Mary Eloise Hughes Smith. Her Husband Died On The titanic. She Later Married Another Survivor

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Mary Eloise Hughes Smith.

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Blog Created: 9-29-2022

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Wikipedia // Encyclopedia Titanica // Titanic Inquiry Project // Find A Grave

Mary Eloise Hughes Smith (August 7, 1893 – May 3, 1940), also referred to as Eloise Smith or Mrs. Lucian P. Smith, was a survivor of the 1912 RMS Titanic disaster. Her first husband, Lucian P. Smith, scion of a wealthy Morgantown family with vast holdings in the Pennsylvania coal fields died in the sinking; she later married a fellow survivor.

Lucian Philip and Eloise Hughes Smith boarded Titanic on Wednesday evening, 10 April 1912 in Cherbourg on their way home from their honeymoon. The couple had considered taking the older, smaller, and slightly faster Cunard liner RMS Lusitania home but ultimately decided to buy a ticket for the maiden voyage of the newest, and most luxurious ship in the White Star fleet, Titanic. Their trip had included a transatlantic crossing to Europe aboard Titanic's sister ship RMS Olympic and sightseeing in Italy, France, the Middle East and Egypt. She survived the sinking of the Titanic to give birth to her son Lucian Philip Smith II on 29 November 1912. Two other newly married women on the Titanic later had children as well. During the sinking, when Smith pleaded whether her husband could go with her, Captain Edward J. Smith ignored her, shouting again though his megaphone the message of women and children first. Lucien told the captain, "Never mind, captain, about that; I will see that she gets in the boat.", before telling his wife, "I never expected to ask you to obey, but this is one time you must. It is only a matter of form to have women and children first. The ship is thoroughly equipped and everyone on her will be saved."

Lucian and Eloise Smith.

She later married a fellow survivor, Robert Daniel, a bank executive, in 1914. In 1923 Smith divorced Daniel and married Lewis H. Cort, Jr. Cort died several years later, and she married C.S. Wright in 1929. They lived in Charleston, and soon divorced.

Smith was a member of the Vinson political family; the daughter of United States Representative James A. Hughes and Belle Vinson. As children, Smith and her sister had made the acquaintance of President Theodore Roosevelt. She was a popular public speaker. She was active in Republican Party politics and campaigned for women's suffrage. She worked for a time at the pension bureau in Washington D.C.

Smith died of a heart attack in 1940 at the age of 46 in a sanitarium in Cincinnati.

Smith was quoted extensively in the 1912 best-selling book The Sinking of the Titanic by Jay Henry Mowbray. Her letters and other recollections of the sinking have been quoted in numerous documentaries about the sinking of the ship, including the documentary filmmaker Melissa Jo Peltier in the A&E Network documentaries Titanic: Death of a Dream and Titanic: The Legend Lives On to illustrate the hours between the Titanic's encounter with the iceberg and the rescue of the survivors by RMS Carpathia, and in the documentary Titanic: Anatomy of a Disaster. She was portrayed in the documentary television series Seconds from Disaster by Jennifer Lee Trendowski in the episode featuring the Titanic. She and her husband were portrayed in the 1956 Kraft Television Theatre program A Night to Remember, and were the basis for the characters "Robbie Lucas and Mrs. Liz Lucas", in the 1958 film adapation portrayed by John Merivale and Honor Blackman. Lucas even says the words actually spoken by Lucien Smith to his wife with some fictional elaboration due to the Lucas couple having three children.

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New York Tribune ~

Tuesday 15th April 1913

BRIDE, WIDOW, MOTHER, ALL WITHIN A YEAR

Anniversary of Titanic Disaster, Recalls Experience of Mrs. Eloise Hughes Smith

BABY BOY HER CONSOLATION

Wiser, She Thinks, to Aid the Poorer Sufferers and Orphans than to Scatter Flowers on the Waves

Washington, April 14. - The great steamship Titanic struck the submerged spur of an iceberg in midocean one year ago this week, and went down. It was the worst sea disaster of modern times, and the first anniversary naturally recalls the horror of it all.

There were 2,100 persons on board the Titanic, including a crew of 860, and only 704 were put afloat in the boats, to be picked up later by the Carpathia. Wives waved farewell from the boats to husbands on the decks of the doomed vessel, and brave men met death that fair women might live.

One bride of only two months was Eloise Hughes Smith, the daughter of Representative James A. Hughes, of Huntington W. Va. Two months before she had made her social debut with a notable coming out party at the Willard Hotel in Washington. A week later she had married and gone abroad for her honeymoon. Both husband and wife were glad to turn homeward, and were proud to secure quarters on the Titanic. The crash came and Mrs. Smith, a widow, was the first to land from the Carpathia in New York, to be met by her father and mother in tearful joy. There were tears for the brave husband who went down a hero, and joy that the daughter, only nineteen, had been saved.

So it came to pass that some months later Eloise Hughes Smith could sadly enough relate that in less than a year she had been debutante, bride, widow and mother. A lusty son came to the household, and was called Lucien Smith, 2d, in honor of the father. The lad is consolation in part, and is the autocrat of the Hughes household, either in Washington or Huntington.

The joys and sorrows of a single year have made the widow and mother more beautiful than ever, and, above all else, more womanly. She has never ceased to mourn her loss or to recall the horror of the night when torn from her husband's side forever, but the sorrows and chastening of such a blow have given a new beauty to the young widow - a beauty the more attractive because of the indefinable sadness lurking in the expression even in hours of happiness.

Mrs. Smith did not approve of the suggestion made by other Titanic widows that flowers should be scattered on the waves where the Titanic went down. Even with the shadowed romance she could see no good in reviving the memories of an awful night by visiting the scene, even with sentimental design. As one of a practical mind, she thought it would be wiser to aid the poorer widows and orphans, and nobler, besides, to bear sorrow and affliction without ostentatious display or advertising.

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United States Senate Inquiry ~

Day 18

Statement of Mrs. Lucian P. Smith (First Class Passenger, SS Titanic)

At 7.30 p. m., as usual, my husband and I went to dinner in the caf. There was a dinner party going on, given by Mr. Ismay to the captain and various other people on board ship. This was an usual occurrence of the evening, so we paid no attention to it. The dinner did not seem to be particularly gay; while they had various wines to drink, I am positive none were intoxicated at a quarter of 9 o'clock, when we left the dining room. There was a coffee room directly outside of the café, in which people sat and listened to the music and drank coffee and cordials after dinner. My husband was with some friends just outside of what I know as the Parisian Café. I stayed up until 10.30, and then went to bed. I passed through the coffee room, and Mr. Ismay and his party were still there. The reason I am positive about the different time is because I asked my husband at the three intervals what time it was. I went to bed, and my husband joined his friends. I was asleep when the crash came. It did not awaken me enough to frighten me; in fact, I went back to sleep again. Then I awakened again, because it seemed that the boat had stopped. About that time my husband come into the room. Still I was not frightened, but thought he had come in to go to bed. I asked him why the boat had stopped, and, in a leisurely manner, he said; "We are in the north and have struck an iceberg: It does not amount to anything, but probably delay us a day getting into New York. However, as a matter of form, the captain has ordered all ladies on deck." That frightened me a little, but after being reassured there was no danger I took plenty of time in dressing - putting on all my heavy clothing, high shoes, and two coats, as well as a warm knit hood.

While I dressed, my husband and I talked of landing, not mentioning the iceberg. I started out, putting on my life preserver, when we met a steward, who was on his way to tell us to put on life preservers and come on deck. However, I returned to the room with the intention of bringing my jewelry, but my husband said not to delay with such trifles. However, I picked up two rings and went on deck. After getting to the top deck, the ladies were ordered on Deck A without our husbands. I refused to go; but, after being told by three or four officers, my husband insisted, and, along with another lady, we went down. After staying there some time with nothing seemingly going on, some one called saying they could not be lowered from that deck, for the reason it was inclosed in glass. That seemed to be the first time the officers and captain had thought of that, and hastened to order us all on the top deck again. There was some delay in getting lifeboats down: in fact, we had plenty of time to sit in the gymnasium and chat with another gentleman and his wife. I kept asking my husband if I could remain with him rather than go in a lifeboat. He promised me I could. There was no commotion, no panic, and no one seemed to be particularly frightened; in fact, most of the people seemed interested in the unusual occurrence, many having crossed 50 and 60 times. However, I noticed my husband was busy talking to any officer he came in contact with; still I had not the least suspicion of the scarcity of lifeboats, or I never should have left my husband.

When the first boat was lowered from the left-hand side I refused to get in, and they did not urge me particularly; in the second boat they kept calling for one more lady to fill it, and my husband insisted that I get in it, my friend having gotten in. I refused unless he would go with me. In the meantime Capt. Smith was standing with a megaphone on deck. I approached him and told him I was alone, and asked if my husband might be allowed to go in the boat with me. He ignored me personally, but shouted again through his megaphone, "Women and children first." My husband said, "Never mind, captain, about that; I will see that she gets in the boat." He then said, "I never expected to ask you to obey, but this is one time you must; it is only a matter of form to have women and children first. The boat is thoroughly equipped, and everyone on her will be saved." I asked him if that was absolutely honest, and he said, "Yes." I felt some better then, because I had absolute confidence in what he said. He kissed me good-by and placed me in the lifeboat with the assistance of an officer. As the boat was being lowered he yelled from the deck, "Keep your hands in your pockets it is very cold weather." That was the last I saw of him, and now I remember the many husbands that turned their backs as the small boat was lowered, the women blissfully innocent of their husbands peril, and said good-by with the expectation of seeing them within the next hour or two. By that time our interest was centered on the lowering of the lifeboat, which occurred to me - although I know very little about it - to be a very poor way to lower one. The end I was in was almost straight up, while the lower end came near touching the water. Our seaman said, himself, at the time, that he did not know how to get the rope down, and asked for a knife. Some person in the boat happened to have a knife - a lady, I think - who gave it to him. He cut the rope, and we were about to hit bottom when someone spoke of the plug. After a few minutes excitement to find something to stop the hole in the bottom of the boat where the plug is, we reached the water all right. The captain looked over to see us, I suppose, or something of the kind, and noticed there was only one man in the boat. Maj. Peuchen, of Canada, was then swung out to us as an experienced seaman. There was a small light on the horizon that we were told to row towards. Some people seemed to think it was a fishing smack or small boat of some description. However, we seemed to get no nearer the longer we rowed, and I am of the opinion it was a star.

Many people in our boat said they saw two lights. I could not until I had looked a long time; I think it was the way our eyes focused, and probably the hope for another boat. I do not believe it was anything but a star. There were 24 people in our boat - they are supposed to hold 50. During the night they looked for water and crackers and a compass, but they found none that night. We were some distance away when the Titanic went down. We watched with sorrow, and heard the many cries for help and pitied the captain, because we knew he would have to stay with his ship. The cries we heard I thought were seamen, or possibly steerage, who had overslept, it not occurring to me for a moment that my husband and my friends were not saved. It was bitterly cold, but I did not seem to mind it particularly. I was trying to locate my husband in all the boats that were near us. The night was beautiful; everything seemed to be with us in that respect, and a very calm sea. The icebergs on the horizon were all watched with interest; some seemed to be as tall as mountains, and reminded me of the pictures I had studied in geography. Then there were flat ones, round ones also. I am not exactly sure what time, but think it was between 5 and 5.30 when we sighted the Carpathia. Our seaman suggested we drift and let them pick us up; however, the women refused and rowed toward it. Our seaman was Hichens, who refused to row, but sat in the end of the boat wrapped in a blanket that one of the women had given him. I am not of the opinion that he was intoxicated, but a lazy, uncouth man, who had no respect for the ladies, and who was a thorough coward. We made no attempt to return to the sinking Titanic, because we supposed it was thoroughly equipped. Such a thought never entered my head. Nothing of the sort was mentioned in the boat, having left the ship so early we were innocent of the poor equipment that we now know of. The sea had started to get fairly rough by the time we were taken on the Carpathia, and we were quite cold and glad for the shelter and protection. I have every praise for the Carpathia's captain and its crew, as well as the passengers aboard. They were kindness itself to each and every one of us, regardless of position we occupied on boat. One lady very kindly gave me her berth, and I was as comfortable as can be expected under the circumstances until we arrived in New York. The ship's doctors were particularly nice to us. I know many women who slept on the floor in the smoking room while Mr. Ismay occupied the best room on the Carpathia, being in the center of the boat, with every attention, and a sign on the door. "Please do not knock." There were other men who were miraculously saved, and barely injured, sleeping on the engine room floor, and such places as that, as the ship was very crowded. The discipline coming into New York was excellent. We were carefully looked after in every way with the exception of a Marconigram I sent from the Carpathia on Monday morning, April 15, to my friends. Knowing of their anxiety, I borrowed money from a gentleman and took this Marconigram myself and asked the operator to send it for me, and he promised he would. However, it was not received. Had it been sent, it would have spared my family, as well as Mr. Smith's, the terrible anxiety which they went through for four days. This is the only complaint I have to make against the Carpathia. They did tell me they were near enough to land to send it, but would send it through other steamers, as they were cabling the list of the rescued that way. He also said it was not necessary to pay him, because the White Star Line was responsible. I insisted, however, because I thought that probably the money might have some weight with them, as the whole thing seemed to have been a monied accident.

MRS. LUCIAN P. SMITH (ELOISE HUGHES SMITH.)

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 20th day of May, 1912.

[SEAL.] E. A. JORDAN,

Notary Public, Cabell County, W. Va.

My commission expires October 26, 1916.

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Robert W. Daniel Sr. ~

Robert Williams Daniel (September 11, 1884 – December 20, 1940) was an American banker who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, and later became a gentleman farmer and served in the Virginia Senate.

Robert Williams Daniel.

Early and family life ~

Daniel was born on September 11, 1884 in Richmond, Virginia, the son of James Robertson Vivian Daniel, a Richmond lawyer, and Hallie Wise Daniel (née Williams). Daniel was educated in the local schools and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1903. He married fellow Titanic survivor Eloise Hughes Smith in 1914, but divorced in 1923. On December 6, 1923, Daniel married Margery Durant, daughter of automobile executive William C. Durant, and they had one daughter, Margery Randolph Daniel (November 2, 1924 – May 23, 2013). They too divorced and Daniel married Charlotte Bemiss Christian, a widow, who survived him. They had one son, Robert Williams Daniel, Jr. (March 17, 1936 – February 4, 2012).

A descendant of William Randolph, his great-grandfather Peter V. Daniel, was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, his great-great-grandfather Edmund Randolph, was the seventh Governor of Virginia, the first Attorney General of the United States and later served as Secretary of State.

Career ~

After graduating from the University of Virginia, Daniel embarked on a career in banking and management. His first job was in the traffic manager's office of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. His grandfather, Peter V. Daniel, Jr., had been president of the railroad from 1860 to 1871. About 1905, Daniel left RF&P and entered the insurance business, becoming attached to the firm of Williams and Hart. He eventually succeeded Williams as district superintendent for the Maryland Life Insurance Company. In 1906, Daniel and a fellow district manager of Maryland Life, Charles Palmer Stearns, formed the insurance firm Daniel and Stearns.

By 1911, Daniel was employed as a banker and living in Philadelphia. Business travel sometimes took him to Europe. In late 1911 while staying at the Carlton Hotel in London, the building caught fire and Daniel managed to save the life of a friend who was also staying at the hotel.

Survivor of the RMS Titanic ~

Daniel boarded the RMS Titanic in Southampton as a first-class passenger on the morning of 10 April 1912 to return to Philadelphia from a business trip to London. He paid £30 10s (approximately USD$3,855 in 2020) for his ticket and was assigned one of the first-class staterooms at the forward end of Titanic's A-Deck. He brought along his champion French bulldog, named Gamin de Pycombe, which he had recently purchased for £150 (the equivalent of about $18,960 in 2020). Later that evening when the ship stopped in Cherbourg, Daniel sent a brief three word telegram to his mother in Richmond to let her know he was "on board Titanic." His dog was lost in the sinking.

Daniel survived the tragedy, though the exact manner of his escape from Titanic remains a mystery and there is confusion over what lifeboat Daniel was rescued in. Press reports varied; at least one account claimed that he swam completely nude in the frigid North Atlantic for a number of hours before being hauled aboard a lifeboat barely conscious. It is much more plausible, given the below freezing water temperature, that Daniel simply climbed into one of the early lifeboats being launched from the starboard side of the stricken liner. At that point, few passengers thought the ship would actually sink and many were reluctant to board the lifeboats. As a result, seats in the lifeboats found few takers and some left the ship less than half-full. Some men were allowed into lifeboats filled with women and children ostensibly to man the oars.

Daniel himself never said which lifeboat he was rescued in, if he even knew. It may be that he was in more than one lifeboat between the time the ship sank and the arrival of the Carpathia which could account for the confusion. It is possible that Daniel jumped from the sinking ship and found refuge on one of the collapsible lifeboats and was later transferred into another lifeboat such as lifeboat 4 which rescued five survivors directly from the sea after the sinking. When lifeboat 4, was lowered from Titanic it had approximately 30 people aboard; by the end of the night it had perhaps around 60 people aboard most of whom were transferred into it from other boats. The Sinking of the Titanic quotes Charles Lightoller who survived by clinging to overturned collapsible lifeboat B, as saying that after the sinking Daniel was rescued from the water by "a passing lifeboat".

According to Daniel's family lore, he was rescued by the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" (activist and philanthropist Margaret Tobin Brown of Denver) in Lifeboat 6, but there is no record of him being in that boat. A news article published in 1915 stated that Daniel was picked up by the lifeboat containing the woman who is now his wife. Mrs. Smith, whom he later married, is known to have been rescued in lifeboat 6.

While aboard the rescue ship, RMS Carpathia, Daniel met fellow Titanic survivor, Eloise Hughes Smith, daughter of U.S. Representative James A. Hughes, whose husband, Lucian P. Smith, had died during the disaster. Daniel and Mrs. Smith were wed in a quiet ceremony in August 1914, but Daniel soon left for London on business and became stranded in England for two months when World War I broke out in Europe. Upon his return they settled in a stately home in Philadelphia's fashionable Rosemont neighborhood, and Daniel became stepfather to her son Lucian Jr. who was born eight months after the sinking. In 1916, Daniel left for military service, receiving an officer's commission in the U.S. Army. He rose to the rank of Major. By the time the war ended in 1918, the couple had separated.

In contrast to his willingness to speak to reporters immediately after the sinking in 1912, in later years Daniel refused to talk about the Titanic disaster. This could have been due to the traumatic nature of the event, or the stigma that many surviving male passengers felt as survivors of a tragedy that had claimed the lives of so many women and children. It is also possible that the fantastic account of his survival that he gave reporters as a young man was a tall tale and Daniel, by then a prominent Virginia politician, did not want to answer questions. In a 1993 article by Daniel's granddaughter, she said that "he never talked about the Titanic disaster because, after all, he was a man, 28 years old, a very athletic and healthy man who survived, and the whole thing about women and children first was a stigma. So he never talked about it."

Bank executive, gentleman farmer and subsequent marriages ~

Daniel was later named Vice President of Liberty National Bank in New York City and later became president and chairman of the board. After learning that Daniel was spending time with another woman in New York, his estranged wife, Eloise, asked for and was granted a divorce from him in March 1923, citing an "unknown blonde woman" in her claim. On December 6, 1923, Daniel married Mrs. Edwin Rutheven Campbell (née Margery Pitt Durant; 1887-1969), daughter of William C. Durant, an automobile manufacturer who founded General Motors, in the Halsey Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey. This marriage produced one daughter, Margery Randolph Daniel (November 2, 1924 – May 23, 2013). The Daniels purchased Brandon, one of the James River Plantations in Prince George County, Virginia in 1926, and restored the 18th century mansion. The couple divorced in September 1928, but Daniel kept the historic estate where he operated a dairy farm, maintained a stable of horses, and enjoyed hunting and shooting.

Daniel ascribed his second divorce to a charm which he had unintentionally broken at the old estate. According to a Harrison family legend, a bride of long ago who was married beneath the chandelier in the stately main room of the mansion died on her wedding night. Her wedding ring was embedded in the plaster ceiling and the legend was created that whoever disturbed it would meet with bad luck in love. After purchasing Brandon in 1926, Daniel ordered renovations made to the dilapidated 160-year-old mansion. While workmen were repairing the ceiling a piece of plaster fell to the floor containing a wedding ring. The workmen took it to Daniel, who had it cleaned and polished and placed back beneath the chandelier. He said he was aware of the legend and feared the results of disturbing the ring. Two years later Margery sued for divorce.

On October 10, 1929, Daniel married, for the third and final time, his distant cousin, Mrs. Frank Palmer Christian (née Charlotte Randolph Bemiss; 1890-1968) of Richmond, Virginia. At this time Daniel was president of Liberty National Bank in New York City. Mrs. Christian's first husband had died in 1918 during military service. Later, Daniel became chairman of the board of the Richmond Trust Company. Their son, Robert Williams Daniel, Jr. was born in Richmond in March 1936.

Daniel was a longtime parishioner of the Martin's Brandon Episcopal Church and donated several stained glass windows by Tiffany. He reputedly asked the church vestry to never play the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee" during services. The hymn is often cited as the last song played by the Titanic's band as the ship sank.

Political career ~

In 1935, Daniel was elected to the Senate of Virginia representing the 6th District, a part-time position. Daniel, a Conservative Democrat, was a political ally of Harry Flood Byrd and a close friend of his brother Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd. He held the seat until his death.

Daniel served on the Governor's Advisory Board on the Budget and for ten years (appointed by three governors, Pollard, Peery and Price) and served on the State Board of Education until he resigned in 1937 to run for lieutenant governor. He later (in 1939) was appointed to the University of Virginia's Board of Visitors by Governor Price.

Death and burial ~

Although successful professionally and politically, Daniel privately struggled with alcoholism, two failed marriages, post-traumatic stress and the stigma associated with having survived the Titanic disaster for much of his life. He died of cirrhosis of the liver on December 20, 1940 in Richmond and was interred in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. Daniel's first wife and fellow Titanic Survivor, Eloise Smith, had died earlier the same year at the age of 46 in a sanitarium in Cincinnati.

Daniel's son and namesake would later serve five terms in the United States Congress.