SMITH, Miss Helen Morton

Helen Morton Smith was born in Sullivan Harbor, Maine, on December 12, 1859.  After she was educated at a convent in Michigan, Helen returned to Maine and became a teacher.  By 1888, Helen was teaching at her own private school in Bar Harbor, Maine.

Desiring to become a journalist, she changed her career course. Helen moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and became a reporter for the Bar Harbor Record, as the Boston correspondent, and Boston's Saturday Evening Gazette. She was an early member of the New England Woman's Press Association, serving as the recording secretary until April of 1891. (Lord, 54)  At that time, she returned to Maine to become managing editor of the Bar Harbor Record, but her tenure there came to an end when the new owner fired her.  She moved back to Boston and wrote for the Boston Home Journal (Vandenberg and Shettleworth).  Helen was a determined journalist.  As the Savannah Courier of January  14, 1892, noted: "MISS HELEN SMITH, who edited the Bar Harbor Record last summer, is said to be the only editor who succeeded in procuring an interview with Mr. Blaine" (1).

In 1893, Helen returned to Sullivan Harbor, bought the Bar Harbor Record, and became managing editor of the newspaper (Vandenberg and Shettleworth).  In addition, she was manager of the Bar Harbor Press Co., a  job printing establishment tied to the Bar Harbor Record.  By 1897, Helen was catering to, and making a profit off of, the many wealthy people who flocked to the area during the warm weather by issuing semi-weekly editions of The Society Journal of Mt. Desert Island. Helen retired from the Bar Harbor Record in November of 1904 (Maine Press Association Report, 33).  She became publisher of Bar Harbor Life in 1918, continuing in this position for several years.  While spending the winter in Boston in 1923, Helen wrote “Jottings from Boston” for The Bangor News. Later that year, she was run over while in Boston and suffered serious injuries.  Helen passed away on December 16, 1923, and was buried in Sullivan Harbor’s York Hill Cemetery.

• The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.), 15 Sept. 1893. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn97071028/1893-09-15/ed-1/seq-4/>

• Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.), 26 Sept. 1891. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94053256/1891-09-26/ed-1/seq-1/>

• The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer. (Washington [D.C.]), 06 Dec. 1891. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016373/1891-12-06/ed-1/seq-3/>

• Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.), 14 Jan. 1892. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89058248/1892-01-14/ed-1/seq-1/>

• Lord, Myra B.  History of the New England Woman's Press Association, 1885-1931.  Newton, Mass: The Graphic Press, 1932.

• Maine Register or State Yearbook 1897, p. 448.

• Year: 1920; Census Place: Bar Harbor, Hancock, Maine; Roll: T625_642; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 3 Source Information Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA. Note: Enumeration Districts 819-839 are on roll 323 (Chicago City).

• Helen M. Smith Find A Grave