Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

Above: Ed. Smith’s Stencil Works,
427 Natchez Street, c. 1890.
Ed is second from the left.
ED. SMITH’S STENCIL WORKS, LTD.
Bottom, left: Ed. Smith’s Stencil Works,
427 Natchez Street, c. 1910.
Bottom, right: Ed. Smith’s Stencil Works,
426 Camp Street, May 1930.
An enterprising young man of twentythree,
Edward Smith came to New Orleans
around 1865 to start a business that would
bring him fortune and set him on a career
for life. Known as a carpetbagger from
Baltimore, Maryland, he sought that fortune
in the South where reconstruction after the
Civil War was well underway. His unique
business was founded two years later at 427
Natchez Street near Magazine Street during
the Reconstruction Era in New Orleans.
Ed was a gaunt man with a beard that
reached below his sternum, hardly fitting the
profile of the Yankee swank. Upon arriving in
New Orleans, he was soon enamored with
the beauty and excitement of the port city,
and promptly fell in love with his future wife,
Julia, a New Orleans native. Before the war,
Ed was a “turner” by trade, a now-antiquated
job title for someone who used special tools
to make shapes out of wood or metal. Having
found his home in the Crescent City, the
industrious young man established himself
in an obscure specialty: manufacturing log
hammers for cypress timber. Companies
ordered their logos or brands to be put on the
tips of heavy iron hammers that were struck
onto the end of each log to identify their
property. The timber business boomed on
the Mississippi’s west bank where cypress
trees still stood in thick groves and toppled
by the thousands. It was an oddly profitable
line of work for Smith, as timber was constantly
being shipped from New Orleans to
help rebuild the war-torn cities throughout
the South.
Ed soon began manufacturing other products
such as stencils, stamps, and seals—
practical but overlooked items which no one
else in town was making at the time. His
stencils were often simple and utilitarian:
large letters to brand a ship’s hull, or crisp
scripts for the sides of soda crates. His company
was responsible for many of the markings
identifying shipments leaving the U.S.
from the Port of New Orleans to destinations
all over the world. But Ed’s shop also made
by hand brass and copper stencils of breathtaking
craft and intricacy. Several of these
antiques hang in the shop today: Hercules
tackling the Nemean lion, the U.S. Capitol,
and an enormous restored copper stencil
made in 1930 for the shop’s own storefront.
Ed. Smith’s stayed a family business
through a circuitous pathway of inheritors
for over 140 years in downtown New Orleans.
NOTABLE NEW ORLEANIANS: A Tricentennial Tribute
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