Person:John Smith (1083)

Notes

From Genforum.com Message Board:

"John Smith, born June 25, 1764, in Halifax county, Virginia, was married twice; first, in 1785, to Mary Byrd, who was born October, 1764, in Virginia. He immediately emigrated to Kentucky in company with the famous pioneer, Daniel Boone, to whom they were nearly related. He settled, first, in Lincoln county, near Crab Orchard Springs, remaining there until 1789, when he moved up into Madison county and settled near Richmond. Here his wife died on April 4, 1794, survived by her husband and five children. He was married, second, to Anna - —, who was born May 10, 1774, in Botetourt county, Virginia. They settled in Pulaski county, Kentucky, in 1798 and lived there until 1808, when he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas; and there I lost track of him. (It is said that he died in 1821. T. B. S.) My father, Berry Smith, and his brother, Byrd Smith, refused to go to Arkansas because they did not like their stepmother."

Issue Of John Smith And His First Wife, Mary Byrd:

I Anna Smith, born March 19, 1786, in Lincoln county, Kentucky.

II Elizabeth Smith, born January 27, 1788, in Lincoln county, Kentucky.

III Byrd Smith, born May 12, 1790, on a farm near Richmond, in Madison county, Kentucky. He declined to go with the family to Arkansas in 1808, but remained in Kentucky. He was then about eighteen years old. He was apprenticed and learned the tanner's trade which he followed for many years. He was a volunteer soldier in the War of 1812 and came near being in the massacre at River Raisin. It so happened that at that time he was detained in a hospital by sickness. The war over, he returned home and after a few years went to Halifax county, Virginia, and engaged in tanning and farming. He was married on June 17, 1818, to Sarah Hatcher Woodson of Cumberland county, the ceremony being performed by Rev. John Watkins. They settled at Danville, in Pittsylvania county, where he established his tanyard and also engaged in farming. He had no schooling: could neither read nor write until his wife taught him. They were both ardent members of the Baptist Church. He was a man of most untiring energy, quiet in manner, not easily provoked. She was—well, she was a Woodson.

Broken up by the payment of security debts, they migrated about 1845 to Missouri, whither some of their children had already gone. From then until their death they lived alternately with their children in Missouri and Virginia, and had no permanent abiding place. Both died at the residence of their son-in-law, Rev. Carr W. Pritchett, in Glasgow, Missouri; she on November 5, 1867, and he on February 12, 1872, and are buried side by side in the cemetery at Fayette, Howard county, Missouri." (This sketch by T. Berry Smith.)

IV Berry Smith, born January 12, 1792, on the farm near Richmond, Madison county, Kentucky; went with the family to Pulaski county in 1798, but declined to go with them to Arkansas, in 1808, because of his dislike of his stepmother. He remained in Kentucky and grew to be a man of energy and great industry. He dealt extensively in horses and mules which he sold in Virginia and in the southern states. While on one of his trips to Virginia he met and married Lucy Mahala Johnson, aged thirteen years, born in Amelia, but at that time living in Cumberland county. He was frequently elected to the legislature and senate of Kentucky, the last time in 1851. His son, Berry Smith, born February 20, 1842, was living in 1900 at Somerset, Kentucky. He is the writer of the above sketch.

V Susanna Smith, born March 5, 1794, near Richmond in Madison county, Kentucky, was married to John Burk and settled in Indiana.

Issue Of John Smith By Second Wife, Anna:

VI Willis C. Smith

VII Polly Archer Smith

VIII Rebecca Chrisman Smith

IX Washington Smith

X Mary Walker Smith

XI John English Smith

XII Green Lee Smith

XIII Madison Smith

XIV Amanda Fox Smith

[Source: http://genforum.genealogy.com/smith/messages/64958.html].

1. ↑ Frost, Earl C. (Earl Clarence), and May M. (May Miller) Frost. DeJarnette and allied families in America (1699-1954). (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1973).

   John D. Smith was born in Halifax County, Va., June 25th, 1764.
   
   Served as a private in Capt. John Morton's Company of Prince Edward County Militia 1781. He went to Kentucky in 1784 and on May 9th, 1785, married Mary English, daughter of Charles English (License in Lincoln County Records).
   
   Five children, among them Byrd, born May 12th, 1790.