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John Smith Captured by Indians |
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Forward The Captured-by-Indians story is an old Smith Family
legend. I remember my grandfather,
George Edward Smith (1867-1941), telling me more than 60 years ago when I was
a child in I have never been able to verify this story or find
out more about this John Smith; never that is, until September 1998. In response
to a query on Owen Brown Smith, my great-grandfather, placed in the September
1998 Stark County Illinois Genealogical Society Quarterly, I received
a letter from Donna Stutler Boardman of So about two weeks later my sister, Judith Smith Chelin, and I drove to John A. House was a circuit preacher and school
teacher living in the Ripley area at the beginning of the twentieth
century. During his circuit of rural
churches he enjoyed listening to old timers tell stories of the pioneer days
in the western part of The
following history of John Smith and some of his descendants is work in
progress. Rather than delay telling
you about these early 1800s pioneers in John Smith John
Smith did not know who his parents were, where he was born, nor when. For John was captured by Indians when
young and after returning to white environs, knew none of these things nor
his white name. It has been said that
he was adopted by a man named Smith and so took the name John Smith.[1] On the early American frontier life was most always
under threat of Indian attacks or raids.
Some times were worse than others.
Particularly dangerous for frontier settlers in western regions of the
colonies was the French and Indian War from 1754 to 1764. After the Treaty of Bouquet in 1764, the
frontier was relatively quiet until 1774.
However as part of the treaty, all American were directed to remove
themselves from the western watersheds and remain east of the It was unusual that John Smith was spared when
captured by Indians as a small child.
However family tradition says the he "was so beautiful and
attractive that the captors spared his life and he was adopted by one of the
braves, and brought up as an Indian, becoming inured to all the hardships and
privations of savage life and warfare.
After remaining several years with the Indians, the lad was brought
back to the settlements to be delivered up to is friends, according to the
provisions of a treaty which had been made with the tribe with which he was
living, whether after Bouquet's Expedition, or the Treaty of Greenville, or
at the close of some other campaign, is not known...... He was adopted by a man named Smith and
given the name John Smith."[2] Based on his being born in 1775-1778,[3] John was possibly captured in the
Pittsburgh-Wheeling area in 1780-1783.
When he was adopted, he was probably under eighteen, therefore his
return would be before 1793-1796. He
may have been returned after the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 or sometime
before. So it appears that John Smith
may have spent 13 to 16 years with Indians. It was said that John Smith married Rebecca
Thompson.[4]
Marriage records of Some called John Smith part Indian because he had a
peculiar stealthy tread and wary vigilance of the red man, but his
descendants deny this, claiming he was captured when a little child by
Indians.[6] About 1800 John Smith probably was living in or near
The The soil is mostly fertile, and was
very heavily timbered with varieties common to the section. The bottom lands and north and east
hillsides and coves were a rich red clay or black sandy loam. The south and west slopes and flatlands on
top of the ridges were a lighter soil.
Running into pale or white clays and soapstone, and the northern
branch reaches well up into the limestone region. The timber on the bottoms was mainly white
oak, red oak poplar, sycamore, buckeye, black, and white walnut, elm, water,
red, and slippery; and beech and sugar maple everywhere. Higher up on the rich hill sides was more
oak, white, black and red; white and black ash; shellbark and other
hickories; mulberry, sassafras, red maple. When the Smith family
arrived in the valley of the Right Reedy in 1808 there were only a few other
settlers. The Jonathan Sheppard family
had settled there two years earlier, and the next year came the families of John
Conrad and John Hartley. The Smiths
settled on the first right hand branch of Thorns Run, in pioneer days called
Smiths Run. This is now in John Smith had six children¾John V. born 1802, Diana born 1805, Harriet,
Jonathan Sheppard born 1811, James E. born 1812, and Rebecca. We will hear more about them later. The first sermon on the Right Reedy was preached in
the house of John Smith in 1813 and meetings of the Methodist Episcopal
Church held there for five years. John
was among the first members of the Pisgah M. E. Church. As early as 1818 there was a local school,
a hut just above where the In 1838 John Smith sold his farm to a Thorne.[11] In the 1850 Census he was living with his
daughter-in-law Maria Sellers Smith and her children. His age was given as 75, born in The will of John Smith was signed John V. Smith The first son of John Smith was John V. Smith, born
in 1801 in The first wife of John V. Smith was a Hardman. They had one child, William L., born in
1825, who married Eliza Carder in 1854 and moved to After his first wife died, John V. Smith married Elizann Hartley, the daughter of John Hartley and Mollie
Roy. They had nine children. The first was Sheppard Foley Smith, born in
1827. Shep
married Elizabeth Gee; he died in 1895 and she in 1920, both in West Jersey,
Illinois. The second child of John V. and Elizann
was Margaret, born in 1829 who married Robert Manley Stutler
in 1849. During the Civil War, Manley
was a private in Captain James Crawford's Company, 14th Virginia
Calvary. He died in the War at Their third child was James E. Smith, born 1830; not
to be confused with his uncle James E. Smith, whom we will discuss
later. This James E. married Caroline
Winkler in 1850. The 1850 Census shows
them living next to Caroline's parents in Their fourth was Owen Brown Smith, my
great-grandfather, born in 1832.
Brown, as he was enumerated in the 1850 Census, married Margaret Jane
Mills in 1853. She was the daughter of
William and Rachel Mills. They lived
for many years in John Hartley Smith, their fifth child, was born in
1834, and went to The third wife of John V. Smith was Elizabeth
Carder, whom he married in 1845. They
had three children Amanda, born 1847, George W., born 1848, and Henrietta,
born 1853. I have no information on
the girls, but George married three times, first to Nancy Hearn, then Mary
Ann Thompson, and in 1869 Susan M. Barnett.
He died in 1921 in John V. Smith died in 1862 and is said to be buried
in the Diana Smith The second child of John Smith was Diana, born in Artimica was born in 1825 and married George A. Winkler in
1849. The 1850 Census shows them
living next to her parents house in Harriet Smith The only thing known about Harriet is that she
married Elijah Runyan in 1833. Jonathan
Sheppard Smith Jonathan was born in 1811 and married Maria
Sellers. They had three children¾Drusilla born 1836 in The 1850 Census shows John Smith living with his
daughter-in-law Maria and her three children.
His will, written two weeks before he died, left everything to Maria
after paying his burial expenses and giving one dollar a piece to his five
living children. This probably was for
Maria's loving care of him in his declining years. James E.
Smith Jim Smith was born in 1812 and married Sudner Roy, daughter of William Roy and Sarah Full, in
1832. They had three children ¾Jonathan Sheppard born 1835, Diana born 1838, and
Rebecca born 1842. Jonathan married a
daughter of Phillip Rohr and they lived on Gardner Run of Little Creek and he
ran a small corn mill. Rebecca died at
Reedy about 1863.[18] After his first wife died, Jim married Sudner (Sedora) Conrad. Sudner was the daughter of Peter Conrad and Phebe Hartley William Roy and a Full. Jim and Sudner had three children¾Cansada born 1850, James M. born 1852, and Kelly Peter born
1856. The 1860 Census for Jackson County shows James E. Smith age 48 a
carpenter, his wife Sedora 28, Jonathan S. 25 farm laborer,
Diana 22 teacher, Rebecca 18 teacher, Cansada 10,
James M. 8, and P. K. 4; James had no real property and $50 of personal
property.[19] Jim was a member of the Southern Methodist Church, a
local preacher, and fine singer. He
sometimes taught classes in singing.
He lived several different places on Reedy and The Civil War has harsh on those living in western The Smith family was no different than many of the
area. James E. Smith was a Captain in
the Virginia State Rangers, Manley Stutler, his
brother-in-law, was a private in the 14th Virginia Calvary, and a son of John
V. Smith, William L., was in an Illinois Union regiment. All died during the
course of the War. The death of Jim
Smith was particularly poignant. The Virginia State Rangers, called the Moccasin
Guerrillas by the North, were authorized by an act of the Virginia
Assembly. Composed of men whose homes
were in the western counties, their purpose was to operate against Union
forces in their area. There are few
records of these units that reflect well on their activities. A Confederate general, Henry Heth, while active in But Jim Smith gained much notoriety as the man who
shot Boone during the siege of Spencer.
During August 1861 Confederate guerrillas were terrorizing Union
sympathizers throughout the area. The
Union militia, with modern weapons, was located at Spencer, the In December 1861 thirty-five Moccasin Rangers were
taken prisoners in What drove Jim Smith to War? He was forty-nine years of age when it
started; surely a man of his age was not needed. What deprivations he and his family must
have endured for two years as a hunted man in his homeland. In June 1863 Jim Smith was cornered by a
detachment of Militia at Israel Nesselrode's on
Little Sandy, and was killed while attempting to escape.[25] He is buried in an unmarked grave in Nesselroad Cemetery, as is his wife This cemetery is located on Meat House Fork
Road, one mile off Little Sandy Road, four miles northeast of Ravenswood. Rebecca Smith Rebecca "Betsey" Smith like her brother
Jim, was a fine singer. She died young having never married.[26] She was not mentioned in her father's 1858
will, and probably died well before then. Given Names In the early nineteenth century many children were
named for relatives or good friends.
Frequently boys were given surnames of their mother or of uncles or
aunts. John Smith named his second
son, born in 1811, after his good friend and fellow early pioneer Jonathan
Sheppard, Jonathan Sheppard Smith. It appears that John V. Smith named several of his
thirteen children after friends and neighbors. His son Sheppard Foley Smith, born 1823,
was named after two of them. The
Sheppard perhaps for Henry Sheppard who married John V.'s sister Diana; and
Foley for a unknown neighbor Foley.
Incidentally, this Foley must have been relatively wealthy; the 1810
Census shows neighbor Mary Foley, head of household, with two children, two
other adults, and nine slaves. Owen
Brown, born 1832, was named his paternal grandmother Phoebe Brown. The named continued with Owen's grandson Milton Brown Smith, born 1898. John Hartley, born 1834, was named for his
grandfather John Hartley, who probably not coincidentally had deeded John V.
much property in June 1834. Many descendants of John V. Smith lived in William L. Smith, the first son of John V. Smith,
came to Sheppard Foley Smith first went to Margaret Smith came to Owen Brown Smith married Margaret Jane Mills in Susan Elizabeth Smith married George Ables, a steam boat engineer, in 1860 in Syracuse, Meigs County, Ohio, and after her husband died, she move
with her children to West Jersey in 1873.
She was visiting her daughter in Galva when she died in 1910. George W. Smith, his wife Susan Barnett, and
children moved from [1] Pioneers in Roane County, West Virginia, John A. House, 1906; pages 15-17. [1] Ibid. [1] The 1850 Census says John Smith was then 75 years old, while his gravestone says he was 80 when he died in 1858. [1] 1850
Census of [1] A History of the Evans and Smith Families, Maude Irene Evans, unpublished, 1954, page 13. [1] Oral history told me by my grandfather, George Edward Smith, in about 1938. [1] Some Early City, Village and County Burying Grounds, John A. House, 1907, page 74. [1]Excerpts From the Christian Observer and The Central Methodist, Sherri Pettit, Boyd County Kentucky Library, 1998, page 30. [1] Pioneers in Roane County, West Virginia, John A. House, 1906; page 58. [1] Ibid., pages1-2. [1] Ibid., page 12. [1] Some Early City, Village and County Burying Grounds, John A. House, 1905, page 80. [1] Pioneers
in [1] Pioneers
in [1] Ibid., page 267. [1]Pioneers in Roane County West Virginia, John A. House, 1906, page 16. [1] Ibid. |
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[1] Pioneers in Roane County, West Virginia, John A. House, 1906; pages 15-17.
[2] Ibid.
[3] The 1850 Census says John Smith was then 75 years old, while his gravestone says he was 80 when he died in 1858.
[4] 1850
Census of
[5] A History of the Evans and Smith Families, Maude Irene Evans, unpublished, 1954, page 13.
[6] Some Early City, Village and County Burying Grounds, John A. House, 1907, page 74.
[7]Excerpts From the Christian Observer and The Central Methodist, Sherri Pettit, Boyd County Kentucky Library, 1998, page 30.
[8] Pioneers in Roane County, West Virginia, John A. House, 1906; page 58.
[9] Ibid., page 12.
[10] Some Early City, Village and County Burying Grounds, John A. House, 1905, page 80.
[11] Pioneers
in
[12] Pioneers
in
[13] Ibid., page 267.
[14]Pioneers in Roane County West Virginia, John A. House, 1906, page 16.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Excerpts From the Christian Observer and The Central Methodist, Sherri Pettit, Boyd County Kentucky Library, 1998, page 30.
[17] Ibid., page 38
[18] Pioneers in Roane County West Virginia, John A. House, 1906, page 17.
[19] 1860 U.S. Census, Jackson County, Virginia, family 855.
[20] Pioneers in Roane County West Virginia, John A. House, 1906, page 17.
[21] Jackson County History and Folklore, Articles published by the Jackson County Historical Society, 1983, page 208.
[22] Pioneers in Roane County West Virginia, John A. House, 1907, page 17.
[23] Pioneers in Jackson County West Virginia, John A. House, page 261.
[24] History of Wirt County, West Virginia, William E. Mitchell, 1981, page 99.
[25] Pioneers in Roane County West Virginia, John A. House, 1907, page 18.
[26] Ibid.