He too, alas! is gone and rests from life,
Too large to measure by our narrow strife,
In which he yet was long and large a part
And bore our common pleasure near at heart.
And took in village policy his share
Of obligation, high and public care.
In legal chair, in legislative hall
He served the needs of wider reach and call.
A man for prudent counsel formed and wise,
Of noble stature and commanding guise;
Would take him for a king without his crown,
Or some old Roman senator, come down.
A learned man of stored, sagacious mind,
Who made his home here, cultured and refined
And rescured much historic knowledge rare
Of which he left us equal part and share.
We saw him passing o'er these leafy ways
Thinking, with head inclined, of other days;
Seeking perchance what never would he find,
Till Nature, once so cruel, then so kind,
Returned to him in children's eager prattle
What she took ruthless, early in life's battle;
Sons, trained to fill in life their plighted place,
Taken from him in early manhood's grace.
As if repentance seized relenting Fate,
Who yielding sent him children, not too late,
And forms as fair, clad too in scholars' graces,
Seemed to restore the lost loved, fostered faces.
from "Guilford Portraits" by Henry Pynchon Robinson, 1907
Too large to measure by our narrow strife,
In which he yet was long and large a part
And bore our common pleasure near at heart.
And took in village policy his share
Of obligation, high and public care.
In legal chair, in legislative hall
He served the needs of wider reach and call.
A man for prudent counsel formed and wise,
Of noble stature and commanding guise;
Would take him for a king without his crown,
Or some old Roman senator, come down.
A learned man of stored, sagacious mind,
Who made his home here, cultured and refined
And rescured much historic knowledge rare
Of which he left us equal part and share.
We saw him passing o'er these leafy ways
Thinking, with head inclined, of other days;
Seeking perchance what never would he find,
Till Nature, once so cruel, then so kind,
Returned to him in children's eager prattle
What she took ruthless, early in life's battle;
Sons, trained to fill in life their plighted place,
Taken from him in early manhood's grace.
As if repentance seized relenting Fate,
Who yielding sent him children, not too late,
And forms as fair, clad too in scholars' graces,
Seemed to restore the lost loved, fostered faces.
from "Guilford Portraits" by Henry Pynchon Robinson, 1907
He too, alas! is gone and rests from life,
Too large to measure by our narrow strife,
In which he yet was long and large a part
And bore our common pleasure near at heart.
And took in village policy his share
Of obligation, high and public care.
In legal chair, in legislative hall
He served the needs of wider reach and call.
A man for prudent counsel formed and wise,
Of noble stature and commanding guise;
Would take him for a king without his crown,
Or some old Roman senator, come down.
A learned man of stored, sagacious mind,
Who made his home here, cultured and refined
And rescured much historic knowledge rare
Of which he left us equal part and share.
We saw him passing o'er these leafy ways
Thinking, with head inclined, of other days;
Seeking perchance what never would he find,
Till Nature, once so cruel, then so kind,
Returned to him in children's eager prattle
What she took ruthless, early in life's battle;
Sons, trained to fill in life their plighted place,
Taken from him in early manhood's grace.
As if repentance seized relenting Fate,
Who yielding sent him children, not too late,
And forms as fair, clad too in scholars' graces,
Seemed to restore the lost loved, fostered faces.
from "Guilford Portraits" by Henry Pynchon Robinson, 1907
Too large to measure by our narrow strife,
In which he yet was long and large a part
And bore our common pleasure near at heart.
And took in village policy his share
Of obligation, high and public care.
In legal chair, in legislative hall
He served the needs of wider reach and call.
A man for prudent counsel formed and wise,
Of noble stature and commanding guise;
Would take him for a king without his crown,
Or some old Roman senator, come down.
A learned man of stored, sagacious mind,
Who made his home here, cultured and refined
And rescured much historic knowledge rare
Of which he left us equal part and share.
We saw him passing o'er these leafy ways
Thinking, with head inclined, of other days;
Seeking perchance what never would he find,
Till Nature, once so cruel, then so kind,
Returned to him in children's eager prattle
What she took ruthless, early in life's battle;
Sons, trained to fill in life their plighted place,
Taken from him in early manhood's grace.
As if repentance seized relenting Fate,
Who yielding sent him children, not too late,
And forms as fair, clad too in scholars' graces,
Seemed to restore the lost loved, fostered faces.
from "Guilford Portraits" by Henry Pynchon Robinson, 1907
Inscription
Ralph Dunning Smith
Y.C. 1827
Born Oct. 28, 1804
Died Sept. 11, 1874
Profound Scholar An Upright
Lawyer And A Faithful Christian
Jesus My Boys Saviour
And My Saviour
Family Members
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Records on Ancestry
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Geneanet Community Trees Index
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Connecticut, U.S., Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection)
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Connecticut, U.S., Hale Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices, 1629-1934
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Connecticut, U.S., Deaths and Burials Index, 1650-1934
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1850 United States Federal Census
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