Stagecoach driver and entrepreneur, owning and managing stage stops and associated businesses for stage travelers. The colorful history of James Smithson is well-chronicled in Redding newspapers and history books, including various accounts of the famous stage robber, Black Bart, and the noteworthy historian, Helen Boggs, author of “My Playhouse was a Concord Stage”, 1942. Beth was given a personal copy by the author. James Smithson is memorialized on a bronze plaque in the town of Old Shasta in 1931, which reads: “In Loving Memory To The Pioneers Who Held The Ribbons But Have Turned the Bend In This Road.”
James owed a Ferry for crossing the Sacramento River until a bridge was built. The settlement was referred to as “Smithson’s”, . The location of the Smithson is believed to be near the current I-5 Freeway Bridge. James Smithson’s Stage routes traversed the route from Redding, California to Ashland, Oregon. He built a home in Kennett and owned various business establishments, including hotels, restaurants, and bars built to service the booming copper mines in the canyon. James was also involved in civic affairs being an appointed Judge in Kennett. By 1917 fires and hazardous conditions caused by the mine’s smelters resulted in the demise of the town and James Smithson’s holdings. Trains had, by then, replaced the Stage. In 1938 construction of Shasta Dam was begun, and completed in 1944, submerging the site of Kennett. Beth’s father, Stenton, (Sten) and several of his brothers with little or no formal education appear to have worked for James primarily as laborers and handymen in Kennett. The family moved to Hayward in 1917, James apparently established a chicken farm and with depleted resources he lived out a simpler life in Hayward. At the time Beth was 14 years old and her parents moved to Oakland . The move to Oakland provided much improved educational opportunities.
Beth’s family lived in Millville, east of Redding. She recalled as a child riding in a horse-drawn buggy while making Doctor calls to patients with her Maternal Grandfather, Dr. Henry W Hereford.
The upper Sacramento River canyon for centuries was occupied principally by Native American Indians primarily from the Madiu tribes and bordered to the north by the Winton’s and Shastans. By 1903 the Indians had suffered terminally. Their villages first began to fall fatally ill- victims of small pox and outsider-borne ailments to which they had no natural immunity. Those who survived were forced to abandon their lands to white settlers who had no knowledge of the land and its needs, and who regarded it only for its potential reward. Ref: Simon Winchester, Land, Harper Collins, 2021., p.17.
By the time Beth was born in 1903 there remained only a sorrowful remnant of Native American families and individuals of a defeated race who tried to remain and survive under the harshest conditions. Joaquin Miller, an early Indian sympathizer, (author of: Life Among The Modocs, Unwritten History, 1874), wrote from the Indian perspective and reportedly had a cabin on Indian Creek near the Smithson’s. Miller was an early perhaps first, Indian sympathizer. It is likely that James Smithson, or even more likely James father Stenton was acquainted with Joaquin Miller, as Joaquin’s travels overlapped between upper California and Oregon., Stenton arrived in Shasta County in 1859 and James was born in 1853. Joaquin wrote of his experiences in the Canyon, circa 1856 James reportedly had lots of stories to tell about the Indians, and reportedly was well liked by the Indians. This report seems inconsistent with Beths views as she had nothing good to say about them, and she considered them as filthy creatures.
Baseball seemed to be the Smithson’s passion. Stenton, Beth’s father, played semi-pro baseball and was described as having a happy-go-lucky character. The Hereford’s also participated in local baseball leagues. Athletics seemed to be a family trait also shared by Tom and Gordon Hall, grandsons of Stenton. It was Beth, not Frank, who taught me to play baseball, and she was my frequently sought after partner for a game of catch outside the schoolyard. Frank disparaged sports of all kinds.
When Beth’s grand parents, , moved to Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, in circa 1918 the area was still quite rural. Most of his family, including his father James, eventually lived within a mile or so of each other in Hayward, including one male relative who had suffered brain damage in WWI due to nerve gas. Stenton and Mamie, Beths parents moved from Oakland to Hayward circa 1927. Beth visited Stenton and Mamie nearly weekly while I was growing up. I believe Doris Hall, Beth’s younger sister, lived nearby and also visited frequently. Mamie Smithson was known as “Big Mama” to me. She cooked a lemon-meringue pie almost every time I went along with my Mom to visit. My grandfather, Stenton, I called “Dad”. Their basement for me was a delight, containing bike parts of every sort. Big Mama cooked on a wood stove. They owed a hand-cranked Model T . Mom’s sister, Doris, was almost never there at the same time that Beth was visiting, although on occasion Doris’s sons, Tommy and Gordon, were there after the war (WWII). I admired them both as they were big, strong, and athletic, and they were more fun than the older adults. I don’t recall ever meeting Walker, their father, except at Doris and Walker’s 50th wedding anniversary. I remember asking what was the big deal about that, and I don’t think I ever got a good answer.
Beth attended Fremont High School in Oakland and graduated with honors in 1922. She later graduated from the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, circa 1927. She became active in the Thespian Society where she developed life-long friends. Based on her photographic renderings, she became a “free spirit” with a love of nature. In 1925 Beth and two of her kindred spirits, with the aid of a mule, hiked the back-country of Yosemite on what Beth called a “Very Merry Fairy Dream”. Helen Myers Sharsmith was one of the three adventurers. Helen became a noted Botanist and was the wife of Carl Sharsmith, the legendary Yosemite Ranger, (The Sage of Yosemite). Helen and Carl were married in 1931. According to the YNP historian, it was highly unusual for three young women to embark on such a journey in the 1920’s. Beth put together a photo -journal of the trip as well as photos of her frequent trips to Mt. Tamalpais with her college friends, entitling it “Sunny Days When Youth Is At The Helm.”
Maude (Smithson) Kunz, Beth’s cousin, who lived in San Francisco, mentioned that she and Beth would hike together, including on Mt. Shasta on several occasions. Beth loved to tell about frequently taking the train to San Francisco with a group of friends and then riding the Ferry to Mill Valley where they would hike Mt. Tamalpais and down to Stinson Beach. Beth liked telling the story about when she was arrested for skinny- dipping in the Mill Valley Reservoir.
Youth was definitely at the helm.
In circa, 1924 Beth became engaged to Walker Hall, an itinerant Journalist then working for the SF Chronicle. However, quite shockingly Beth learned that her sister, Doris, had become pregnant by Walker. Doris gave birth to Walker’s son, Gordon, on December 1, 1925, following Doris and Gordon’s sudden marriage on April 25, 1925.
Beth’s Sunny Days darkened rapidly A note beneath a photo in Beth’s album dated May 1925 is inscribed: “Cinderella Loses a Slipper”. Beth’s Yosemite adventure began shortly thereafter, in the summer of 1925.
Then came the Great Depression beginning in 1929.
There is evidence from a formal dance invitation from the UC Dental School in 1927 that Frank and Beth were dating at that time. Frank Halsey married Beth Smithson, January 16, 1932. Frank had received his Dental Certificate (DDS) in 1929, and began practicing Dentistry with his Father, Wilbur, in Oakland, who had succeeded his Father Isaac, who had traded his gold mining tools for dentistry tools, following a stint in Photography. Frank had all the attributes one would want in a Dentist. While not outwardly artistic, I felt that his dentistry was his art. To this day every Dentist or assistant who has examined my teeth comments on the incredible gold fillings and crown work done by my Dad. One dentist said I should never let a dentist seek to replace them. My Dad’s dental tools were truly his sculpture tools.
Beth and Frank gave birth to their first child, Ann Stenton Halsey, September 26, 1933, and later to me, Warren Sherwood Halsey, April 12, 1938.
Frank was the polar opposite of Beth’s fun-loving friends. Frank was very serious and somewhat rigid moralistically, but he was also a loving, dedicated family provider. Shortly after they began practicing dentistry together, Frank’s Father, Wilbur, died, cutting short his goal of working professionally with his father.
The Great Depression starting in 1929 had lasting effects on Frank throughout his life instilling very frugal and conservative values.
Frank was interested in the Halsey Family genealogy and read extensively about his gold- rush heritage of the 1850’s codified in Isaac Halsey’s original Journal, which Frank painstakingly had copied. Frank subsequently gave the original journal to the UC Bancroft Library. Interestingly, both Smithson and Halsey Families have Colonial roots, and both families have roots as California Pioneers during the Gold Rush era.
Beth and Frank lived with Sophie Sohst, Frank’s widowed mother, in her home near Lake Merritt near the Oakland city center. Beth continued to be a devoted housewife, where they continued to live until circa 1950 when they bought their own home in the Oakland Hills. Beth continued as a housewife and mother, continuing to drive Frank to work nearly every day.
Beth did not consider herself an artist in a classical sense, rather her art was infused in her very being throughout her life and was expressed in all she did. In later years she excelled at Ikebana flower arranging . I speculate that intuitively it represented the beauty of the natural world so missing from the gated development (Rossmoor) where she and Frank lived in their retirement years.
Beth was particularly invigorated by witnessing youthful energies which would always bring a smile. She was always keen to observe and support youthful styles. She had an accepting, uncritical view of others. She was not particularly religious, but she loved to attend church simply to listen to the organ music and choir.
To me just before her passing Beth said: “…..but it all went by so fast”.
Beth’s life included three distinct and varied life-styles, cultures, and environments. First, she was raised in rustic conditions in the upper Sacramento River Canyon, spanning an era including Stages and horses and buggies and a one-room schoolhouse. Secondly, she came of age in the Roaring 20’s, a free-spirit receiving advanced schooling in the cosmopolitan section of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area. Thirdly, Beth was a supportive wife, and a loving and gracious mother and grandmother.
Beth’s Granddaughter Stacy Bender wrote …….”she has always been my fairy god-mother, my tinkling bell in the warm spring breeze. I always accepted that, never questioning just knowing she was this special spirit who watched over me I couldn’t believe that this was her life- the friendships, the very merry fairy dream…she makes me want to be someone better ~ a more generous soul”
Indeed, it all went by too fast.
Notes:
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For more information on the Smithson era in the Sacramento River Canyon, 1859-1917, see the attached Biographical sketch of James Smithson.
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Further, it appears at least two branches of Beth’s lineage, Hereford and McCumber, include Colonists who may have participated in the Revolutionary War. Verification of these lineages are currently being verified by the author with
Smithson family historian, Kelley Kreitzmann.
1-3-2021……..WSH