1902 'COUNTRY NEWS.', The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), 28 August, p. 9. , viewed 22 Feb 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9081330
Memorial Service For the late Mr JOSEPH SMITH of Templestowe.
Scots Church, Heidelberg, was filled last Sunday morning by a large congregation—the friends and relatives of the deceased, as well as by many sympathising neighbours. The Rev Duncan Fraser, emeritus minister, officiated by special request. He prefaced his sermon by a brief memoir of the deceased, in which he stated the pioneer of the Smith family, was the late Mr David Smith, of Holyrood, on the Yarra, who came out in the early fifties, to be followed by three brothers within a year, and by the whole family, (the parents with four more sons, and four daughters), in 1857. If not the earliest they were certainly the most numerous cluster of settlers in the charming district of Templestowe. Joseph was the third youngest son, a boy of 14 years, on leaving the district of the Scottish Highlands, named in the plaintive song, "Lochaber do more." The scenery of his early home was one of wild grandeur, with the majest[y] o[f] Ben Nevis towering aloft in the west. Like his father and brothers, he was familiar with sheep and cattle from his childhood. At Templestowe after attending school for some time, he took a part in the industries for which there was full scope in the new surroundings. He enjoyed a godly upbringing [b]oth in Scotland with its sacred memories, and here in his pious and patri[ar]ch[a]l fath[e]r's home. He lost his mo[th]er in 1867, but not until after reaching manhood, and his father survived till 18[?]9.
The preacher said that the world's work was carried on not by the few who attain to fame, but by the rank and file of average men. In this average, however, Mr Joseph Smith was not a man of merely average piety.
From the first Mr. Fraser found in him a thorough, sincere and straight Christian character. He was of a quiet undemonstrative disposition, but the "smooth water" of true principle runs deep, and the deceased did not leave repentance, faith, and all that is included in conversion to a dying bed and a few hours of torturing and distracting pain. "He lived in the Lord." He took an active part in the objects which promoted the welfare of his district. The Shire council found in him a reliable and sensible member. The Literary Institute and Free Library, with its hall, owed much to his efforts, and these were completed many years before those of Heidelberg.
The preacher made affecting allusions to the fortitude of Mr Smith in bearing his terrible pain and distress, and to the testimony he had given to his wife and to himself of his absolute faith in God his Saviour, and though unable to say more than broken syllables from his suffering, he let us know by voice and the movement of his head, St Paul's magnificent persuasion which Mr Fraser repeated to him (Romans viii, 38, 39), was his own persuasion too. The text was from Rev xiv, 13—"Blessed art the dead who die [i]n the Lord."
The organist (Mr Alf Ford) and the choir rendered the suitable hymns with feeling, The congregation remaine[d] standing while the deeply thrilling "Dead March in Saul" was played by Mr Ford.
1902 'MEMORIAL SERVICE.', Mercury and Weekly Courier (Vic. : 1878 - 1903), 5 September, p. 2. , viewed 22 Feb 2018, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58581150
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