About the Author

Title Page || 1: MAYPORT

Ed Smith was born in 1903 in the red-clay country of the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Maysville, north Georgia. At the age of five he moved with his family to the little town of Bishop, Georgia. Mr. Smith's formal elementary education began in a little one room schoolhouse in Bishop. Saying good-by to his family upon graduation, the country boy spent the next two years in, and graduated from, Georgia Military College. One year was spent at arduous labor in a rough backwoods sawmill. Having become a hardened, strong youth by this time, Mr. Smith was offered and accepted a football scholarship to Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. After a year and a half, finding himself unable to afford to purchase the necessary books to continue his education, he left the university and entered the working world. While attending Mercer, Mr. Smith met and married Mary Howard. In 1926, the Smith's moved to Florida and after eight years in the Jacksonville area they made their residence at the Beaches. Mr. Smith entered the lumber and hardware business and it has continued through the years growing to one of the most prominent businesses in the community.

    Mr. Smith for the past forty years has been an active and influential man in the business, church and civic activities in the area. He is a Rotarian and has received the highest service award given by Rotary International. Ed Smith has often been called the "Beaches Historian" and the Humor-laureate" of the Beaches, both these qualities being in evidence throughout this book.

N.B. He died in 1979.

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