Person:Charles Smith (99)

Born the last child of David Smith and wife Hannah neé Ames on the family farm, he was christened Charles Theodore and usually known by that full name or as Charles T.

His father died when he was nine, and his mother when he was 10 years old. Despite a wish expressed in her will about his guardianship, he went to live with Andrew Smith on Andrew's farm. Andrew later moved to and settled near Butler, Indiana. As it turns out, Andrew was either his eldest half-brother or brother, but for a very long time the relationship was unclear.

By 1860 he was no longer living with Andrew and had moved to southern Michigan. It was there in Hillsdale, Michigan in July of 1861 that he volunteered for the 2nd Michigan Cavalry, with which regiment he fought the entire Civil War, part of it as a commissary sergeant. The regiment trained at "Camp Anderson" in Michigan and fought mostly in the western theater. Some of the battles they (and he) took part in included the Siege of Corinth (Mississippi) May 10th to 30th 1862 and Chicamauga (Georgia) 19 - 20 September 1863, though the regiment was deployed throughout the war with many engagements, primarily in Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. His regiment was mustered out in August of 1865 in Macon, Georgia.

He returned to Hillsdale, Michigan and there, on the 1st of January 1868 he married Josephine Rebecca Phelan, a young Irishwoman. They returned to be near his natal home in Bellevue, Ohio, where he worked as a carpenter and millwright and where she worked as a dressmaker. Their first child, Frank, died there, and they had four children altogether.

Charles and Josephine divorced in Norwalk, Ohio, 22 Dec 1891. On the 29th of December 1891 Charles married divorcee Eva Victoria Furlong (maiden name Lafran). He and Eva had triplet babies, apparently stillborn (according to his obituary). They moved about a bit in Ohio before, in 1915, returning to the Andrew Smith family farm (Andrew having died and left it to his son Andrew Manford Smith) near Butler, Indiana where Charles, increasingly frail and ailing, died in 1921.

He was a member of the United Brethren Church as was his elder (half?) brother Andrew and other members of the family, which suggests that there was a long association between the Smith family and the United Brethren.

1.   Http://members.aol.com/craffe1486/index7.html
   13 Oct 2007.

   Web site devoted to the Second Michigan Cavalry

2.   1910 Census OH Lucas Co Toledo
   ED112 p4B-5A, 20 Apr 1910.

   Head, owner of home, second marriage duration 19 years (wife's second marriage also), lodger living with them

3.   1920 Census IN De Kalb Co Wilmington Twp
   ED115 p1A, 3 Jan 1920.

   uncle of head of household (A. Murray Smith), no occupation

4.   1900 Census IN Howard Co Liberty Twp
   ED69 p3A, 2 Jun 1900.

   married, boarding (with wife) at home of Deffinhaller