Love Stories: Sex between Men before Homosexuality Paperback – June 15, 2003
by Jonathan Ned Katz
Queer Places:
Yale University (Ivy League), 38 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520
Blandford Cemetery, 111 Rochelle Ln, Petersburg, VA 23803, United States
Jabez Sidney Smith (May 24, 1821 - January 13, 1855) was born on May 24, 1821, in the City of Petersburg, Virginia. He was the second son born to Jabez Smith (1783–1865) and Mary L. Walthall Smith (1792–1859).
Growing up in Petersburg as part of a prominent Virginia family, Jabez was raised alongside six siblings: Clarinda Susan Smith (Egerton) (1811–1869), Archibald Lawrence Smith (1815–1864), Maria Louisa Smith (Buford) (1819–1860), Rufus Simeon Smith (1822–1869), Dr. Joseph Walworth Smith (1828–1879), Frederica Virginia Smith (Wilder / Underwood) (1831–1921).
In 1837, Jabez enrolled at Yale University as a member of the Class of 1841. While at Yale, he caught the attention of Albert Dodd, whose detailed personal diaries provide a rare glimpse into romantic expressiveness and male-male intimacy in 19th-century American university life.
By October 10, 1837, Dodd recorded his intense affection for Smith in his journal: "How much I think all the time continually always of Jabez. I believe I love him."
Historians, such as Matthew Busick in his study "Becoming a Yale Man: Intimacy among Yale Students in the Nineteenth Century" (2007) and Peter Gay in The Tender Passion, highlight Dodd's open expressions of love toward fellow male students—including Smith—without apparent shame or internal conflict. During this era, romantic male friendships involved emotional intensity, hand-holding, cuddling, and deep professions of devotion, which were considered normal features of homosocial bonds among elite university men.
Jabez Sidney Smith completed his freshman year at Yale before returning home to Petersburg, Virginia. He never married.
Later in life, Smith traveled west to St. Louis, Missouri, where he passed away from consumption (tuberculosis) on January 12 or 13, 1855, at the age of 33. His body was brought back to his hometown of Petersburg, where he was laid to rest in the family plot at Blandford Cemetery.
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Love Stories: Sex between Men before Homosexuality Paperback – June 15, 2003 by Jonathan Ned Katz |
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