Joshua Bowen Smith

Joshua Bowen Smith was born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, in 1813, to an Afro-Indian mother and a British father. He grew up in Philadelphia and was educated on a scholarship from a Quaker philanthropist. In 1836 he moved to Boston, where he became the headwaiter at the dining room of the Mount Washington House hotel. There he became acquainted with two influential abolitionists, Senator Charles Sumner and John H. Fatal. For several years he worked for the catering business of H. R. Thacker before starting his own catering business at the age of 36.

Over the next 25 years he made a small fortune catering commencement dinners for Harvard College, as well as various events for the city, local organizations, and the Union army. Through his work he befriended many other local abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison, George Luther Stearns, Robert Gould Shaw, and Theodore Parker.

Smith became involved in the Underground Railroad and was a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee. He harbored runaway slaves in his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, employed them as cooks and waiters, and often gave them money out of his own pocket as well as weapons and supplies. He was a co-founder of the New England Freedom Association, a fugitive slave assistance group founded by African Americans.

Smith's catering business suffered a fatal blow in 1861 when Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew refused to reimburse him for services provided to the 12th Massachusetts Regiment over a 93-day period. Andrew claimed he could not pay the bill because the legislature had not approved the funds, yet he managed to pay all the other caterers who were in the same situation. Smith sued the state in 1879 and received some compensation, but not enough to recoup his legal expenses. He spent the rest of his life in debt.

In 1865, Smith persuaded state officials to commission the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, a bronze relief sculpture depicting Colonel Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. In October 1867 he became the first African-American member of the Saint Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons of Massachusetts, and served as junior warden of the Adelphi Lodge in South Boston. From 1873 to 1874, he represented Cambridge in the Massachusetts state legislature, where he served as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations. He advised Charles Sumner on his draft of the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

He died in Boston on July 5, 1879, after a prolonged illness, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. His former home at 79 Norfolk Street in Cambridge is marked with a plaque installed in 1994 by the Cambridge African American History Project. Smith bought the house in 1852 and lived there with his wife, Emeline, until his death.