Thomas H Smith was a....
Cheating, lying, horny toaded goat, mean, old man who ran off and left his first wife, Agnes Arnold Smith, with a bunch of kids to support by herself. He supposedly married a younger woman, but proof of the marriage has never been found. Oh, and he was my second Great Grandpa from my Mother's side.
Thomas and Agnes came from Missouri into Arkansas. They had ten children together.
1) Christoper Columbus Smith (1842-1898) married 1) Martha Nix, 2)
Martha Harger, and 3rd) Rachel McGraw. 16 children altogether.
2) Mary C Smith (1844-?) married James Marsh
3) Malinda Frances Smith (1845-?) married Abraham Eukley
4) Della Agnes Smith (1847-?)
5) Martha Jane Smith (1849-1921) married Zedoc Stutchman, 8 children.
6) Larkin Robert Smith (1851-1913) married 1) Margaret Ross, 2) Mary Chastian. 10 children altogether.
7) Charles B Smith (1852-?) married Sarah Fletcher
8) John Thomas Smith (1853-?) married Elizabeth Hobbs
9) Prudence Agnes Smith(1857-?)
10) David Elijah Smith (1859-1933) married 1) CJ Long, 2) Margaret McGill. 7 children with Margaret.
Larkin and John both were born in Missouri in 1852 and 1853 according to the 1860 census. Charles B was born in 1855 in Arkansas according to the Census record. I am not really sure which year is correct for Larkin, John and Charles (Charles was also called Black), but apparently, the family lived for three to four years in Missouri before moving to Arkansas.
David Elijah Smith who shows up as number ten on the list was my Great Grandfather and Margaret (Tenny) McGill was my Great Grandmother. David and CJ Long did not have any children.
On the 1870 census, Agnes is listed as head of household. On the 1880 census, Agnes' marital status is listed as widowed.
On the records for Thomas, people had listed his death date as 1860 and his death place as Arkansas. I guess it was because he was last listed in the census records in 1860 in Arkansas. In more recent years, his descendants have looked for his grave but, of course they never found one since the information they had to go on was false.
There have been some rumors about what may have happened to Thomas but, we didn't know if any of it was true or not. One of the rumors was that a couple of Agnes' brothers hunted him down and killed him for leaving Agnes and fooling around on her. Another rumor was that either a couple of her brothers or a couple of their sons hunted him down and found him living with an Indian woman. They tried to get him to come home and he refused.
In any case, it sounds like the family new that 'ole Thomas wasn't dead but waited for twenty years after he left before listing Agnes as a widow on the census records.
All of this time though, his descendants didn't know what had happened to him, until....
I matched up with a fourth cousin through my DNA on ancestry dot com. This fourth cousin claimed that her second Great Grandpa was Thomas Hilliary Smith but, this Thomas had a different wife. His wife's name was Minerva Catherine Buck Smith.
Apparently, Minerva was a widow who lived either in the same county as Thomas and Agnes or the county next to them. She had a couple of children from her previous marriage.
Here is a photo of Thomas H Smith with his second wife and several of their children. One thing we do know for sure about Thomas is that he was very prolific! He and Minerva had another nine kids.
Not only did my new fourth Smith cousin match my DNA but, she also matches with several other Smith cousins from Thomas H Smith's first Smith family. Oh Yes! We always need more Smiths don't we....Lol. Thomas sure did his part in supplying the world with Smiths. One thing we know is that DNA Does Not lie even though 'ole Thomas did.
Thomas told Agnes that he was born in 1820 and told Minerva that he was born in 1812. We know he died in 1897 in Cooke County, Texas and we know about where he is buried. I am tempted to dig him up and do some DNA testing on him but, I guess I will just have to be satisfied with DNA test results from his descendants.
I have heard stories from his second family of descendants that tell how mean he was, how he took what he wanted, but he could also be quite charming. Thomas was a Hell Raiser for sure!
If the research done by others is true, he came from a well to do, well respected military family that emigrated from England to Virginia in the 1600s.
One thing I can say about my Smiths is that they were a lively bunch! More to come on Thomas and other Smiths later.
As one might imagine with a name like Johnson, unless one has all documents in order for every person in the line, a family like this might be very difficult to trace with any accuracy.
We (meaning I and some other Johnson researchers) have been able to accurately trace back to Hartwell Johnson. Hartwell did leave a trail....he left a trail of eleven kids, then they left a ton of kids, and it went on and on and on.....
Hartwell Johnson was my 4th Great Grandfather. He was born in Virginia about 1782. There was some speculation that he was born in Surry, Virginia and was the son of Hartwell Johnson Sr. who resided there, but there is no concrete proof of that.
There was a Hartwell Johnson found on the tax records along with Coleman Johnson and William Johnson.
https://johnsoni2a.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/hartwell-johnson.pdf
Hartwell was recorded under several different names....Hardey, Hardaway, Hardin. The people recording the taxes seemed to have a very difficult time spelling his name.
Since Hartwell was listed with a Coleman and William had been listed alone for a few years, it is somewhat easy to surmise that William might possibly be the father of Hartwell and Coleman. However, I have not been able to prove that yet.
Hartwell's military records indicate that he was from Halifax, VA.
Hartwell married Liddie Shaw in North Carolina on January 6, 1807 according to his Military documentation.
About 1835, Hartwell moved his family to Missouri. This was a Historical and Descriptive Sketch of Polk County Missouri prepared for the Centennial Celebration on the Fourth of July, 1876 by A.C. Lemmon....about 3 years after Hartwell had passed away.
LOONEY TOWNSHIP Looney Township, named in honor of Benj. Looney, who settled there in
1833 and died in 1875, is bounded on the south by Marion on the east by
Mooney, west, Jackson, and on the south by the Greene county line, is 8 miles
square and contains 64 square miles; population in 1860- 1750, estimated at
present at 2,000; the soil upon the prairies and uplands has a red clay
foundation and produces well; the valleys and bottoms are quite rich. Wheat is
extensively grown. The principal streams are Dry and Little Sacs, Slagle and
Asher creeks; the growth of timber on these streams is white and shell-bak
hickory, black and white walnut, hackberry, linn, pawpaw, elm, red-bud, maple,
sycamore, ash and many species of oak. This township was about the first
settled part of the county. Among the earliest may be mentioned John Mooney
who settled near the present town of Brighton, Richard Saye, Samuel Asher,
John and David Ross; Aaron, Gideon and Nelson Ruyle, J. N. Sloan, John and
Benj. Looney, Jacob, Thomas and Smith Lemmon, Joseph Tuck, Pittman and Thomas
Woolard, W. W. McNight, James Faulkner, Charner DeGraffenreid, Nathaniel
Herndon, Daniel and Martin Harpool, Wm. Maxey, William Daly, Hartwell Johnson,
Wm. Winton, Hugh Boyd, Robert E. Acock, Abram and John Slagle and Abram Sears.
This township is well timbered and has many fine springs located in
Pleasant Prairie in a rich and healthful portion of the county. A more
extended description is given in another part of this sketch.
Brighton, on the Bolivar and Springfield road. twelve miles from the
former place, is a small town but has a considerable trade, and contains one
dry goods store, one drug store, post office, blacksmith shop, and one stream
saw mill.
West Bend, on Little Sac, has one dry goods store and one water mill.
Slagle Creek has one store and post office.
The second entry of land made in the county was located in this township
in the year 1837.
There were several settlers here before the Indians retired. They
required rent of the whites and soon became quite troublesome, and made
threats which alarmed the settlers. The danger became so alarming that the
whites assembled together and selected one of the number, J. N. Sloan to visit
and petition the Governor for relief. He immediately mounted his horse and
rode to St. Louis, consulted with His Excellency, and returned with gratifying
assurances of protection. After this the Indians became more quiet, and
remained friendly until their removal. These early pioneers were remarkable
for generosity and hospitality, and were always ready and willing to lend
assistance to a neighbor when he needed it. When a newcomers house was to be
built, or, his land to be cleared, or a friends corn to be husked, his
neighbors for miles around gathered to assist him and soon made quick work of
it.
Mrs. Marth Smith, near Brighton, widow of the late J. H. M. Smith, is
said to have woven the first piece of cloth in the county in 1830.
MILITARY Of the veterans of 1812, but few are now living in our midst. They have
nearly all passed away. Of the living, we are able to name the following, all
of whom have attained to advanced ages, to-wit: John Burns, Evan Stewart, John
Jump, Allen Bridges, Rev. Jas. Kennon, Phillip Watkins, Mattias Chilton and
Samuel Sherwood--numbering in all 8 pensioners. One of them, Hartwell Johnson died near Morrisville a few years since, in the 91st year of his age. For
several years previous to his death his strength, memory and sight were greatly impaired. Alexander Blair and David Hunter died in 1874, which Henry
Potts lived to witness the dawn of the Centennial year.
In order to trace our Johnson line more accurately and in an effort to trace it further back, my first cousin, John Johnson donated his Y-dna to the Johnson surname project. John matched up with a small group of other Johnsons that also had paper trails that led to Virginia. It is very possible that we all descend from Henry Johnson who was born in Old Rappahannock County, Virginia about 1664-70. We are hoping other Johnson men participate in the project and end up in our group with documentation that will help to tie up loose ends.
