Sanford Spencer Smith

Sanford was named after his uncle, but his middle name was the same as his father’s middle name. There was one sister, Blanche, who was three years older and a brother, Richard, who was one year and six days older. All three children were baptized at First Methodist Church of Germantown.

Sanford didn’t make it all the way through high school since the Great Depression forced many young people to have and to hold a job. He also found a girl “to have and to hold” when he married Anna Marie Crawford sometime in the mid-1930s. They took up residence in the suburbs of Philadelphia, first in Delaware County, then in Bucks County where their three children were born. 

No documents were found indicating that he served during the second World War, but in 1946 Sanford joined the Philadelphia Police as a highway patrolman. Four years into his job he was on motorcycle patrol, and began to chase a car exceeding the speed limit. While in pursuit of the vehicle his motorcycle was struck by another car at 30th and Chestnut streets and he was killed.

Anna decided to have Sanford buried in Section 53 with his brother-in-law, Matthew Shiels, who was the husband of Anna’s sister, Lillian. No other family members were buried at Mount Moriah.