John Willoughby:
Greene Publishing, Inc.
After spending most of her life in the historic house on Livingston St., built by her grandfather Daniel G. Smith, Nell Norfleet Ring and her sister, Rachel “Raye” Wooley, are preparing to say goodbye. The home has provided Nell and Raye with memories that will last a lifetime.
The story began when Daniel G. Smith built the Queen-Anne style home for his wife, Rachel Townsend Smith, in 1899. Mr. Smith was the owner of the Smith Drug Store, which was located in the vacant room next to Grumpy's Diner on Main, in Madison. Throughout the years, Rachel Townsend Smith gave birth to Daniel G. "Dandy" Smith Jr. and one daughter, also named Rachel Townsend Smith, who was later known as Rachel Townsend Smith Norfleet Reichmann. Reichmann was Nell's mother.
You may recognize the house as the beautiful Queen-Anne, art-deco-influenced home that sits in front of and to the left of the historic Livingston home. However, the Smith House hasn't always looked like it does today. Nell recalls a story that her mother told of how she was walking from school in 1924 to find her home in flames. The second story was completely refurbished due to the house's heavy damage, changing the complete appearance of the home into what it is today. Nell's mother was 13 years old when she moved into her new upstairs bedroom.
Years went by and Rachel, Nell's mother, attended the Florida State College for Women and Brenau College, in Gainesville. Upon gathering many friends and being in the dating scene, Rachel married Nat Norfleet in August of 1935, after he had allegedly declared he was going to marry her to one of her friends. The newlyweds moved to Gainesville where they lived until around Christmas time when Rachel's father asked Nat to come to work for the Smith Drug Store. Once more, Rachel was back home in the Smith House with her beloved family.
Nell recalls staying in a small house, where she lived until the age of eight, on the grounds near the Smith House while she and her siblings, Raye and Nat (Little Nat) Norfleet, grew up. Around the time of grandmother Rachel's death in 1953, Nell and her family moved into the Smith House.
However, before becoming established in the Smith House, she recalls seeing her grandmother often. "Of course, we'd come up and visit with grandmama," said Nell, who recalled having treats with her grandmother when staying over night. "The treats were like a Snicker bar or a Milky Way. She'd take them and slice them up and [we'd] have our little tea parties," laughed Nell, who also made mention of the dentures her grandmother wore. "She would get the milky way because she couldn't eat the nuts!"
In 1955, the Norfleets experienced a great loss. While Rachel waited for Big Nat to come in from the over-600-acre farm for dinner, she discovered that her husband had fallen off of his tractor and was killed. His funeral was two days later, leaving his wife to run the Smith Drug Store with no experience on how to run a business, adding on to the responsibility of caring for her three children. With the loss of Big Nat, the business would later go on to be run with the help of Rachel's second husband, Kirby Reichmann, who were both running the store until Ring's brother, Little Nat, received his pharmacist degree. Unfortunately, Little Nat, 23 at the time, fell ill with acute Leukemia and passed away in 1958, just months after Rachel and Kirby married at the Smith House on July 4, 1957. Little Nat left behind his wife, Ann, and two sons: Nat Norfleet Jr. and Mike Norfleet, who is a career pharmacist, just like his late father aspired to be.
Kirby and Rachel later sold the drug store while Kirby became a licensed photographer. They both opened the Madison Studio, a local photography studio, frame shop and Christian book store located in the building where Grumpy's Diner on Main operates today. During that time, Reichmann served as a Madison City Commissioner for 19 years. Kirby later passed away in March of 2000.
Nell and Raye returned to the Smith House in 1990 and lived with their mother, Rachel, who lived to be 101, until passing away in November of 2012, in the same room she was born in. Now, the time has come for Nell and her sister, Raye, to vacate the home and downsize. Raye and Nell will be moving to a smaller home owned by Nell, just down the road from the house on Livingston St.
To help downsize the estate and prepare for the house to hit the market, Royal Restorations will be heading an estate sale on Friday, Feb. 8, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, Feb. 9, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Everything will be priced, with the exception of a few things that were named in Rachel Reichmann's will when she passed away. The house is located at 191 SW Livingston St., in Madison.
Memories have surrounded the Smith House for Nell and her siblings, but life will go on as it always has for the Smith/Norfleet family. The photos of the Norfleets and the Smiths that have graced the 13 rooms in the home for more than a century will be put in storage and a new family name will call the Smith House their home, continuing the legacy of keeping family and friends close together.