In her memoir I Loved Teaching Frances Elliott notes that Henry Edward, who had been invited to adjudicate a classroom debate "… had never attended school, and yet he could write a very good letter.
In 1872, Henry Edward moved with his parents and step-siblings to the Wimmera township of Charlton where his father had purchased a farm, and would also establish a brickyard overlooking the river on Olive Street.
The old couple remained there through the town's boom and bust periods - the population of Kingower peaked at around 8,000 in the 1860s, before declining to just 100 by the time of Edward's death in 1908.
In the same year he was married, Henry Edward's stepmother, Harriet Hickmott née Waters, was killed when she was struck by lightning at her home in East Charlton.
The incident was recorded in the St Arnaud Mercury on 17 February as follows: 'About 5pm on Wednesday a severe thunderstorm burst over East Charlton, and an hour later Mrs Hickmott and her son Samuel (a youth of 18 or 20) had just returned to their home in that township after a visit to a selection belonging to the family at Watson's Lakes, when a flash of lightning struck them both dead in the doorway of their house … Mrs Hickmott was thrown several yards out of the building, the apparel around her chest and shoulders being set ablaze, and her face much disfigured by the electric current, which appears to have struck her on the head and traveled down her right side.
An elder of the local Wesleyan Church, Henry Edward was said to have given a 'short but stirring speech' there in March 1886 to mark the retirement of its minister, the Reverend E. Taylor.
Perhaps his most notable achievement was against St Arnaud on 20 October 1879, where he took 2/19 and participated in a last wicket stand which resulted in a historic win over East Charlton's arch rivals.
The joy of winning was to be short lived, however, as East Charlton, and Henry Edward's bowling, were thrashed in a return match held at St Arnaud a couple of weeks later.
In 1890, Henry Edward sold up his Charlton holdings and moved with his growing family northwards to Lalbert where they stayed for the next eighteen years.
The children from the Hickmott and Smith families made up the bulk of the early classes of Lalbert School No 2990 which was built by the local community and opened on 18 March 1889.
In 1909, Henry and Elizabeth sold their land at Lalbert and sailed to Western Australia where they had purchased a farm, that they named 'Dingley Dell', at Pingelly just outside Brookton.
During the First World War, Henry also served on the Brookton Repatriation Committee which raised funds and other support for the soldiers and their dependents, and helped returned men find employment.