PRELIMINARY DESCRIPTION
Collection: Smith-Alford Papers, 1904-1967
PC.1806.1T24
Physical Description: Approximately eight cubic feet in 23 fibredex boxes and
1 flat box, containing correspondence, circular letters, reports, publications,
news and magazine clippings, and photographs. One folder of extraneous manu¬
scripts (letters, bills and receipts) relating to business affairs of the
Morehead family of Charlotte, Spray, and Leaksville, 1883-i889, is included in
these papers.
Acquisition: Gift of Mr. Donnie Rudd, Louisburg, N.C., 1992
Description: These are the private papers and personal professional files of
Anne Pauline Smith, Agricultural Extension Services District Agent, and her
husband, Frank Oliver Alford, doctor of dentistry. Both were born and bred in
Franklin County (though their careers lay in other parts of the state), and
both are buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Louisburg, N.C.
Pauline Smith (1890-1970) was the daughter of Edward Barrett and Cleora
Cecil (Hale) Smith of Franklin County. Born in modest economic circumstances
(her father a house painter and her mother a public school teacher) , she soon
determined "to stand as high as others", "to go with an educated class". After
having completed course work in local schools, she became a substitute teacher
in the Louisburg Graded Schools while still a teenager. She subsequently secured
college training and began to teach at Pearce School in Franklin County. In
1912 Miss Smith attended the East Carolina Teachers’ Training Institute, and
in 1913 helped organize twenty young Franklin County women into a canning club.
After she moved to the school at Seven Paths, she continued working during the
summers with the home extension service in Franklin County. ' Miss Smith had
begun to reflect on the interpersonal relationship between men and women shortly
after the death of her mother in 1909. Her experience in the rural schools and
home extension work gave her opportunity to observe the status and condition of
rural married women. She was unfavorably impressed. She saw landowners sinking
into tenancy, and she saw the plight of women deteriorate as families descended
the social scale. She resolved that the adoption of progressive ideas, education,
and economic independence from men would save her and other women from such a
fate. Jane S. McKimmon, head of the state's home extension service, having
observed Miss Smith's abilities and energy, appointed her home agent for Franklin
County. Miss Smith then gave up her teaching career and remained in home
extension work until 1949. After her marriage to Dr. Alford, Mrs. Alford became
active briefly in the North Carolina Dental Society Auxiliary. During the
years 1949 and 1950 she served by appointment of Governor Kerr Scott on the
Commission to Study Domestic Relations Law of North Carolina. Thereafter,
Mrs. Alford traveled for. pleasure and helped oversee the farming interests she
and her husband owned in Franklin and adjoining counties.
Frank Oliver Alford (1899-1983), son of Lawrence Sidney and Susan Parker
(Arrington) Alford was born on the family plantation at Seven Paths, Franklin
County, and was educated in the local schools. His subsequent course of study
in the Atlanta-Southern Dental College (DDS, 1927) appears to have been financed
in part by loans from Miss Smith, though the long-standing debt (which she for¬
gave him in 1937) might have arisen in connection with further studies at North¬
western University in 1929. Dr. Alford opened a practice in Charlotte in 1928
which he continued until the closing years of his life.