Person:Margaret Sperry (1)

Victoria Sperry Smith was a midwife and herbalist. She must have been a good one too, because none of her children died as infants. Only one died young, while the rest lived to be quite old. Her daughter Sarah, who lived to age 102, claimed that Victoria hadn't lost a single baby. All of Sarah's children survived birth and made it to adulthood with Victoria's help. This is amazing considering how many children died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. Sarah, and all of her children, were sick in that epidemic but Victoria supplied the herbs and remedies for Gilbert to apply and the family survived. Midwives were a necessity in the more remote regions of the mountains, where doctors were scarce and costly. Many midwives had no formal training, but rather "learned on the job" while helping doctors or other midwives deliver babies. In the 1850's, one of the midwives mentioned in Lawrence County birth records was a Lydia Sperry, who was probably Lydia Houser married to one of Victoria's great-great-uncles. This leads me to believe Victoria's skills were passed down through generations of mothers in her family. In order to have her kind of success rate, she must have understood the importance of clean linens and using the stoves for sterlization of towels and scissors.

One funny thing stuck in Joe Hager's memory from his childhood. He said, "Ma Smith's heels would bounce while she was praying." Anita Smith Newsham relates this story from her father William, "He loved Grandma Victoria's cornbread. He said it was the best cornbread he has ever tasted and when he would visit her he would always ask her for some."

Victoria was only three when her father, Joseph Rudolph Sperry, died in the Civil War. He, and three of his brothers, supported the Union and enlisted with the 14th Kentucky Infantry. He died early in the war from disease while guarding army supplies in Paintsville. His brother Milton died seven days later. The other two Sperry brothers survived, although James Sperry, who had been promoted to the rank of Captain, was wounded after a minie ball grazed his head in a fierce battle for control of the Cumberland Gap in Tazewell, Tennessee.

Four of Victoria's uncles from her mother's Lambert side of the family also enlisted in the 14th Kentucky Infantry. One of them, Abner Lambert, was killed early in the war in 1862.

1. ↑ David May, compiler, 1860 Births, Lawrence County, Ky (http:/ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/lawrence/vitals/births/b1860.txt: Unpublished,).
2. ↑ West Virginia Vital Research Records
   "Mrs. Victoria Smith".
3. ↑ Charles E. Shelton Jr., Charlie Shelton Jr. online (http:/wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi question op=SHOW&db=:2837985), accessed July 2006.
4. ↑ West Virginia Vital Research Records
   "Mrs. Victoria Smith".