Person:Jesse Smith (53)

"Mrs. Ella Hays--- Lister, nee Harvey, is again in Elwood, after an absence of several years. She is the woman who created considerable furor in 1886 and 1887 by eloping with Jesse Smith, a prominent farmer residing south of Elwood, and two miles west of Frankton. They went to California, where it is supposed they have since resided. She was the mother of Sadie Lister, who died here last winter. It is supposed that she came back to settle up Sadie's affairs."

"United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXX5-QV5 : 17 October 2014), Jesse Smith, Indiana, United States; citing p. 47, family 334, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 545,818.

"I Ransom Smith, of the County of Clinton and State of Missouri, of the age of sixty-eight being of sound mind and memory do make, publish and declare this is my last will and testament in manner following, that is to say: I give, devise and bequeath all my property personal and real situated in the Town of Turney and the State of Missouri to my wife Nancy Smith and my two children Eddy Smith and Harriet Electa Smith to be used for the special purpose of educating my two children above named and do hereby appoint my wife Nancy Smith, executrix of said property. Second, I give and bequeath Twenty-five Dollars yet due on my subscriptions to the M.E. Society of Turney, Missouri. Third, I give, devise and bequeath one third of all the remainder of my property to my said wife to be received and accepted by her in lieu of her dower and the remaining two thirds to be divided as follows to wit: One Dollar to my son John L. Smith, one Dollar to my son Ransom J. Smith and one Dollar to my son Jesse Smith. All the remaining property to be equally divided between my three daughters now living, Martha A., Lavisa and Mary and the children of my daughter Rosana, deceased. I hereby appoint my wife Nancy Smith sole executrix of this, my last will and testament."

Jesse was born in 1834 on an Ohio farm after his two older sisters, Martha and Rosanna. The family enjoyed the love and support of his grandparents until a breeze out of the West captured the imagination of his young parents. They became convinced that their future was on the western frontier...Indiana. Even in the early 1800's, there were sobering clashes with the resident Indian tribes all across the Northwest Territories. His grandparents were very concerned as Rebecca and Ransom loaded the wagons.
The epic four-wagon/four week trek from Ohio, down the Cumberland Trail to Indianapolis Town is described in father Ransom's notes. One wonders if the travelers took the Burlington Pike to visit his brothers near Smithfield in Delaware County. That would have provided a welcome break to rest the oxen and repair the wagons before the final push to Brown County.

Establishing a farm in that county was an extreme challenge. The topography is rolling moraine formed by retreating glaciers. After battling the rocky hills for a year, Ransom yielded to the siren call of rich, flat, bottomland in the newly settled Hamilton County to the north. The family again packed up the wagons and left their cabin for the country they would finally call home. In 1842, when Jesse and his siblings arrived in White River Township, the area was fast becoming a collection of settler villages.
Ancient Delaware (Lenape), Miami (Twatwa) and Pottawatomi Tribes were pressured to leave their eastern lands and some have lived for untold generations in the White River drainage. As they moved into the area they found ceremonial earth mounds built by the mysterious Adena/Hopewell culture near present day Anderson (named for Chief Anderson). At the beginning of the 1800's, these indigenous Indian tribes occupied the White River (Wapihani) Territory from Munsee Town to Strawtown, (named for Chief Straw). As the cultural tsunami of settlers swept westward, the native peoples were unable to hold on to their lands, finally ceding them in the 1818 Treaty at St. Mary, Ohio. In 1820 the first white man (Henry Shatterly) was born in the area. Possibly the great emigration of devastating squirrels that moved through the country in 1826 caused Zenas Beckwith to build the first brick house in Perkinsville the following year. In just a few years the 1830 Hamilton County settler population stood at 1,705. At the time father Ransom brought the family north to the Duck Creek Settlement, they would have traveled on the Indianapolis- Ft. Wayne road, built on the existing Indian trail shadowing the White River.
As Jesse entered his ninth year, he was doing the work of a young man next to his father. He couldn't know then, but the land they settled on bordered his future father in law, John Harvey. They worked hard to wrench the fields from the grip of the forest. Over and over Ransom would lead the oxen by a tree stump where young Jesse waited to thread a chain through the roots and back to the clevis. The crack of a whip would signal the oxen to throw their weight into the yoke until the stump loosed its grip. Despite the summer heat brush fires were kept burning, fed by the children. In the evenings there were animals to feed and the essential garden to water. There was a high probability the family home was log construction since there wasn't a sawmill active in the area.

During his first decade Jesse's education was catch as catch can. But in the fall of 1845, Jabez Brown had built a school on John Harvey land, called The Ironwood Seminary. This is the same school that sister Lavisa would later teach in. Along about 1870 the Society of Friends began holding their meetings in the building as well as Rev. Charles Harvey and the first Methodist meeting in 1882. During the winter months there would be school for Jesse and perhaps a couple of traps to earn some money and add meat to mother Rebecca's stew pot. Socializing was mainly enjoyed through church activities and that was probably the way Rachel Harvey caught Jesse's eye. There were also trips to the big towns of Perkinsville and Strawtown. The ladies could buy essentials with eggs, the men could keep in touch with neighbors and boys could sell furs.

Malinda and John Harvey emigrated from the Friends community outside Centerville, Wayne County. They were pillars of the local Monthly Meeting near Aroma, and so they were distressed to hear daughter Rachel declare her intent to marry the outsider, Jesse Smith. Never the less the wedding went ahead probably with a Methodist Episcopal circuit preacher presiding. Since Rachel chose to marry outside her faith, she was shunned from her monthly meeting.

As they settled into married life they experienced the hard work of farming with stock animals and the crushing sorrow of losing three babies and his mother. They farmed on what is now called "the Naden place" at the north end of Haworth Road and White River Township. As the family grew, Jesse bought land on Duck Creek road, within sight of the Aroma M.E. Church. It was here that Fernando and Henry helped their father build a solid house that still stands today. Alice, Lindy and Rosey learned the homemaking skills that were such an integral part of successful farm life. While the men bent their backs to the work of farming and construction, it was the women that provided virtually everything else to live, including moral and spiritual example.

Despite the family's apparent success and the support of the nearby church, Jesse went astray. For reasons known only to them, he walked away from farm and family to move to California with one Ella (Harvey) Lister in 1887. The shock waves of that development rippled through the community, even as far as The Frankton Leader newspaper which described Ella as, "the woman who created considerable furor... by eloping with Jesse Smith."

That MAY have been Ella Lister b:1856 from Wayne County, Indiana. He was 52 at the time. The farming community rallied around Rachel and her family, even creating a smoke screen story that he never returned from a trip to sell hogs. He was presumed dead, which, in effect he was. Sons Fernando and Henry stepped forward to provide long term care for their mother. Pictures (tin types) of a mature Rachel show a woman with sadness deeply etched into her face. She had kept her half of the bargain, why hadn't he?

Copyright by J.P. Smith, 8/2005.