[Erminnie Adele]. American scientist, born in Marcellus, NY, on the 26th of April 1836. After being educated at Mrs. Willard’s Seminary in Troy, NY, she was married in 1855 to Simeon H. Smith, her maiden name being Platt. She became deeply interested in the study of geology, making one of the finest private collections in the country; and while educating her sons in Germany devoted herself to the study of science and language, graduating from the School of Mines at Freiberg. On her return to America she gave several courses of lectures, and in 1878 engaged in ethnological work under the Smithsonian Institution, being assigned to a study of the language, customs and myths of the Iroquois Indians. In order to more fully carry out her work she lived for two summers among the remnants of the Tuscaroras in Canada. As a result of her study she obtained and classified over fifteen thousand words of the Iroquois dialect; and compiled an Iroquois-English dictionary, which was in course of printing at the time of her death. She was appointed commissioner of the department of woman’s work, to represent New Jersey, at the New Orleans Exposition in 1885. She died in Jersey City on the 9th of June 1886.
