Sheboygan-made violin has presidential story

SHEBOYGAN - It has never been played, but a violin donated to the Sheboygan County Historical Museum has a story to tell.

Made by a Sheboygan violin maker, Alfred Ferdinand Smith, the instrument was gifted to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935 for his 53rd birthday.

Unfortunately, the president did not accept the gift, and the violin was returned to the family along with a letter from Roosevelt's private secretary explaining that Roosevelt felt he could not accept it.

“I think if an artist is into his art, there is nothing else they want to do,” Adeline Schmidt, Smith's daughter, said. “He lived and breathed for his violins.”

Smith passed away in 1976 with the distinction of being one of the few — if not only — violin makers in Sheboygan County. His memory lives on through the violins left behind with his children and grandchildren.

“All of his violins had a beautiful, low tone,” Schmidt said. “I just loved it when I was playing; you could feel that. I loved those lower tones.”

Smith made somewhere between 120 and 160 violins in his lifetime, but how many remain today is unknown. Each of Smith's living children and grandchildren have one, which numbers around 20. The family has heard of some in the Appleton area — and one professional musician in Minnesota still plays a Smith violin — but the family wonders what became of the rest.

Smith was never particularly successful at selling violins in Sheboygan. He dreamed of being the Stradivarius of America, but the Great Depression took its toll on the family.

“It was not a happy time, because we had no money,” Schmidt said. “We weren’t happy with the violins, and who wouldn’t be unhappy if you have no money and the husband goes into the attic and makes violins.”

Until recently, the family thought the violin was the only thing Smith had sent to Roosevelt, but an inquiry to the FDR Presidential Library found he had also sent a letter along with it — and a long one.

In the recently discovered ten page letter, the violin maker asked for help in selling the violins and hoped the president would mention the violins in the newspapers.

"Mr. President Roosevelt, please allow me to ask a favor of you in some way that someone could give me a write up, through some of your private help at the White House or Capitol," Smith wrote, "in the main large city's newspapers of the violin that I have made especial for our great, honorable President Franklin Delano Roosevelt."

Smith also wrote he was willing to donate a percentage of sales to the Infantile Paralysis Fund, better known today as polio.

“It surprised me that he was that into what was going on that he even would suggest that,” Schmidt said. “That was strange.”

The letter paints a picture of a violin-maker struggling to make ends meet while perfecting his craft.

"I am sorry to state that I am a man in ill health and with a large family to look after all these years that kept me from advancing to larger fields in the violin trade," Smith wrote to Roosevelt. "And now in the last three years, times are very hard for a man with a large family to make any headway."

No one in the family knew he had written the letter. Discovering it years later, the family was shocked at the lengths Smith went to in order to try and help his family.

“It was very emotional,” Schmidt said. “It’s as if we didn’t know our father.”

The family is now donating the violin, which has beautifully engraved artwork on the back, the letter, and other photos and information to the Sheboygan County Historical Society

“We are excited to have it,” Tamara Lange, curator of collections at the Museum, said. "Not only is it an interesting piece of local history, but the tie with the national history is really cool.”

Reach reporter Phillip Bock at 920-453-5121, pbock@sheboyganpress.com, @bockling on Twitter