Several different Smith families were among the Hamilton County pioneers.
Milo Smith was a beloved physician in Chattanooga's early days, and he was the city's mayor in three different decades. He was a son of William Smith, who came from Massachusetts to teach school in frontier Tennessee. William Smith's parents, Samuel and Elizabeth Keyes Smith, were living at Great Barrington when he was born. They are buried at New Marlboro. Dr. Smith's mother was Elizabeth Cozby, daughter of the famous East Tennessee physician and Indian fighter, Dr. James Cozby. William Smith
went from Knoxville to Washington in Rhea County in 1812. He founded Smith's Crossroads (Dayton) after purchasing 60 acres there in 1820.
Dr. Milo Smith was born in 1807 and he went to Philadelphia to study medicine. He had “a great deal of information on almost every subject pertaining to matters Biblical and historical, but especially physic.” His was the leading medical practice, but he seemed almost unconcerned about whether or not he was paid. Dr. Smith was so well liked by the community that several babies were named in his honor. Milo Smith had gone down river from Rhea County to the new Ross's Landing settlement where his sister, Eliza, had moved with her husband, John P. Long. From the commissioners who laid out and were selling off Chattanooga lots, he purchased lot 38 on Poplar Street for $220 in 1840.
He wound up selling this lot and building on lot 42 nearby. At the time of the Indian removal, both Dr. Smith and his father worked with the government. William Smith relocated to Rawlingsville, Ala., in this capacity. Dr. Smith made several trips between Ross's Landing and the Indian Territory with the Cherokees. Dr. Smith was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church at Chattanooga.
Milo Smith married Caroline Lipscomb, who was from Grainger County, Tenn., and was the daughter of Spotswood and Elizabeth Smith Pendleton Lipscomb. Their son, William Spotswood Smith, graduated from medical school at Nashville. He entered Confederate service and was on the medical staff of Dr. Samuel H. Stout. Milo Smith's daughter, Elizabeth Nisbet Smith, was the first white child born in Chattanooga after it was named - her birth being Christmas Day 1838. She married Andrew Mitchell Macmurphy of Augusta, Ga., in 1859. Macmurphy's sister was the wife of another Chattanooga mayor, Charles Grenville.
The Milo Smiths remained in Chattanooga through much of the war at their brick home on Cameron Hill on the east side of Poplar Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. Dr. Smith served as mayor again in 1862 and 1863 after terms in 1842 and 1851. He treated many wounded soldiers from both armies in the war-torn city. Caroline Smith took care of a baby who had lost its mother when only six weeks old and whose father was one of the artillerymen under the duty of firing shells into Chattanooga. Dr. Smith early in 1864 “felt it necessary to leave Chattanooga.” His home on Poplar Street was sold to John G. Glass. The Milo Smiths returned after the war and Dr. Smith had a drug store with John Bailey Nicklin at Fifth and Market. Milo Smith died in 1869. Caroline Lipscomb Smith died at Memphis in 1878.
James Woods Smith, brother of Milo Smith, also was at Chattanooga at the time it switched from Ross's Landing. At 27, he was the youngest director of the Lookout Railroad Co. that was formed to try to bring a railroad to the frontier landing settlement. James W. Smith in 1834 in Rhea County had married Louisa Penelope Campbell. She was the daughter of Thomas Jefferson Campbell and Sarah Bearden and was the granddaughter of Judge David Campbell. However, James W. Smith died Nov. 10, 1840, at the age of 29. His widow took William Walker Anderson as her second husband in 1842. Robert Cozby Smith, only child of James Woods Smith, married Virginia A. Farris in Huntsville, Ala., in 1858.
COL. JOSEPH G. Smith was a prominent settler at Bledsoe County before he moved to Hamilton County along with several of his wife's kin at an early date. The Virginia native had married Rebecca M. Skillern, daughter of John and Mary Anderson Skillern. Her sisters had married Samuel Igou, Robert H. Guthrie and Thomas Spicer. Anderson Skillern acquired 5,000 acres in Hamilton County, and in 1830 he assigned a half interest to his brother-in-law, Joseph G. Smith. Col. Smith also had land interests in Giles County, and he often dealt with investors from New York.
When it was decided in 1840 to move the county seat away from Dallas, Joseph G. Smith was one of the commissioners chosen to select and lay out the new site. Harrison - on the east side of the river - was chosen, and Col. Smith was one of its commissioners selling off lots on Broadway and other of its streets. Joseph G. Smith had toll rights to the bridge across North Chickamauga Creek. In 1841, he cooperated with the effort to bring the Western and Atlantic Railroad to Chattanooga by providing a right of way across his property for $50.
By 1850, Col. Smith had built an estate of $10,000 and he owned several slaves. His daughter, Narcissa, married Lawson Guthrie, who was a major in the Confederate Army in the Civil War. Another daughter, Jane, married Charles B. Champion, who served as county sheriff. Other daughters were Mary who married a Chandler, Martha A. and Isabella J. who married an Ellis. When Joseph G. Smith made out his will in 1859 he listed several hundred acres of land, including property at Harrison and in Meigs County. The slaves were Fayette, Arch, Betsy and Jane. He specified that his son, John A. Smith, be furnished a good horse, saddle and bridle and provided with $200 “to complete his
study of medicine and commence the profession.” John A. Smith organized Co. H of
the 36th Tennessee Infantry at Harrison. One of his lieutenants was his brother-in-law, Charles B. Champion. Rebecca Skillern Smith lived until 1874. She left many items to her unmarried daughter Martha, including silver tea spoons and table spoons, silver knives with ivory handles, a cherry falling leaf table, a mahogany table, a white “marsailles” quilt, a rose-bud pieced up quilt, a sassafras bud pieced up quilt, a leather trunk and a bureau with a looking glass attached to it. She asked to be buried alongside her husband and that both graves “be walled round by one common fence or walling of
rock, one foot high, and then iron railing around it on top of the rock, with iron door and lock and key.”
ANOTHER Smith pioneer was Peyton Fauntleroy Smith, who arrived at Long Savannah near Ooltewah prior to the Indian Removal. Four of the sons of Peyton Smith went with the Union, but one was on the Confederate side.
The Peyton Smiths migrated from Virginia along with the John Welch family. The Smiths and Welches arrived in Hamilton County after a stopoff in Claiborne County. Some of the children from the two families intermarried. Peyton Smith married Nancy Welch and Susanne Smith married Jesse Welch. Peyton Smith earlier had attended Hampden-Sydney College.
Peyton Smith was a son of Francis Josiah and Martha Poore Smith, who were married at
Powhatan County, Va., in 1803. Martha Poore was a daughter of William Poore. Other children of Francis Josiah Smith were Theodosia who married Lartus Belvin, Mary who married Solomon J. Belvin, Francis Josiah Jr., Sterling, James Burwell, Major Robert, Charles and Henry.
The Peyton Smiths acquired a farm with two log cabins on it from the departing Indians.
They covered their hewn-log home with weatherboarding and painted it. The house was two stories with shutters on each of the 12 paneled windows. The stones in the chimneys and fireplaces were so smooth it was said they resembled marble. There was a huge fireplace in the kitchen, which was separated from the main house because of the danger of fire. The wall around the living room fireplace was of fine paneling. The Peyton Smiths were active in the Old Shephard Hill Baptist Church. This log church was taken down in the late 1930s to make way for Lake Chickamauga, and the logs were
used in a home for Mr. and Mrs. Herschel B. Cofer on Bonny Oaks Drive.
Peyton Smith led a regiment of volunteers in the Mexican War and earned the title of Major. After the Civil War broke out, he and his sons, George Smith and William J. Smith, were among those suspected of burning a railroad bridge and were taken by Confederate authorities to Alabama. There the 22 accused men were confined in a narrow room, and several died during the ordeal. William J. Smith joined the Union forces along with three of his older brothers - Peyton Leroy Smith, John Henry Smith and E lihu Smith. William J. Smith enlisted in Co. E of the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry on Nov. 11, 1862, at Nashville. Elihu Smith was in the same unit, joining at Sale Creek on Nov. 11, 1861. He was captured on Dec. 10 and take to Cleveland, Tenn., and “there forced into the Rebel army” until May 10, 1862. He rejoined the Union and rose to the rank of sergeant on Feb. 10, 1863. In May and June of 1863, he was sick in a hospital at Nashville, then he was placed on furlough. Elihu Smith was transferred to the invalid corps by order of Gen. W.S. Rosecrans on Feb. 28, 1864. Leroy and John H. Smith joined Co. G of the Fifth Tennessee Cavalry at Nashville in September of 1862. Leroy Smith used his blacksmithing skills for the Union Army and he was a scout in the Sequatchie Valley. John H. Smith was in the fighting at Murfreesboro, Franklin and Nashville, and he rose to the rank of sergeant. John H. Smith for several months was a special courier for Gen. William Sherman, and on one mission he was told to “ride his horse until it fell dead from exhaustion and to requisition the most immediate one on a farm or plantation.” George Smith enlisted on Nov. 13, 1862, with Co. E of the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry at Huntsville, Ala. He had risen to the rank of corporal by Feb. 10, 1863. He was killed in action at Pulaski, Tenn., on Sept. 27, 1864. Sterling Tried Smith - the son who joined the Confederate forces - was mustered in Co. H of the 26th Tennessee Infantry at Knoxville on Sept. 5, 1861. Later he was “with the regiment that escaped from Fort Donelson.” He was with the army at Bowling Green, Ky., in 1862 when he had to go off duty due to illness.
Sterling T. Smith had studied medicine at the University of Nashville. When he was 17 he married Amy Lou Matthews, and they had five sons and eight daughters. The Smiths moved to Dunlap, Tenn., when it “consisted of nothing save a few houses, and the valley was a mere wilderness.” It was said that “where Dr. Smith is not known in the Sequatchie Valley is an obscure place indeed, for he has traveled its length and breadth in the service of humanity.” Dr. Smith was a Democrat, a Baptist and a Mason. When he died at Dunlap in 1916 at age 80, he had been a doctor in the Sequatchie Valley for 56 years.
Mary Isabel Smith, daughter of Peyton Smith, married Caswell Luttrell Anderson. They lived at South Pittsburg. Other sons of Peyton Smith were James Burwell Smith who married Josephine Yarnell and moved to Missouri and Samuel Jesse Smith who married Lou Luther and moved to Kansas. Elihu Smith married Mary A. Fuller and lived in Marion County.
William J. Smith and John Henry Smith also became doctors. William J. Smith set up his
practice at South Pittsburg. He married Mary Hixson. John H. Smith studied at the Georgetown Academy and focused on Latin and Greek at the Red Hill Academy in Bradley County. After getting his medical training at the University of Nashville, he practiced with his brother, Dr. S.T. Smith, for seven years at Dunlap. When his parents became ill, John H. Smith returned to Long Savannah to help them. Peyton Smith died
in 1879 and his wife the following year. They were buried at the Anderson Cemetery at Long Savannah. John H. Smith acquired the homeplace at Long Savannah, and in the early 1890s he tore down the historic Peyton Smith home and built a modern house in its place. This home was later occupied by the Gordon Arps. John H. Smith was first married to Anna Elizabeth Irwin, and they had a daughter, Aletha Lucinda. After the death of his first wife in 1885, he married Drucilla Keltner Swafford of McMinn
County. Their children were Elizabeth Jane who married George Robert Lewis, Samuel
James who married Gladys Stimpson, and Mary Martha who married Franklin Davis. John H. Smith was a member of the County Court in James County for over 25 years. When he died in 1908, he was buried near his parents.
Anderson Smith was born in Virginia about 1815 and he and his wife, Elizabeth, were neighbors of Peyton Smith. Their children included Charles, Hugh, Mary, Margaret, Jackson and George. Jackson Smith joined the Union's Fourth Tennessee Cavalry when he was 18. The soldier, who stood only five feet, five inches, tall, enlisted at Murfreesboro on Oct. 14, 1863. He lost a Remington pistol and holster and was
docked $20. Jackson Smith was captured while on a raid at Newnan, Ga., on Aug. 5, 1864. He was in prison at Andersonville, Ga., and at Florence, S.C. After his parole at Goldsboro, N.C., on Feb. 25, 1865, he was sent to a hospital at Annapolis, Md. Jackson Smith's trade was listed as blacksmith.
ANOTHER Smith pioneer, Leighton Smith, fought against the British at King's Mountain, and he was a very early settler at Bledsoe County. A grandson was on the Union side, though other grandsons went with the Confederacy. Many of his descendants are in the Soddy-Daisy area.
Leighton Smith was born, according to his Revolutionary War pension papers, in 1756 “in County of Kent or Sussex near the seashore.” He was at Washington County, Va., at the time of the Revolution. He was a "soldier and Indian fighter'' under Capts. William Cook, John S. Lewis, Andrew Colville, James Montgomery and Cols. Shelby and Christie.
Leighton Smith married Elizabeth Roberson, who was born in 1765. The Smiths were at Washington County, Va., for several years after the Revolution. Ninety acres were surveyed for Leighton Smith in 1782 on both sides of Smith Creek near the Holston River. Later, he was an early settler at Greene County, Tenn. He returned to Washington County, then about 1799 moved to Knox County, Tenn., in the section that became Anderson County. From Stockley Donelson he bought 200 acres on Bull Run Creek for 40 pounds of Virginia currency. Leighton Smith had moved to Bledsoe County prior to
selling the Bull Run Creek property for $400 in 1811. He was at the home of his son, Aaron Smith, in Marion County when he died in November of 1840. His wife had died the previous September and a son, William, had died in January. They were buried in a cemetery across from Stephens Methodist Church seven miles south of Pikeville on East Valley Road.
A daughter, Elizabeth, married John Stepp. Two other daughters married Rogers brothers. Martha married the Rev. Amanuel Rogers and Phoebe married the Rev. Dauswell Rogers. A son, Laton K. Smith, in 1830 received a grant of 3,000 acres on Walden's Ridge at Middle and McInturf's creeks in Hamilton County. John Frederick transferred to Laton K. Smith a 5,000-acre grant on Walden's Ridge including “some
headwaters of North Chickamauga Creek.” Laton K. Smith drowned in the Tennessee River near Ross's Landing in the early 1840s. He and his wife, Catherine, had Sarah who married Henry Harvell, James Noah, Alfred M., William J. and Lucinda Jane who married J.N. Murray and moved to Missouri. James Noah Smith's first wife was Elizabeth, then he married Nancy Shirley.
Another son, Moses, was in Hamilton County at the time of the 1850 census with his wife, Sarah, then they moved to Rhea County. Their children included Samuel, Phoebe, Lucinda, George and Louisa. A son, Moses Smith Jr., settled at Daisy. He died in 1899 and was buried alongside his wife, Nancy Jane, at the Poe Cemetery. Their children included Sarah, Burrell, Melvina, Andrew and Daniel.
Aaron Smith, another of the sons of Leighton Smith, worked in a distillery in Bledsoe County during the War of 1812. He married Mary Rogers, sister to Amanuel and Dauswell Rogers, about 1820. Their daughter, Nancy, married Royal Riley Brooks. After the death of his first wife, Aaron Smith married Mary Pauline Brown about 1825. Her mother, Rutha Brown, lived many years with the Aaron Smith family in Sequatchie County. She was 98 at the time of the 1860 census. Melvina, the first daughter of Aaron Smith by his second wife, burned to death as a baby. The other children included Susan who married John Wilkerson and moved to Missouri, Martha who married Andrew Jackson Curtis, Ruth Jane who married Steven Murray, James Alexander, John Leighton and twins William and Andrew. Ruth Jane was the postmaster at Fillmore in Bledsoe County during the Civil War years. William and Andrew were mail carriers when they were 17.
The twins William and Andrew Smith were conscripted into the Confederate army, and
their father, Aaron, joined the same company in the 35th Tennessee Infantry though he was 63 years old. They were sent to Bowling Green, Ky., in September 1863. There was a measles outbreak in the camp and both twins died in November. Aaron Smith brought his sons' bodies back to the Sequatchie Valley for burial. Having lost his property in the war, Smith moved to Walker County, Ga., near Frick's Gap, and he was postmaster at Cedar Grove. His wife died there in 1874 and was buried at the Cedar Grove Cemetery. Aaron Smith moved on to Arkansas to join his son, John L. Smith, who had also fought
for the South. Aaron Smith died at Booneville, Ark., in 1890. Though his brothers and father were in the opposing army, James Alexander Smith chose to join the Union's 6th Mounted Infantry. He enlisted at Chattanooga and served until he was mustered out at Nashville. He had been a schoolteacher at Harrison prior to the war.
James A. Smith had married Mary Jane Varner, daughter of Allen Varner, before the
war. Their children were Sarah Pauline, William A., Allen Napoleon, Frances Adaline and John A. who died when he was two. Sarah married Lewis Henry Hatfield in 1875, but she died three years later. William A. married Eliza Lewis. Allen N. married Nancy Cox, then Cynthia Isabelle Millsaps. Frances married James Cope. Children of Allen N. Smith were Mary Adaline who married David Ables and then Harrison Redden, Rose Belle who married William M. Chancey, Joe Adam who married Annie Mae
Patterson, and Earl Thomas who married Beatrice Davis. William A. Smith's sons were James L. “Whisker,” William Aaron “Butch,” Charles Monroe “Boston,” and Joseph Allen “Shotgun.” Many of these Smiths were Soddy coal miners.
After his first wife's death, James A. Smith remarried in 1872 to Mary Averilla Bowers at Melville, Tenn. He was 37 and she was 22. Their children were Jasper who married Hallie Pryor, Arthur Howard who married Flora Elizabeth Copeland, the bachelors George Washington “Hootie,” Robert Sullivan and Samuel Luther, Jesse Alexander who married Elizabeth Brown, and Lula Jane who married Claude Evens Martin. Children of Arthur H. Smith were Hazel May who married Robert Jett, Elizabeth Flora who
married Ralph Emiol Millsaps, Leila Ruth who married Oscar Mysinger, Grace Copeland who married Lucius Brown, and George Howard who married Helen Shadwick.
James A. Smith joined the Baptist Church at Union Fork on Aug. 5, 1877. He was baptized the next day by the Rev. James Barnes at the McRee mill dam at Soddy. Smith afterward became a minister and presided at the marriage of some of his children. He was postmaster for the Igou Ferry Post Office, located next to his home on Igou Ferry Road at Daisy. James A. Smith died in 1906.
Margarite Millsaps Carter, a descendant of Leighton Smith, has researched the family.
JAMES Smith settled in the vicinity of Moccasin Bend at a time when he had many Indian neighbors. His sons-in-law had large tracts nearby. Smith was previously in Kentucky. His daughter, Sarah, married Henry Simmerman and daughter, Eliza, married William H. Stringer. When Simmerman died at Moccasin Bend in the Indian Removal year of 1838, Sarah Smith Simmerman took Edward D.H. Bivans as her second husband. One of their sons was named Smith Bivans.
James Smith and the Simmermans were here as early as 1822 when Smith and Henry Simmerman were witnesses on a deed. Smith in 1826 paid $2,000 to the Cherokee James Brown for 640 acres that formerly was the reservation of the Cherokee David Fields. Brown had acquired it in 1825 from Fields. An 1836 deed involving James Smith concerns a $950 transaction on 75 acres on the banks of the Tennessee River deeded to Simmerman and 10 acres deeded to Bivans.
In 1842 when Aaron M. Rawlings became indebted to James Smith, he settled up by conveying to Smith “four beds and furniture, five bedsteads, 1 bureau, one crib, one pine cupboard, one falling leaf table, one small cherry table, one candle stand, one kettle, two pots, 3 ovens, one skillet, two pans, shovels and tongs, waffle irons, etc., one clock, one watch, one looking glass, one music box and cupboard ware, and one horse.”
Smith in 1840 transferred to his grandson, Phillip Simmerman, a “Negro slave, Peter, 8”
Phillip Simmerman was to be “entitled to receive the proceeds of the hire of Peter.” He
gave another grandson, Jerome C. Simmerman, three slaves. They were Lydia, 35; Charles, 9; and Isaac, five months. Another Simmerman grandson, James P., in 1841 was granted the slaves Tilda, 13; Jefferson, 11; and Martha, 3.
James Smith apparently died in the late 1840s.
ANOTHER family of Smiths who were originally from South Carolina were tied in closely with the Julians. This family came from William Smith, who died in South Carolina in 1829, and his wife, Nancy. Their children included John, Israel and Joseph who settled in McMinn County, Patty who married Robert Pickens, Sarah who married Richard Tankersley, Mary and Nancy who married a Marshall.
Another son was James Smith. He died in the 1820s, but his wife, Mary Elizabeth Garrison Smith, lived until 1863 when she was 72. She was living near the Julians at Tynerville at the time of the Civil War. Her son, David, married Ann Julian, and daughter, Mary B., married Samuel Julian. Another daughter, Mourning, married George Julian, who was a Methodist circuit riding preacher. Mary B. Smith Julian
died in 1888 and Samuel Julian took as his second wife Sarah A. Murphy, widow of John Murphy. Mourning Smith Julian was the mother of 13 children and she also raised three orphan children. She was “cheerful, happy and contented in her domestic life, managing the little farm when her husband was out on circuit.” She lived until 1910 when she was almost 90. She was living at Tyner at the time.
David and Ann Julian Smith settled in the Chatata Valley, eight miles east of Cleveland,
near other members of the Julian family. In 1856, David Smith was digging a well on his
property and had reached a depth of 56 feet when he hit a large rock. He got word to his father-in-law, Isom Julian, who sent a slave to help blast out the rock. The blasting was finished on a Saturday night and Smith went down into the well on Monday morning. But he was overcome with fumes that had collected in the well from the blasting. His wife described the tragic incident in a letter. She wrote, “David called to John (their son). John went out to see what he wanted. He called his father and got no answer, and he then ran into the house and said, ‘Mother, Father is dead.’ We all ran out and began to scream aloud.”' Robert Patterson Julian, brother of Ann Julian Smith, volunteered to go
down into the well, saying, “Let me down. I can't see so dear a brother die without doing all I can. I expect to die with him, but let me down.” He, too, was overcome with fumes as was a son of David Smith. David Smith died from the incident, though Patterson Julian and the son regained consciousness and recovered. Ann Julian Smith afterward married William McCamey.
Other children of James and Mary Elizabeth Garrison Smith were William who married Malinda, John C. and Israel G. Malinda Smith died in 1842, leaving young children, James Garrison Smith and Mary Susan Smith. Mary Susan married Marsena Lovelace Julian, a son of Patterson Julian. William Smith died Feb. 28, 1865. James Garrison Smith enlisted May 24, 1863, in the Union's Co. A of the Fourth Tennessee Cav-
alry. He had “traveled 200 miles at his own expense to join his regiment.” James G. Smith was sick in a convalescent camp at Nashville in July 1863 and through the end of the year. Later he was on duty at a brigade hospital. Near the end of the war, he was at Beaufort's Bluff at the Tombigbee River in Alabama. He left the army at Mt. Vernon, Ala., in April 1865. James G. Smith married Margaret M. Casper, daughter of William and Elizabeth Spicer Casper. Her first husband, G. Pinckney Summers, had died during the war of smallpox. Their child, Martha Jane Summers, married William Joseph Hixson.
The James Garrison Smiths occupied a log home in the Chatata Valley. Their son, Israel
Lovelace Smith, was sheriff of Bradley County when he died in 1922 in the line of service. Other children of James Garrison Smith were William F., Mary E. who was unmarried, Almon Oscar, Lillie Mae who married William Franklin Richey, Martin Luther who was unmarried, Pearl Ann who married John Lee Galloway, Sallie G. who married Roy Madison LaRue, Della Louise who married John Von Pierce, and Hattie Sue who married Walter D. Robertson. Mary Elizabeth Garrison Smith and William and Mal-
inda Smith are buried at the Silverdale Cemetery.
A SMITH pioneer of Hixson was Burrell Smith. He was also an original trustee at Jack-
son's Chapel Church. Burrell Smith was born about 1782 in North Carolina, and his wife, Elizabeth, was born there about 1784. Burrell Smith was in Marion County in 1829 when he acquired 250 acres on the north side of Chickamauga Creek from John McIvor of Rutherford County. The deed stipulated that half the payment “may be discharged in ginned and baled cotton delivered at Allen Kirklen's gin in Marion County.” The Jackson Chapel of the Methodist Episcopal Church was set up in a log cabin at Dallas at a
time when it was the county seat. A nearby burial ground was called Jackson Cemetery. Burrell Smith was closely allied with the Jacksons, who were also from North Carolina. One of the Jacksons was named Burrell Jackson. Children living with Burrell Smith at the time of the 1850 census were Elizabeth, Abraham and Rebecca.
Also living at Hixson were Allen K. Smith and Daniel C. Smith. They were apparently sons of Burrell Smith. They married daughters of Preston Gann. Allen K. Smith was born about 1828. He married Martha J. Gann, and they first lived with Christian Sniteman, who also married a Preston Gann daughter -Mary Ann. Allen K. had an estate of 392 acres. He and Martha J. Smith had James P., Louisa, Martha Jane and Mary E. who died as a young girl in the last year of the Civil War. Allen K. Smith died in the fall of 1858, and Preston Gann became the guardian for his children. After the fighting at Chickamauga, Union troops scouring the countryside for supplies came with wagons to the Smith place, where Martha J. Smith was living with her children. They helped themselves to ripe corn in the fields. They tore off fence rails and also dismantled a log cabin, log kitchen and stable for use in building winter quarters for the soldiers. Smith's widow afterward married George W. Clark. Daniel C. Smith, who was born in 1825, married Cassandra Gann. In February of 1862, he joined the Union Army's Co. I of the
2nd Tennessee Infantry at Camp Carter. He was dispatched to Kentucky and fought until early 1864, when he was captured. He was en route to the dreaded Andersonville Prison when he died “of fever contracted by exposure” at Augusta, Ga., on March 22. Daniel C. Smith left behind six children as well as a child, Cassandra, whom he never saw because she was born about the time of his death. The other children were Sophronia, Jackson Yarnell, Lorenzo, Daniel Boone, Abraham R. and Mary Elizabeth. Daniel Boone Smith married Jane Miles in 1878, and he lived until 1912. Sophronia Smith married Joseph
Gann. The widow, Cassandra Gann Smith, lived until 1900. Cassandra Smith Road is in Hixson, and the Smith Cemetery is nearby on Hamill Road. Among those buried there are Allen K. Smith, Daniel C. Smith, Daniel Boone Smith, Abraham R. Smith, Jackson Yarnell Smith, Sophronia Smith Gann and Cassandra Gann Smith.
ANOTHER early Smith family was that of the Rev. Noah R. and Fidily Umbargo Smith. Noah, who was born in Virginia about 1810, was said to be of English descent and Fidily of Dutch. They were married in Warren County, Tenn., in 1832 and afterwards lived four years in Hamilton County. They were at Cannon County for a year before resettling in Bradley County. Noah Smith was on a trip to Missouri when he died in 1876 at McDonald County. Fidily Smith died in 1885 and was buried at the Funderburk Cemetery in Bradley County.
Their children included John W., Amanda, Sarah E., James and William. John W. Smith enlisted with the Union army on July 29, 1863, at Nashville to fill a vacancy in Co. G of the FourthTennessee Cavalry. He was made the unit's captain. Smith soon became ill and was confined to a convalescent camp. By the following May he had decided to resign and it was accepted “for the good of the service.” He wrote his commanding officer that his “family in East Tennessee is in a suffering condition, the same consisting of my wife and four infant children - the former being in a helpless condition having lost the use of her left hand, and I am their sole support and dependency.” Capt. Smith had married Martha
C. Bowers, daughter of John and Nancy Morgan Bowers, in 1852. The John W. Smiths lived a mile south of Georgetown. Capt. Smith died in 1901 and Martha Bowers Smith in 1907.
Thomas J. Smith, a son of Capt. Smith who was born in 1869, was road commissioner in James County, and he also was elected trustee. He owned three farms, with the principal one producing 40 bushels of corn and 10 bushels of wheat to the acre. Thomas J. Smith in 1895 married Perlemia Anderson, daughter of W.F. and Mary Anderson. Their children included Anderson T. who married Lois Roberts, Claude S. who married Julia Foster, Mary Estella who married Albert Hartman, Carl and Lloyd.
The other children of Capt. John W. Smith included Elizabeth who died in 1874 when she was 21, Anderson, James who married Savannah Davis, George, Joseph D. who married Mollie Priddy, and Sarah A. who married Lewis A. Carter.
James and Savannah Smith had William who married Lockie Blackburn, Thomas who married Lennie Climer, James Madison who married Nellie Lee, John who married Lillie May Scroggins, Clay who married Leola Medley, Mary who married Lem Lee, Samuel who married Irene Lee, Sally who married Jesse Roden, Elizabeth who married John Allen, Gertrude who married Jesse Harris, and Alice who married Thomas Jefferson Holder.
George Smith and his wife, Margaret, had Joseph H. who married Mamie Seaborn, William T. who married Margaret Forgey, Samuel who married Callie Davis, Lena who married Charles Holmes, Minnie who married Leonard Allen, Alger who married Annie McAmish, and Clifford who married Mary McCully.
Joseph Smith was a sheriff of James County. He and Mollie Smith had John A. who married Nina Davidson, Joseph H. who married Nellie Friddel, Thomas J. who married Annie Mae Combs, Ned R. who married Maude Murphy, Pearl who married J.L. Bailey, Muriel who married Thomas Simmons, Annie who married Roy Payne, and Charlotte who married William L. Johnson.
ANOTHER SHERIFF of James County was Robert K. Smith, who was born in 1839. He became sheriff in 1876. In 1865, he married Isabella Jane Yarnell. She apparently died about 1869 after having Zerelda and Aaron. Zerelda Smith, who was born in 1866, married Alfred Robert Monger in 1884. She died in 1942. The second wife of Robert K. Smith was Jane “Jennie.” Robert K. Smith died Jan. 13, 1882, and was buried at the Ooltewah Cemetery.
THOMAS B. and Dolly Smith were early settlers at Long Savannah near Ooltewah. Thomas was a native of North Carolina. Their children included James, Jessa, Isaac, Nancy, Martha, Austin and Thomas Jr. Thomas B. Smith was apparently related to Jessa and Nancy Smith, who also were early settlers here. Jessa Smith was born about 1780 in Virginia, and Nancy was born in North Carolina about 1792. Also living here were Jessa Smith Jr., who was born in North Carolina about 1810. His wife, Jane, was born in
North Carolina about 1815.
CALEB Smith, who was born in 1790 in South Carolina, was at Red Clay with his wife, Sarah, prior to the Civil War. Caleb Smith died in 1877 at age 87 and Sarah died in 1874 at age 70. They are buried at Apison.
ELIJAH Smith was in Hamilton County by the early 1830s. He married Nancy Sawyer, daughter of George Washington Sawyer. Their children included Eli, Mary, Elisha, Alexander and Elizabeth. After the death of Elijah Smith, Nancy married Martin Hartman in 1849. He had been married to her younger sister, Sarah, who died in 1847. Eli Smith was forced into the Confederate army and was killed at Chickamauga. Alexander Smith foraged for the Union along Walden's Ridge. Mary Smith in 1854 married J.C. Rogers, a son of George W. Rogers. She died in 1867. Nancy Sawyer Smith Hartman died the
next year.