century association biographical archive

Earliest Members of the Century Association

View all members

Benjamin E. Smith

Philologist/Literary Man

Centurion, 1893–1913

Full Name Benjamin Eli Smith

Born 7 February 1857 in Beirut, Lebanon

Died 24 February 1913 in New Rochelle, New York

Buried Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut

Proposed by Russell Sturgis and Richard Watson Gilder

Elected 7 October 1893 at age thirty-six

Proposer of:

Century Memorial

The names of those who died last year are many and impressive: George Henry Hall, a veteran and prolific figure painter; Joseph Lyman, a painter also, but of charming landscape; Benjamin Eli Smith, managing editor of the Century Dictionary, and editor and translator of other works; Frederic Baker, a man of large affairs; Preston B. Spring, an old New York merchant and grandson of the Rev. Dr. Gardiner Spring; Howard Lapsley, for many years a popular and respected figure in our social life; Francis Alexander Korbay, singer and composer, a man of many friends and formerly a much admired teacher of music in this city; Harry W. Desmond, editor of the Architectural Record, and a joint author of Stately Homes in America; James Mulford Townsend, a prominent member of the New York bar and an efficient lecturer in schools of law; Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, an honored merchant of this city; William Lanman Bull, banker, ex-president of the Stock Exchange, director in railroad and trust companies, and Vestryman of Grace Church.

Henry Osborn Taylor
1914 Century Association Yearbook