MARY GERTRUDE SMITH BODDIE: A Tale of Two Plaques

Mary Gertrude Smith (Boddie), known to some as Gertrude Mary Smith, was the matriarch of the Boddie Family in New Rochelle, NY. She was born in the slate belt of Buckingham County, Virginia in 1886. Slate mining was an important industry at the turn of the 20th century. The slate belt extended from Buckingham County, VA through Northampton County, PA to Bangor, ME. Slate from Buckingham County, VA was used as roofing for the state capitol in Richmond, VA and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. 1 The slate industry in Northampton, PA grew steadily from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, generating millions of dollars annually at its peak. 2 Slate from Northampton County, PA was highly prized and used for roofing that was said to show little discoloration after 30 years exposure.3 Mary Gertrude moved with her family to the city of East Bangor in Northampton County, Pennsylvania circa 1891.

Mary Gertrude’s father had honed his skill as a “holer”, someone who knew where and how to drill holes for dynamite charges so that the resulting blocks of slate could be fashioned into objects suitable for commercial use. His expertise was rewarded by the slate mining industry in the area with higher pay and greater prestige than most men who worked in the quarries enjoyed. He was unable to read or write but made sure that his 11 children could.

Mary Gertrude was the sixth child and considered the most academically gifted of her siblings. She graduated second in her class from East Bangor School in the spring of 1901. Her achievement has been memorialized by a plaque that currently hangs in the Bangor Area School District Offices building. It is one of three handmade plaques salvaged by an auctioneer who recognized the artistry that went into making them.4 It is the only one of the three plaques that has survived to this day. The motto imprinted on the plaque reads “We Look Higher.”

At the time, students who graduated first or second in their class, were given the opportunity to move on to institutions of higher learning. Mary Gertrude entered East Stroudsburg Normal School in the fall of 1901. She was not allowed to board on campus because of her race but found accommodations off campus in return for assuming housekeeping duties. Her family was concerned about these arrangements partly because an African American man had been lynched in a neighboring town a few years prior to her arrival.5 6 She persisted nonetheless and became the first African American to graduate from East Stroudsburg Normal School in the spring of 1904.

Mary Gertrude worked tirelessly throughout her life to lift up her 15 children and serve her community. In 1996, the Jacob Benjamin Boddie Family donated funds to the school now known as East Stroudsburg University (ESU) for a plaque to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth and to honor her achievements. The plaque enjoys pride of place at the entrance to the university’s Alumni Row. In 1999, ESU also established an endowed scholarship in her name to support students with a demonstrated commitment to community service.

1ftp://ftp.epa.gov/wed/ecoregions/reg3/reg3_eco_pg.pdf

2In Pursuit of the Quarry: Pennsylvania’s Slate Belt. Alyssa Miller, Spring 2010

3https://books.google.com/books?id=OFAMAAAAYAAJ
4From the Slate: O’r Llechen. John Reinhart. Slate Belt Heritage Center, Bangor, PA 2010. Page 99.

5The Stroudsburg Lynching. The Scranton Republican (Scranton, Pennsylvania) · Sat, Mar 17, 1894 · Page 1 6The Scranton Republican (Scranton, Pennsylvania) · Tue, Jun 5, 1894 · Page 4

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Community Curation

Cynthia Boddie-Willis