Ella Smith: Alabama Indestructable Doll

Ella Smith (1868-1932) was a toy manufacturer and artist who invented the Alabama Indestructable Doll, or “Ella Smith Doll.” Sturdier than the common porcelain-headed dolls of the time, her creation became widely popular and won a blue ribbon at the 1904 World’s Fair. The Ella Smith Doll Company, based in Roanoke, Randolph County, also was reputed to be the first doll maker in the South to create African American dolls. Unusual for a woman at the time, she held 11 patents by the time of her death. Smith was an interesting character in the Roanoke community: she typically wore a long black dress with matching cloak and often walked around with her hymn-singing parrot on her shoulder. In her backyard she had a pigeon house and that is how she
sent mail her mail. Ella Smith’s company “crashed and burned” when her two traveling salesmen died in a train wreck on their way to New York. The widows sued Smith for everything she had, and that was the end of the Ella Smith Doll.