Preamble: Both the US Census Bureau and Ancestry.com identify the name “Smith” as the most common surname in the United States, and really common surnames such as Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Garcia, MIller, Davis, Rodriguez, and Martinez (identified by the Census Bureau as the ten most common surnames in the US) can play havoc with family tree researchers. Coming upon a “Smith” or one of those other extremely common names in research often signals an end to that line of inquiry, or at the very least, a complicated road ahead.
Several years ago I came across a cache of information on fifty-three descendants of a SMITH sibling group of six. Those descendants were involved in a court battle over the estate of the seventh member of the sibling group who had recently died and at the time of his death had been the last survivor of the sibling group.
That man, William C. SMITH of Newton County, Missouri, had passed away in 1920, a widower who had fathered no children of his own. A couple of years before his death, William C. SMITH visited with an attorney and drew up a will in which he left his entire estate - including cash and land in Missouri as well as land in Oklahoma - to the fifty-three heirs of his six siblings. Upon William’s death on February 8, 1920, six of the inheritors went to court in an effort to partition the remaining forty-seven out of their share of the inheritance.
William C. SMITH was my great-great-granduncle.
My great-grandmother, Nancy Anthaline (SCARBROUGH) ROARK was a niece of William C. SMITH who had grown up in his household. Nancy was also a member of the unhappy six heirs to William’s estate, and her name was always listed first in the newspaper legal notices regarding the legal action, giving the impression that she may have been the ringleader in the effort to disenfranchise the other forty-seven inheritors.
As I reviewed this matter, the thought struck me that I had a remarkable amount of genealogical information on a large SMITH family, and I resolved to explore the family as far as I could and then place all of that information in the public record where it could hopefully assist a future researchers who encounter a SMITH in their family tree.
I began by looking backward to try and learn as much about the original SMITH sibling group as I could. The siblings were (from oldest to youngest, as identified by William C. SMITH in his will and other subsequent sources): Mary Jane SMITH; Sarah “Sallie” Ann SMITH; John. A. SMITH; Andrew Jackson SMITH; William C. SMITH; Elizabeth M. SMITH; and Martha Parthena F. SMITH.
Being armed with their names, I next turned to the 1850 census, the first to list every family member by name, and was able to locate the family in the South Division of Smith County in north-central Tennessee. (There is nothing in the historical record to show that this family had any connection to Revolutionary War veteran, Daniel SMITH, for whom the county was named when it was formed in 1799.)
The family whom I was researching had ten members listed in the 1850 census. They were all named SMITH and included: Catherine (age 40, born in Kentucky); Elizabeth (37, KY); Mary (22, TN); John (17, TN); Andrew (14, TN); William (11, TN); Elizabeth (9, TN); Martha (6, TN); James (1, TN); and Elizabeth (1, TN). Clearly the six in the middle - Mary, John, Andrew, William, Elizabeth, and Martha - were the siblings I was seeking, with only the second oldest, Sarah “Sallie” Ann missing. The missing daughter was located in the preceding census entry as the spouse of Timothy W. HANKINS, along with their one-year-old son, William, as well as Timothy’s brother, John, and his wife, Mary. (The property for both families appeared to be a single parcel worth $350 and owned by Catherine SMITH.)
That 1850 census entry for the SMITH family in the South District of Smith County, Tennessee, left several questions unanswered. First, there were no males listed who could have been the father of the older siblings. Of the two women listed who were age appropriate to have been the mother, Catharine and Elizabeth, there was no way to definitively recognize either as the parent. Catherine was the most likely candidate because she was listed first on the entry, the place generally given to the “head of household,” and she was the only one indicated to have been a property owner.
The relationship of the two older ladies to each other is also unclear. They could have been sisters, sisters-in-law, cousins, or no relation whatsoever.
There is an obvious question as to the relationship of the two youngest children, the one-year-olds, to the rest of the children. The fact that they were listed as being the same age might suggest that they were twins, or perhaps cousins with one belonging to Catherine and one to Elizabeth - or perhaps even one to Mary Jane. It is unlikely, however, that the baby Elizabeth and the nine-year-old Elizabeth, having the same given name, would have both been born to the same mother. A sample scenario could be that Catharine was the mother of the seven older siblings and that she named her daughter, the older Elizabeth, for the adult female Elizabeth, and then when the adult Elizabeth had a daughter of her own, she also chose that name, perhaps to honor her mother or some other relative named Elizabeth.
The baby, Elizabeth, had disappeared from the family by the time of the 1860 census, likely due to a childhood death, but the baby, James, was still with the family in 1860 and listed as James W. SMITH, aged 10 and born in Tennessee. He was also still a part of the family in 1870 when he and William HANKINS (Sallie’s son) were listed as farm laborers in the home of Elizabeth (SMITH) BOYD, who was William’s aunt and possibly James’ sister. James W. SMITH disappeared from the public record after 1870, so even if he had been a sibling to the older group of SMITH’s, if he died childless at a young age, he would not have figured into the estate of William C. SMITH.
The 1860 census found the bulk of the family living in McDonald Township, Jasper County, Missouri. (McDonald Township was created from Sarcoxie Township on July 18, 1854, and today it is considered an "inactive" township.). The first name listed in Dwelling # 367 and Family # 352, was that of Louisa C. SMITH (Louisa Catherine ?), age 50 and born in Kentucky. The final name listed of the seven individuals in that household was Elizabeth LUCAS, age 46, TN, who was likely the Elizabeth SMITH who was in the Smith County, Tennessee household in 1850, although that census listed her place of birth as Kentucky. Elizabeth might have married a Mr. LUCAS between the 1850 and 1860 censuses, but agiain there were no males in the 1860 household entry who could have been husbands to Louisa C. SMITH or Elizabeth LUCAS.
The other five members of that household in Missouri were all named “SMITH.” They were: John A. (28, NC*); Andrew J. (23, TN); William C. (20, TN); Perthinia F. (15, TN); and, James W. (10, TN). (John A.’s state of birth had been listed as “Tennessee” on the 1850 census, so the North Carolina listing on the 1860 census might be an important clue as to the family’s place of origin.)
Sarah “Sallie” Ann (SMITH) HANKINS, the second oldest daughter, had been married and out of the primary household when the 1850 census was taken - although living next door on what appeared to be the same parcel of property. By the time of the 1860 census, Sarah and Timothy were also in McDonald Township, Jasper County, Missouri, and still living in close proximity to Catherine’s household and her younger siblings. But by 1860 Mary Jane, the oldest daughter, and Elizabeth, the third oldest daughter, were also out of the SMITH home.
Mary Jane SMITH had married James Mayberry SCARBROUGH in Logan County, Kentucky, on August 7, 1856, and by the time of the 1860 census she and James and two young daughters were living in Sarcoxie Township of Jasper County, Missouri, near where the bulk of the SMITH family was residing in McDonald Township. Elizabeth SMITH had married a Missouri native, David Wilson BOYD, shortly after her family arrived in Missouri in 1856 or 1857. So far it has not been determined where Elizabeth and David and their very young daughter or daughters were living at the time of the 1860 census.
(Part II of “One Smith Family” will profile the seven, or possibly eight, original SMITH siblings in greater detail.)
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