TRR file photo Austin Dale Smith

Austin
Dale Smith

By DAVID HULSE

MEDFORD, NJ — Austin D. Smith passed away on February 15, 2002 after a short illness.

He was 91.

“Aussie,” as he was known to almost everyone in these parts, was born on July 13, 1910 at the family home on Austin Road in Barryville. He was the son of Mabel and Edward Smith.

He was married to Dorothy Kuhn Smith, who predeceased him in 1996.

He is survived by his son Dale Smith, his wife Tricia, their son Kevin of Medford, and several nieces, nephews and cousins.

Aussie led a working man’s life, employed by the former Erie Railroad, the former Shohola Feed and Grain Company, the Town of Highland Highway Department, the Sullivan County Highway Department and he also drove a school bus for the Eldred Central School. He tended to the town’s voting machines for decades.

But the things Aussie will be best remembered for were things he seldom got paid for, and then never very much. Aussie had a passionate interest in history and was appointed Town of Highland historian in 1945, a position he was to hold for 52 years.

He was also an avid photographer, and the two interests led him to collect a huge collection of historic postcards of local origin, which he transposed to slides and turned into an introduction to local history for school children, history buffs, church groups and anyone else who would provide him with electricity for the projector and a place to set up his screen.

Austin Smith made the case for local history in a time before school curriculum dealt with it. For many people, myself included, he provided first looks at what had gone before in our home town.

Aussie embroidered history with the stories he told as the slides flashed by. People in the old postcards came to life.

He had a favorite line about small towns. “A small town is one where everybody already knows everyone else is up to, but they still buy the weekly paper to see who got caught at it.”

Aussie never concerned himself too much with “big picture” history. He was interested in everyday history, families and everyday people. For many years, he was a one-man Memorial Day keeper for two Confederate soldiers, who died in a Civil War train wreck in Shohola and wound up in a then overgrown Congregational Church yard in Barryville. With no concern for politics of any kind, he placed Confederate flags on their graves every year.

He was one of those rare people who cared about the details of the everyday. For years, he was the guy who put the flag up on the town hall and little triangle park. He was the guy who marked the annual commemorations at the Minisink Battlefield, from the time he was old enough to attend. He became a part of that commemoration, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance faithfully every year.

Indeed, many of the things that I remember Aussie for had to do with his consistency. He was there for his neighbors when they had need. He looked in on shut-ins, carried mail and fetched errands. In times when the society cared little for tradition and the news of the day provided little foundation, there was comfort in watching Aussie walking up the road every morning with the flag under his arm.

Aussie leaves few of the concrete landmarks of an historian’s work behind. But for a notebook chronology of local history he kept, he didn’t write. He wasn’t a formal educator and I doubt whether any college will ever name a chair after him.

Austin Smith was a storyteller of history in the present tense. He was a blue collar historian who made impressions on those too young or too busy to visit history’s bookshelves. He was a good influence.

Burial will be private and, at Aussie’s request, there will be no services. The family has suggested that memorial contributions in Aussie’s name can be made to the Sullivan County Historical Society , P.O. Box 247, Hurleyville, NY, 12747.