return to balcro.com
Page .1. 06-JUN-2004
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The John Calvin Smith Family of Denton County, Texas
Copyright (c) 1992-2002 by D La Pierre Ballard
BalCro, 06-JUN-2004
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Please feel free to quote or copy from this webpage for non-commercial
usage only. Also, feel free to link to this webpage.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This webpage was created using the software program FIXRAN.TEA which
was written in the Teapro Scripting Language and which runs on the
Teapro Interpreter Program TEAPRO.EXE for Windows.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This work covers the relatives of Charles Creth Smith who lived
from 24-SEP-1872 until 30-JUN-1938. The parents of Charles Creth
Smith had last names of Smith and Baines, and both were from
Denton, Denton Co, Texas. The Smith family was from Tennessee and
Virginia. The Baines family was from North Carolina. Charles Creth
Smith was a grandson of John Calvin Smith.
Many persons both relatives and non-relatives furnished information
for this webpage. The author is grateful to all of them. The person
who furnished the most information was Leola May Smith Ballard who
was the last surviving child of Charles Creth Smith and who was
the author's mother.
Charles Creth Smith was the author's grandfather.
In this webpage the seven children of Charles Creth Smith and his
wife Leola James Ward are called the Smith Children. Generally
each person's full name is used even though the person went by a
shortened form of that name. For example, Charles Creth Smith was
never called Charles but was called Creth or C.C. Smith.
Carrie Thomas Dominguez provided nearly all of the information
about the second family of Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr. Carrie is a
great granddaughter of Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr. Her grandfather
was Clarence Eugene Smith,Jr.
Carrie Thomas Dominguez F. -
Janine Parish helped enormously with the Smith family. Janine is a
granddaughter to Isabelle Smith Inabnet.
Janine Parish F. -
Alan Williams, co-author of the book BARB-BARBE GENEALOGY, helped
tremendously with the family of Mary Elizabeth Smith and her
husband Gustavus Henry Barb. See in the bibliography about the
book BARB-BARBE GENEALOGY in which Alan collaborated with Waverly
Barbe to update the work done by Dr. Kirk B. Barb.
Alan Williams "of Lake Elsinore, CA" M. -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
F&I
REV = American Revolutionary War
W12 = War of 1812
MEX = Mexican War
CSA = Confederate States of America military service
Page .2. 06-JUN-2004
USA = Union Army service
CUB = Cuba, Spanish American War
WW1 = World War 1
WW2 = World War 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 001: The Smith Children
**********************************************************************
The Smith Children are the children of the following couple.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith carpenter M.1872-1938
Born: 24-SEP-1872 Denton, Texas
Died: 30-JUN-1938 Hydro, Caddo Co, Oklahoma
Buried: Corinth Cemetery, Blair, Greer Co, OK, marked
Father: James Calvin Smith M.1850-1929
Mother: Martha Julia Ann Baines F.1851-1930
Spouse: Leola James Ward "Ola" F.1876-1914
Married: 15-AUG-1897 Corinth, Greer Co. Oklahoma
Born: 02-JAN-1876 Union City, Obion Co, Tennessee
Died: 19-JUL-1914 Olustee, Jackson Co, Oklahoma
Buried: Corinth Cemetery, Blair, Greer Co, OK, marked
Father: James T. Ward CSA M.1835-1876
Mother: Susan Mary Stone F.1848-1939
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Smith Children are as follows. Their spouses are also listed for
the ones that had spouses. The seven children of the seven Smith
Children are mostly still living. They will be called the Smith
Grandchildren. They are: Veroqua, Donnelda, Bobbie, Anona, Cretha, D
and Rob.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cora Odessa Smith "Odessa" F.1898-1975
Born: 03-AUG-1898 Strawn, Palo-Pinto Co,Texas
Died: 23-JAN-1975 Richland, Washington
Buried: Sunset Mem. Garden, Richland, Washington, marked
Spouse: Earl John Simpson M.1896-1977
Married: 25-JAN-1924 Norman, Oklahoma
Born: 08-JUN-1896 Alvin, Texas
Died: 16-FEB-1977 Richland, Washington
Buried: Sunset Mem. Garden, Richland, Washington, marked
They had one daughter: Veroqua.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
James Cellers Smith "Cellers or J.C." WW1 M.1899-1984
Born: 18-NOV-1899 Acme, Hardeman Co,Texas
Died: 12-AUG-1984 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Buried: Lutheran Cem., Cushing, Oklahoma, marked
Spouse: Elda Augusta Fick F.1904-1988
Married: 07-SEP-1924 Cushing, Oklahoma
Born: 30-JAN-1904 Missouri
Died: 02-APR-1988 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Buried: Lutheran Cem., Cushing, Oklahoma, marked
They had two daughters: Donnelda and Bobbie.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Duelana B. Ward Smith "Duelana" M.1901-1901
Page .3. 06-JUN-2004
Born: 14-FEB-1901 Corinth, Greer Co, Oklahoma
Died: 23-APR-1901 Corinth, Oklahoma
Buried: Corinth Cemetery, Blair, Greer Co, OK, marked
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Neva Eugene Smith "Neva or Aunt Granny" F.1902-1984
Born: 25-FEB-1902 Olustee, Oklahoma
Died: 08-JUN-1984 Norman, Oklahoma
Buried: IOOF Cemetery, Norman, Oklahoma, marked
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Crethie Munro Smith "Crethie" F.1904-1990
Born: 06-JUL-1904 Olustee, Oklahoma
Died: 02-NOV-1990 Norman, Oklahoma
Buried: IOOF Cemetery, Norman, Oklahoma, marked
Spouse: Edgar J. Mashburn "Ed or Pappy" WW1 M.1888-1942
Married: 25-FEB-1939 Shawnee, Oklahoma
Born: SEP-1888 Missouri
Died: 05-DEC-1942 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Buried: IOOF Cemetery, Norman, Oklahoma, marked
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Silas Alaska D Smith "D" WW2 M.1906-1947
Born: 21-DEC-1906 Olustee, Oklahoma
Died: 11-MAY-1947 Norman, Oklahoma
Buried: IOOF Cemetery, Norman, Oklahoma, marked
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Leola May Smith "Leola" F.1910-1996
Born: 03-APR-1910 Olustee, Jackson Co, Oklahoma
Died: 28-JAN-1996 Norman, Cleveland Co, Oklahoma
Buried: IOOF Cemetery, Norman, Oklahoma, marked
Spouse: Loren La Pierre Ballard "La Pierre" WW2 M.1909-1953
Married: 22-DEC-1938 Lawton, Comanche Co, Oklahoma
Born: 23-AUG-1909 Walters, Cotton Co, Oklahoma
Died: 01-NOV-1953 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Co, Oklahoma
Buried: IOOF Cemetery, Norman, Oklahoma, marked
D is their son.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Calie Anona Smith "Calie" F.1913-1988
Born: 07-MAY-1913 Olustee, Oklahoma
Died: 10-JUL-1988 Norman, Oklahoma
Buried: IOOF Cemetery, Norman, Oklahoma, marked
Spouse: Robert Clifton Adair,I "Bob" M.1912-1989
Married: 17-AUG-1937 Andrews, Texas
Born: 12-MAY-1912 Adair Community
Died: 14-JUL-1989 Norman, Oklahoma
Buried: IOOF Cemetery, Norman, Oklahoma, marked
They had two daughters and a son: Anona, Cretha and Rob.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 002: John S. Fagan REV M.1760-1819
**********************************************************************
John S. Fagan was the grandfather of Elizabeth Caroline Fagan,
who was the first wife of John Calvin Smith.
John S. Fagan was born in Virginia about 1760.
Page .4. 06-JUN-2004
He was a Private in Captain William Johnston's company of the
Eleventh Virginia Regiment of Foot in 1777 to 1779.
Captain William Johnston M. -
He served at the Battle of King's Mountain, South Carolina on
07-OCT-1780 in which the British forces under General Cornwallis were
stopped from taking over the south. Until that time the British forces
in the south had prevailed against the continental forces. The Battle
of King's Mountain of the American Revolutionary War is well worth
reading about in the history books.
In that battle John S. Fagan was wounded when he jumped the
British barricade at the top of King's Mountain.
John S. Fagan died in Rutherford County Tennessee in 1819. He
married Martha Lanier who was the daughter of Lemuel Lanier.
They were the parents of Robert Lanier Fagan. The poet Sidney
Clopton Lanier (1842-1881) was a relative of Martha Lanier Fagan.
He is known as simply "Sidney Lanier".
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 003: Robert Lanier Fagan W12 M.1787-1863
**********************************************************************
Robert Lanier Fagan was the father of Elizabeth Caroline
Fagan, who was the first wife of John Calvin Smith.
On the 1840 Census for Robert Lanier Fagan in Cannon Co,
Tennessee is the following: 0111201-0112201.
Robert Lanier Fagan was born in Virginia about 1787. His father
was John S. Fagan who was born in Virginia about 1760 and who died
in Rutherford County, Tennessee in 1819. The will for John S.
Fagan was probated on 20-MAR-1820. John S. Fagan served in the
Revolutionary War. The Daughters of the American Revolution give him a
reference number which is: DAR No. 73 612. The mother of Robert Lanier
Fagan was Martha Lanier who was the daughter of Lemuel
Lanier who died in Rutherford Co, Tennessee in 1817.
The wife of Robert Lanier Fagan was Martha Gibson who was born
about 1797 in North Carolina. They were married on 17-JAN-1816 in
Rutherford County, Tennessee. She apparently went by the name
"Patsey". They were the great grandparents of the Charles Creth
Smith. They were the parents of Elizabeth Caroline Fagan who
was the first wife of John Calvin Smith. Elizabeth Caroline
Fagan was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee on 23-DEC-1831.
Robert Lanier Fagan is listed on the Censuses for 1820, 1830 and
1840 living in Cannon County, Tennessee. On the 1850 Census for
Tennessee Robert Lanier Fagan and his wife Martha Gibson Fagan
were listed with five of their children and one son-in-law who were
all living in Cannon County. Listed was Calvin Smith and his
wife Elizabeth Caroline Fagan Smith. Calvin Smith was the
son-in-law and Elizabeth Caroline Fagan Smith was a daughter of
Robert Lanier Fagan and his wife Martha Gibson Fagan.
Elizabeth Caroline Fagan Smith was born on 23-DEC-1831.
Page .5. 06-JUN-2004
There were three other men with families in Cannon County on the
1850 Census who were also sons of Robert Lanier Fagan. Albert T.
Fagan who was born about 1818 was a farmer. He and his wife Martha
had one daughter. Robert A. Fagan was born about 1819 and was a
farmer. He and his wife Margaret E. McKee had six children.
Robertson L. Fagan was born about 1823 and was a Methodist
minister.
He died in 1884 and is listed as a member of the Tennessee Conference
of the Methodist Church.
Another Methodist minister listed in the Tennessee Conference was
Foster Fielding Fagan who died in 1878. He was a son of Robertson
L. Fagan.
The full name of Calvin Smith was John Calvin Smith. He was
often called just Calvin Smith. Elizabeth Caroline Fagan was
the first wife of John Calvin Smith.
About 1853 Robert Lanier Fagan moved to Huntsville in Madison
County, Arkansas with the John Calvin Smith family. His wife,
Martha Gibson Fagan died there in 1857. Huntsville is just
twenty-seven miles south of Eureka Springs and is twenty-nine miles
east of Fayetteville.
On the 1860 Census for Huntsville, in Madison County, Arkansas,
Robert Lanier Fagan is listed as living with John Calvin Smith
and Elizabeth Caroline Fagan Smith. The profession of Robert
Lanier Fagan on the 1860 Census is listed as minister, Methodist
Episcopal Church, South.
On 24-JUL-1862 there was a land transfer in Huntsville, Arkansas which
Robert Lanier Fagan notorized as Justice of the Peace. It is known
that Robert Lanier Fagan in 1858 was elected to a two year term in
Madison County, Arkansas as coroner.
Robert Lanier Fagan died in DEC-1863 after he and the John Calvin
Smith family had moved to Denton, Denton Co, Texas to avoid
the terrible atrocities occurring in northwestern Arkansas due to the
Civil War.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 004: John Calvin Smith M.1830-1901
Updated 2004/05/29
**********************************************************************
John Calvin Smith was born in Tennessee on 13-OCT-1830. His
parents both were born in Virginia according to the 1880 Census. John
Calvin Smith was a farmer in 1850, a merchant in 1870, and a
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South from about 1855 on.
He lived until 29-JAN-1901. In the 1900 Census he is listed as living
in Tarrant County, Texas which is the county containing Fort
Worth. A watch which belonged to him is now owned by one of his great
great grandsons.
John Calvin Smith is buried at Bourland Cemetery in the town of
Page .6. 06-JUN-2004
Keller in northeast Tarrant County, Texas. His second wife, Lucy
C. Blount Smith, is buried beside him unmarked. To get to his
grave take Johnson Road east from Highway 377 until you come to
Bourland Road. Take this road north to just beyond the big water
tower. His grave is at the back of the large central section of this
cemetery and off center towards the water tower to the south. His
stone faces west.
In 1850 John Calvin Smith and his first wife Elizabeth Caroline
Fagan Smith were living in Cannon County, Tennessee with her
parents Robert Lanier Fagan and Martha Gibson Fagan.
Cannon County, Tennessee is south and east of Nashville. The
oldest son of John Calvin Smith and Elizabeth Caroline Fagan
was James Calvin Smith who was born in Cannon County,
Tennessee on 24-MAR-1850.
About 1853 John Calvin Smith and his family moved to Huntsville in
Madison County, Arkansas. Huntsville is twenty-five miles south of
Eureka Springs. His father-in-law, Robert Lanier Fagan, with much
of the Fagan family moved there at the same time.
John Calvin Smith and his father in law Robert Lanier Fagan
were ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
In Arkansas John Calvin Smith and his wife, Elizabeth Caroline
Fagan Smith had two more children. William A. Smith was born
in JUL-1858, and Mary Elizabeth Smith was born in 12-NOV-1861.
Shortly after Mary Elizabeth Smith was born the John Calvin
Smith family moved to Denton County, Texas.
It is likely that they moved to avoid the Civil War which was raging
furiously in northwestern Arkansas. The Battle of Pea Ridge on
07-MAR-1862 was neither the beginning nor the end of tribulation for
the residents of Huntsville. Pea Ridge is only fifty miles to the
northwest of Huntsville. Troops of both sides were in and out of
Huntsville from one day to the next. Acts of violence, whether against
soldiers or civilians, were very commonly occurring incidences there
from 1862 until 1865. Huntsville was almost entirely destroyed in 1863
by Union forces. Elizabeth Caroline Fagan Smith's father, Robert
Lanier Fagan, moved with them to Denton, Texas.
On 24-OCT-1860 the East Texas Methodist Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South met at Jefferson, Texas. They admitted John
Calvin Smith as a Methodist minister on trial. Apparently he was
already planning on the move to Texas.
DENTON, TEXAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sometime about 1862 John Calvin Smith and his wife, Elizabeth
Caroline Fagan Smith, with their three children moved to Denton,
Denton Co, Texas. On 12-DEC-1863 Elizabeth Caroline Fagan
Smith died and was buried unmarked at Oakwood Cemetery in Denton.
Stone markers for cemeteries were very rarely available during the War
for Southern Independence. Her father, Robert Lanier Fagan, died
also in DEC-1863 and very likely was also buried in Oakwood Cemetery.
Page .7. 06-JUN-2004
Not long after his first wife died John Calvin Smith married Lucy
C. Blount. It was probably in early 1864 that they got married.
She was born in Mississippi on OCT-1840. She was the sister of Julia
E. Blount Hughes who was born in Mississippi on 28-OCT-1843 and
who died in Denton on 27-JUL-1871. Julia E. Blount Hughes was
married to George W. Hughes who was born in Kentucky on
20-SEP-1819 and who died in Denton on 20-JUN-1875.
Jesse M. Blount b.Mississippi M.1822-1899
Julia E. Blount b.Mississippi M.1843-1871
George W. Hughes b.Kentucky M.1819-1875
Laura J. Hughes F.1862-
Virginia Hughes F.1864-
William J. Hughes M.1869-1870
George W. Hughes M.1871-
John Calvin Smith had the Denton Circuit in 1867 and 1868 as a
Methodist minister. He traveled a great deal to many different
churches in his jurisdiction. He preached in Denton every fifth
Sunday. The Methodist Church was on the east side of Locust Street
just over a block south of the southeast corner of the town square.
This circuit may have consisted of as many as thirty small churches.
It is possible that he had switched from the Grapevine Circuit with
the previous minister whose name was C. B. Shelton.
C. B. Shelton M. -
After his two year stint on the Denton Circuit of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, John Calvin Smith became a merchant in
Denton. He and his new wife had three small children in addition to
the three children from his first marriage. Six children meant a lot
of mouths to feed on a minister's pay in 1869 when ministers were
generally not paid much.
He went into partnership with J. M. McNeil, J. M. Blount and
G. W. Hughes sometime shortly after the Civil War.
John M. McNeil b.Georgia M.1830-
Dr. George W. Hughes was John Calvin Smith's brother-in-law
besides being a physician. Their business was called J. C. Smith & Co.
and was located at the south end of the businesses on the west side of
the town square. It was a general store. The store just to the north
of the J. C. Smith & Co. was the Baines & Mounts store which was
partly owned by William Creth Baines who was the other grandfather
of Charles Creth Smith.
By 1870 the J. C. Smith & Co. partnership had been dissolved and the
business was owned by J. M. McNeil. John Calvin Smith on the
1870 Census is listed as a merchant working for Robert's Dry Goods. It
is believed that he owned that business.
HAVING CHILDREN FROM 1850 UNTIL 1884
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In October of 1870 John Calvin Smith attended the North Texas
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This meeting was
held in Jefferson, Marion Co, Texas. The ministers attending the
conference were photographed. This photo is available on page 121 of
the book: TEXAS METHODIST CENTENNIAL YEARBOOK 1834-1934. In this
Page .8. 06-JUN-2004
picture, John Calvin Smith had a full beard but no mustache and
had hair receding at the temples with a high full forehead. While the
picture is not very large of him, he appears to have the Smith Good
Looks and tallness.
John Calvin Smith and his first wife, Elizabeth Caroline
Fagan, had three children after they got married on 28-JAN-1849 in
Cannon Co, Tennessee and before her death on 12-DEC-1863. The
first was James Calvin Smith who was born on 24-MAR-1850 in
Tennessee and who was the father of Charles Creth Smith and
Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr. The second was William A. Smith who
was born in JUL-1858 in Huntsville, Arkansas. The third was Mary
Elizabeth Smith who was born 12-NOV-1861 in Huntsville, Arkansas.
She later married Gustavus Henry Barb in Denton, Texas.
John Calvin Smith and his second wife Lucy C. Blount had ten
children according to the 1900 Census of whom five were still living
at that time. The names of only six of these children are now known.
The first was Lucy C. Smith who was born about 1864. The second
was Isabelle Smith who was born about 1866. The third was Sophia
S. Smith who was born about 1869. The fourth was Jessie A.
Smith who was born about 1876. The fifth was Eugene Smith who
was born on NOV-1880. The sixth was Fannie M. Smith who was born
on OCT-1884. Sophia S. Smith may not have lived because she was
not listed on the 1880 Census. In the Oakwood Cemetery in Denton,
Texas there are stones for three of the children who did not live. The
graves for them are just to the north of the graves for the Baines
family.
FATE SMITH AND THE HUGHES FAMILY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On the 1880 Census James Lafayette Smith was living with the John
Calvin Smith family in Denton. James Lafayette Smith nearly
always went by the name "Fate". Right now it looks as though "Fate"
Smith was a nephew to John Calvin Smith. Since the father of
"Fate" Smith was James Smith this means that John Calvin Smith
had a brother named James. The 1880 Census gives Mississippi as the
birthplace for "Fate" Smith and Tennessee as the birthplace for
both of his parents. It is a known fact from Nina Lee Smith, who
was the daughter of Fate Smith, that he was born in Jackson,
Mississippi.
THE GEORGE W. HUGHES FAMILY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On the 1880 Census two of the children of George W. Hughes and
Julia E. Blount Hughes are listed as living with the John Calvin
Smith family. Virginia Hughes, who was born about 1864, is
listed as a boarder. George W. Hughes,Jr, who was born about 1871,
is listed as a nephew. Since Lucy C. Blount Smith was a sister of
Julia E. Blount Hughes, Lucy C. Blount Smith was the aunt of
these children. A third daughter of George W. Hughes, Laura J.
Hughes, who was born about 1862 must have been out on her own by
then.
The John Calvin Smith family took these children in because their
father, George W. Hughes, who was born in Kentucky on 20-SEP-1819,
Page .9. 06-JUN-2004
had died in Denton on 20-JUN-1875. The mother of these children, Julia
E. Blount Hughes, was born in Mississippi on 28-OCT-1843 and died
in Denton on 27-JUL-1871. Both parents are buried in Oakwood Cemetery
in Denton with their son William J. Hughes who lived from
20-JAN-1869 until 20-JUN-1870.
THE JOHN CALVIN SMITH FAMILY LATER
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It is known from the 1880 Census that John Calvin Smith and his
family lived in Denton, Texas at least until then. At that time he was
back to being a minister of the gospel. The 1900 Census shows him and
his wife living in Tarrant County which is where Fort Worth is.
On the 1880 Census J. Calvin Smith listed his vocation as minister
of the gospel.
On 25-DEC-1887 James Lafayette Smith married Liola Elizabeth
Stone in Denton County, Texas. The minister who married them
was John Calvin Smith who was an uncle to James Lafayette
Smith. The actual marriage certificate signed by John Calvin
Smith is still in the family. The children of Charles Creth
Smith are related to both sides of the Fate Smith family
because Liola Elizabeth Stone was an aunt to Leola James Ward
Smith, the wife of Charles Creth Smith.
According to Crethie Munro Smith, John Calvin Smith was the
first thirty-second degree Mason in the the state of Texas. This seems
highly unlikely, but could it be that he was the first thirty-third
degree Mason in Texas. He may have known Albert Pike in Arkansas
who not only was a Confederate general during the Civil War but who
also was the leader of the Masons in the United States. Albert
Pike could have made him a thirty-third degree Mason.
Albert Pike M.1809-1891
It is known that John Calvin Smith was a Past Master of Stanfield
Masonic Lodge #217 in Denton, Denton Co, Texas.
CHRONOLOGY OF DETAILS IN THE LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A great many minute details are known about the life of John Calvin
Smith which when taken as a whole present his life and times
colorfully. Some of the following material which is repeated from the
earlier sections is included for completeness.
John Calvin Smith was born on 13-OCT-1830 in Tennessee.
On 28-JAN-1849 he married nineteen year old Elizabeth Caroline
Fagan, and they lived with her parents in Cannon County,
Tennessee.
About 1853 John Calvin Smith and his family moved to Huntsville,
Arkansas where he became a Methodist minister.
About 1862 he and his family moved to Denton, Texas to escape the
Civil War.
Page .10. 06-JUN-2004
On 21-JAN-1866 John Calvin Smith sold several pieces of land in
Huntsville in Madison County, Arkansas for twenty-five hundred
dollars.
In 1866 John Calvin Smith became the first minister of the
Methodist Church in Grapevine, Texas.
In 1867 John Calvin Smith became a charter member of the North
Texas Methodist Conference.
On the 1874 tax list for Denton County, Texas, he is shown to own
twelve acres of land worth one hundred twenty dollars which were
rented to a man named Thompkins. He also owned ten acres of land worth
two hundred fifty dollars which were rented to Alex Hill. He is shown
to own lots two, three and five of block twenty-eight in Denton: they
were worth three thousand dollars. He is shown to own one half of lot
six in block three in Denton and that this was worth two thousand
dollars. This land was at the south end of the west side of the
square. He is also shown to own one half of lot four of block
thirty-one in Denton: this was worth eight hundred dollars. John
Calvin Smith is shown to own four horses worth a total of one
hundred dollars. He is shown to own twelve head of cattle worth one
hundred sixty dollars. His miscellaneous property was shown as worth
one thousand twenty dollars. He is shown to own one poll.
On the same 1874 tax list the Smith & McNeil company is shown to own
nine thousand dollars worth of merchandise.
On 03-MAR-1878 John Calvin Smith sold his half lot at the south
end of the west side of the square to Jesse M. Blount and George
W. Hughes for one hundred dollars. It is believed that a fire had
destroyed the building. Jesse M. Blount was the brother of Lucy C.
Blount Smith who was John Calvin Smith's second wife. Julia E.
Blount Hughes, the wife of George W. Hughes, was a sister to
Lucy C. Blount Smith.
In 1894 Reverend John Calvin Smith with his wife Lucy C.
Blount Smith and their daughter Jessie A. Smith became charter
members of the Methodist Church at Argyle in Denton County, Texas.
John Calvin Smith died on 29-JAN-1901 in Tarrant County, Texas
and was buried in Bourland Cemetery in Keller, Texas.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 005: James Calvin Smith M.1850-1929
**********************************************************************
The best introduction to James Calvin Smith is to introduce his
wife first.
MATTIE BAINES SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martha Julia Ann Baines, who always went by Mattie, was the
daughter of William Creth Baines and his wife Caroline Ann
Turner Baines. Mattie was born on 16-SEP-1851 most likely at Old
Alton which was the second attempted location for the county seat for
Denton County, Texas. Old Alton was about five miles south and some
Page .11. 06-JUN-2004
east of the location of Denton.
There is some doubt about her middle initial which most sources give
as a "J" while some give "A". If her middle name was Julia Ann from
her Aunt Julia Ann Baines Hill then both letters would have
justification. The birth date of 16-SEP-1851 fits the 1900 and 1910
Censuses best out of the various birthdates for her.
HOW MARTHA JULIA ANN BAINES GOT TO KNOW JAMES CALVIN SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the most interesting stories which Martha Julia Ann Baines
Smith told was the following.
When she was a girl the Methodist minister's house burned down. She
talked her parents into inviting the Methodist minister and his family
to stay with them until the Methodist minister and his family could
find another place to stay. She had her eye on the Methodist
minister's older son who was tall and thin, very good looking and so
polite. She and her mother walked over to the burned down house and
invited the Methodist minister and his family to bring what was left
and come and stay with them until a another house could be located.
Martha Julia Ann Baines' father William Creth Baines, was a
charter member of the Denton Baptist Church and was an elder. Of
course the rest of the story is that the Methodist minister's son was
James Calvin Smith who became Martha Julia Ann Baines husband.
This event happened in Denton about 1868. Martha Julia Ann Baines
Smith related this story to Leola May Smith several times with
great relish each time in the summer of 1925 when Leola May Smith
stayed two months with her Grandparents Smith.
Today, we know that the William Creth Baines family lived on the
south side of West Hickory Street a block or so from the town square.
We also know that the John Calvin Smith family lived a block or so
south on Elm Street on the west side of the town square. The walk from
the Baines house to the Smith house must have been only six to eight
hundred feet which was nothing to folks in 1868. Later, the Smith
family found another house on East Sycamore.
JAMES CALVIN SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
James Calvin Smith, who was the father of Charles Creth Smith
and Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr, was born on 24-MAR-1850 in
Cannon County, Tennessee. His father was John Calvin Smith who
was born in Tennessee and who was later a minister in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. His mother was Elizabeth Caroline Fagan
Smith who was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee on 23-DEC-1831.
About 1853 the John Calvin Smith family moved to Huntsville,
Arkansas which is just south of Eureka Springs about twenty-six miles.
James Calvin Smith lived in Arkansas until about 1862 when his
family moved to Denton, Texas most likely to get out of the way of the
Civil War which was raging furiously in northwestern Arkansas at that
time.
Page .12. 06-JUN-2004
On the 1860 Census for Huntsville, Madison Co, Arkansas, James
Calvin Smith and his younger brother William A. Smith are not
listed as living with their parents John Calvin Smith and
Elizabeth Caroline Fagan Smith. The father of Elizabeth Caroline
Fagan Smith, Robert Lanier Fagan, is listed with the John
Calvin Smith family, however. Jim and his brother William are
listed next door with the John C. Pitner family.
John C. Pitner was postmaster in Huntsville, Arkansas about that
time and had lived there since about 1847. He was one of the early
merchants in Huntsville, Arkansas. Whether or not he and his wife were
relatives is not known at this time. He was born on 08-APR-1822 and
died on 12-JAN-1868. His wife, Malinda Jane Ryan, was born on
19-DEC-1823 and died on 08-JAN-1865. Malinda died during childbirth in
Ozark, Franklin Co, Arkansas where the Pitner family had fled to
avoid the Civil War. John C. Pitner married Malinda Jane Ryan
on 12-MAR-1848.
John C. Pitner M.1822-1868
Malinda Jane Ryan F.1823-1865
VARIOUS EVENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
James Calvin Smith and his wife, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith
lived in Denton, Denton Co, Texas until sometime after 1895 when
they moved to the town of Gordon in south Palo-Pinto County. They
were listed in Palo-Pinto County on the 1900 Census. Living next
door to them was Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith's brother James
Henry Baines and his family. Sometime before 1910 and after 1900 the
Smith family moved to Vernon, Texas which is the county seat of
Wilbarger County.
James Calvin Smith worked all of his life in the grocery business
and in the delivery business.
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith, the mother of Charles Creth
Smith, visited Norman soon after Smith family moved there in
1918. She came on the train and stayed a few days. She also came to
visit again later about 1926. A few times the Smith Children visited
Vernon, Texas by train to see their Grandparents Smith.
Crethie Munro Smith used to tell that one time the governor of
Texas ate supper with James Calvin Smith and his wife Martha Julia
Ann Baines Smith. The table cloth was saved and cut into squares
for souvenirs. Leola May Smith's square is still in the family. At
this time it is not known which Texas governor visited the Smith
family or when he did so or for what reason.
RELATIVES OF MARTHA JULIA ANN BAINES SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Leola May Smith remembered her grandmother, Martha Julia Ann
Baines Smith, telling about her Uncle George Washington Baines who
had been president of Baylor University from 1861 to 1863. She was
very proud of the fact that her Uncle George had been such a
distinguished Texas Baptist. Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith
remembered her Uncle George very well even though he had died
forty-three years previously. Her side of the family was very well
Page .13. 06-JUN-2004
educated for those times. Now it is known that Martha Julia Ann
Baines Smith's other uncle, Joseph Benjamin Baines, who lived in
Harrison, Boone Co, Arkansas had a distinguished family too.
Martha Julia Ann Baines lived in Denton, Denton Co, Texas from
1857 when the town was started until after 1895 when she and her
husband, James Calvin Smith and their three sons moved to the town
of Gordon in Palo-Pinto County, Texas. After 1900 she and her
family moved to Vernon, Texas in Wilbarger County. Her father
William Creth Baines and her mother Catherine Ann Turner
Baines with their children had the first residence in Denton.
It is apparent that Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith knew her
Grandmother Mary McCoy Baines because she told her grandchildren so
much about her grandmother. Most likely during the Civil War Mary
McCoy Baines visited in Denton when she moved from Crooked Creek,
Arkansas to Fairfield, Texas. Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith and
her sister, Nancy Sophronia Baines Collins, were the first women in
the state of Texas to have teacher's certificates. She and her
husband, James Calvin Smith, were the parents of Charles Creth
Smith, Edgar John Smith and Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr.
Martha Julia Baines Smith kept up with her family diligently by
correspondence. She always signed her name as Mattie Baines Smith.
Leola May Smith remembered that when the Smith Children lived at
126 South Flood in Norman that they would receive letters from their
Grandma Smith.
RELATIVES OF JAMES CALVIN SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
James Calvin Smith had a sister, Mary Elizabeth Smith who was
married to Gustavus Henry Barb and lived in Denton. She was born
12-NOV-1861 in Huntsville, Madison Co, Arkansas and Gus, as he was
called, was born 28-AUG-1843 in Athens, Limestone Co, Alabama. Gus
built the first brick house in Denton. Mary and Gus Barb lived in
Ft. Worth, Texas after 1908 until both died in late 1929. There is a
picture of Mary with some of the Smith Children somewhere. They always
called her "Aunt Mary Barb". Cora Odessa Smith was supposed to
have looked like her and to have known her.
James Calvin Smith had a full brother, William A. Smith who
was born in JUL-1858 in Huntsville, Madison Co, Arkansas. While
living in Denton as a young man William worked in the grocery business
just like his older brother Jim.
About 1862 the mother of James Calvin Smith died shortly after the
family had moved to Denton, Texas. Tragically, she was only about
twenty-eight years old. Elizabeth Caroline Fagan Smith was buried
in an unmarked grave in Oakwood Cemetery in Denton. So very many
persons who died during those trying years were buried without markers
because of the shortages due to the War for Southern Independence.
THE PASSING OF JIM AND MATTIE SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
James Calvin Smith died on 13-MAY-1929. Charles Creth Smith
was at his father's bedside in Vernon, Texas when his father died.
Page .14. 06-JUN-2004
Charles Creth Smith had taken the train down to Vernon when he
heard that his father was critically ill. R. L. Steger of the
Assembly of God Church presided over the funeral at the Smith home in
northwest Vernon.
R. L. Steger M. -
Dr. E. P. Lyon M. -
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith died at her home at 4:00 AM on
12-MAR-1930 from influenza. Her son Charles Creth Smith took the
train down to Vernon, Wilbarger Co, Texas to make the
arrangements. Her other surviving son, Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr
came in from Arkansas. The two sons sold the house and belongings to
cover the cost of the funeral and the expenses. At her funeral were
her two sons, Charles Creth Smith of Norman, Cleveland Co,
Oklahoma and Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr of Altus, Franklin Co,
Arkansas. Also there were the three grown daughters of Clarence, Ava
M. Smith McCoy of Ashland, Oregon, Tina Smith Walker of
Vernon, Texas, and Artie May Smith Wilson of Vernon, Texas.
J. M. Perry M. -
Dr. E. P. Lyon of the First Baptist Church presided over her
funeral with help from J. M. Perry of the Central Christian
Church. Reverend J. M. Perry had moved to Vernon from Denton. The
funeral was held at the Smith home in northwest Vernon.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 006: Mary Elizabeth Smith Barb F.1861-1929
**********************************************************************
Mary Elizabeth Smith was born on 12-NOV-1861 in Huntsville,
Arkansas to John Calvin Smith and his first wife, Elizabeth
Caroline Fagan Smith. Shortly after Mary was born her family moved
to Denton, Texas. She had two older brothers. The oldest was James
Calvin Smith who was the father to Charles Creth Smith and
Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr. The other was William A. Smith.
The mother of Mary Elizabeth Smith was born in Rutherford
County, Tennessee on 23-DEC-1831. Mary's father, John Calvin
Smith, was also born in Rutherford Co, Tennessee on
13-OCT-1830 of parents who were both born in Virginia.
Soon after the family moved to Denton, Mary's mother died on
12-DEC-1863 and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Her father, who was a
minister with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, remarried early
in 1864.
In 1873 Mary joined the Methodist church in Denton. Gustavus Henry
Barb, who she married in Denton on 09-DEC-1877, joined that church
in 1874. His parents are both buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Denton.
Gus, as he was usually called, was seventeen years older than Mary.
When Mary and Gus got married, Mary had just turned sixteen. He was
born on 28-AUG-1843 in Athens, Limestone Co, Alabama.
Gus Barb served in Company D, 1st (Dobbins') Arkansas Cavalry,
C.S.A from Marion Co, Arkansas.
Gus Barb is credited with owning the first brick house in Denton
Page .15. 06-JUN-2004
in 1874. This house was built on the north side of Withers Street at
the intersection with Oakland Avenue. During the 1880's he ran a
grocery store on the south side of the town square. He also may have
worked in or owned a pharmacy on the south side of the square.
One thing which is terribly sad when going through cemeteries is
finding graves of young children. The Oakwood Cemetery in Denton has
the graves of five small children who were born to Mary Elizabeth
Smith Barb and her husband Gus between 1879 and 1895.
On the 1900 Census Mary and Gus Barb were listed as living on East
Mulberry Street in Denton. Also it showed that they had five children
at that time.
Elizabeth Fagan Barb was born to them on 27-MAR-1881. She went by
the name E. Fay Barb, and she attended Denton High School in 1897.
She is in the Denton High School picture for the school year
1896-1897. Fay married W. I. Neely in Denton County on
26-SEP-1902. The middle name of Fagan was the maiden name of Elizabeth
Caroline Fagan Smith. Elizabeth Caroline Fagan Smith was Mary
Elizabeth Smith Barb's mother.
Henry Sidney Barb was born to Gustavus Henry Barb and his wife
Mary Elizabeth Smith on 10-DEC-1889.
Mary Smith Barb was born to them on 10-DEC-1891.
Neola James Barb was born to them on 11-MAY-1898.
The Barb family moved to Ft. Worth, Texas about 1908. Mary Elizabeth
Smith Barb died there on 01-NOV-1929. Gus had died on 25-OCT-1929
which was less than a week earlier.
It is believed that Cora Odessa Smith knew her Great Aunt Mary
Elizabeth Smith Barb. Leola May Smith remembered that the
older members of the family often said that Odessa looked like Mary
Elizabeth Smith Barb.
Gus Barb had a sister named Martha Lane Barb who married John
Linn Ruddell on 04-JUN-1867 and lived in Denton.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martha Lane Barb F.1845-1922
Born: 29-SEP-1845 Alabama
Died: 01-DEC-1922 Denton, Denton Co, Texas
Spouse: John Linn Ruddell M.1844-1924
Married: 04-JUN-1867
Born: 27-FEB-1844 Batesville, Arkansas
Died: 16-JUN-1924 Denton, Denton Co, Texas
----------------------------------------------------------------------
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 007: Charles Creth Smith M.1872-1938
**********************************************************************
INTRODUCTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page .16. 06-JUN-2004
Charles Creth Smith was born on 24-SEP-1872 in Denton, Texas. His
father was James Calvin Smith who was in the grocery business in
Denton. His mother was Martha Julia Baines Smith who had been a
school teacher. Charles Creth Smith went by his middle name of
Creth which was the middle name of his Grandfather William Creth
Baines who was a prominent Denton businessman and farmer. Very
often the name Creth appeared on documents as the first name of
Charles Creth Smith but it was actually his middle name. When
Creth Smith wrote his name he always wrote it as "Creth C. Smith"
which was why there was confusion about his name. On the 1900 and 1910
Censuses his name is "Charles C. Smith".
Charles Creth Smith's middle name came from two sources. His
grandfather, William Creth Baines, had Creth for a middle name
according to the Seven Page Family History by Crethie Munro Smith.
According to family tradition, the name Creth came from a Baptist
minister's name who was from Texas. This, without a doubt, was Joseph
Warner Dossey Creath who was held in extemely high regard by all
Baptists in Texas. J.W.D Creath was called the "Man of the Golden
Heart" in the book on the history of Baptists in Texas.
Joseph Warner Dossey Creath M.1809-1881
He had two younger brothers who were also born in Denton, Texas. The
middle brother was Edgar John Smith who was born on 05-JAN-1874.
The youngest brother was Clarence Eugene Smith who was born on
JUL-1879. Creth worked as a carpenter all of his life.
Creth Smith lived with his parents in Denton until the whole
family moved to Palo-Pinto County after 1895. It is believed that
they lived in the town of Gordon in the southern part of the county.
Charles Creth Smith often referred to Palo-Pinto County when
talking with his daughters years later. He pronounced the "a" in the
word "Palo" long as in "fate". He enjoyed living in Palo-Pinto
County.
SCHOOL FOR CHARLES CRETH SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith had two unusual abilities which he learned in
what today we would call high school. Most likely he went to Robert E.
Lee School in Denton, Texas. Construction of this school was completed
about 1884.
The first ability he learned which showed so much in later life was
his penmanship. Today his penmanship would be considered much more
than good penmanship. It would be called calligraphy. When his
daughters were in school they had to buy their own books in which they
would need their names written. They would take their books to Papa to
have him write their names in them because he wrote so beautifully.
They all called him "Papa", and he always used "Hun" when speaking to
each of them.
The second ability which he had was a natural aptitude for doing
mathematics in his head. None of his children, the Smith Children,
even began to have his knack for this. Since he was unable to explain
how he could do math problems in his head it was most likely a natural
aptitude. Leola May Smith has said that he could do square roots
Page .17. 06-JUN-2004
in his head before she could do them with pencil and paper when she
was in high school. One of his daughters could read him an algebra
problem and he would have the answer almost immediately upon hearing
the whole problem. He was a whiz at geometry and could see the proof
as quickly as his daughters could read the problem.
He would say, "Hun, you don't need a pencil and paper to do square
roots." He would say, "Hun, I've been to school and can do them in my
head." As a carpenter he often had to work in board-feet which he did
with the greatest of ease all in his head.
It is known that Charles Creth Smith had attended some kind of a
school which specialized in mathematics when he was in high school. He
used to help his daughter Leola May Smith with her math when she
was in school. He was pretty sharp at everything and especially
mathematics.
THE WOMAN ON THE STREET IN DENTON
----------------------------------------------------------------------
About 1895 Creth Smith went to Denton to visit James Lafayette
Smith who was a first cousin to Creth's father James Calvin
Smith. James Lafayette Smith went by Lafayette when he was a
boy but by the nickname "Fate" after he was grown.
James Lafayette "Fate" Smith had met his cousin Charles Creth
Smith at the train station in Denton. They were walking across the
courthouse square on their way to "Fate" Smith's house. Suddenly
Creth pointed to a lady on a sidewalk across the street and said,
"That is the woman I am going to marry." Much to the surprise of
Creth, his cousin Fate replied, "I will introduce her to you for she
is my wife's niece, and she is staying with us". The lady in question
turned out to be Leola James Ward who was the daughter of Susan
Mary Stone Ward Beaird who was the sister of Liola Elizabeth
Stone Smith, who was the wife of James Lafayette "Fate" Smith.
Leola James Ward was visiting her aunt and uncle from Greer
County which at that time was mistakenly considered to be part of
Texas.
Leola James Ward was born on 02-JAN-1876 in Union City, Obion
Co, Tennessee and on 15-AUG-1897, at Corinth, Greer Co in what was
to become Oklahoma Territory, became the wife of Charles Creth
Smith.
WHEN CHARLES CRETH SMITH COURTED LEOLA JAMES WARD
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Once when Charles Creth Smith was still courting Leola James
Ward, she, her two sisters and their mother were all out working
in the garden when someone saw Charles Creth Smith coming up the
lane. The lane was what they called the road which led from the house
down to the east-west section line road. The setting was in Old
Greer County, most likely when it was still considered part of
Texas. Charles Creth Smith would walk the railroad track from
Vernon, Texas upto north of the town of Blair to court his girl, Leola
James Ward. This distance was close to fifty miles.
They rushed Leola Ward into the house to get her cleaned up so she
Page .18. 06-JUN-2004
would be ready to be courted. This event must have occurred prior to
15-AUG-1897 when Creth Smith married Leola James Ward in the
Corinth community.
The following is the obituary for Leola James Ward Smith.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MRS. C. C. SMITH
At her residence in Olustee on Sunday, July 19th at 9:40 a.m. of
typhoid fever. Mrs. C. C. Smith, aged 38 years, 6 months and 19 days.
Leola James Ward was born January 2nd 1876, at Union City, Obion
County, Tennessee. She married Mr. C. C. Smith, August 15th 1897 at
Corinth, Greer Co, Okla. She leaves a devoted husband and seven
loving children to mourn her loss. She was laid to rest in the
cemetery near Blair Monday, July 20th 1914. Sister Smith was one of
our best women, kind, affectionate, lovable and true, and it is with
deep regret that we give her up. But she has gone to her reward, where
all is good and pure and joyful, and where sorrow and death do not
enter and all is peace. To the bereaved family we extend our greatest
sympathy and condolence and trust that God will give them the comfort
that no human hand can offer, and that they and all of us will meet
her again in that world where sorrow and death never come.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER HIS WIFE DIED
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This chapter on Charles Creth Smith is based mostly upon
conversations with his daughter Leola May Smith Ballard which took
place beginning in late 1990 and early 1991 when she was eighty years
old. She was twenty-eight years old when Charles Creth Smith died
on 30-JUN-1938 in Hydro, Oklahoma while at the home of his daughter
Cora Odessa Smith Simpson. It is believed that he died of cancer.
He had been ill for some time but did not suffer a long time. Odessa
must really have had her hands full that summer because not only was
her father, Charles Creth Smith, critically ill but also that
summer her only child, Veroqua, had typhoid fever.
On 19-JUL-1914 Charles Creth Smith was left a widower with seven
children who ranged in age from one to fifteen. Pretty soon after his
wife died, he took his seven Smith Children up north of Blair,
Oklahoma to stay with their maternal grandmother, Susan Mary Stone
Ward Beaird, and her two unmarried daughters who lived with her.
In that year, from July of 1914 until June of 1915 while the Smith
Children stayed with their Grandmother Susan Beaird, Charles Creth
Smith would leave on Sunday evening and not come back until
Saturday afternoon. He would be gone working as a carpenter to
whatever nearby town in which there was work.
How many men today could be left a widower with seven children from
age one to age fifteen who would have them turn out as successfully as
Charles Creth Smith did with his children, the Smith Children.
He called all his daughters "Hun" and they called him "Papa". His
grandchildren, who were born early enough to know him, called him
Page .19. 06-JUN-2004
"Gran". He called each grandchild "Little Pig". Three of the Smith
Grandchildren were born early enough for him to know.
He mostly went by his middle name Creth but some people called him
"C.C." in later years.
In the summer of 1918, Charles Creth Smith gathered up his seven
Smith Children and moved from Olustee in Jackson Co, Oklahoma to
Norman in Cleveland Co, Oklahoma. He had sent his oldest daughter,
Odessa, to the college in Weatherford, Oklahoma to get enough college
hours so that she could get a teaching certificate and begin teaching
school. The cost of her room and board along with tuition and books
was too much for him to afford with the four daughters coming on. He
moved his family to Norman so that his five daughters could go to the
University of Oklahoma to become school teachers. His mother had been
a school teacher and the family was still influenced by his great
uncle, George Washington Baines (1809-1882), who had very strongly
advocated college education for women.
Higher education, and especially higher education for women, was held
in high regard in the Baines family. Reverend George Washington
Baines had been President of Baylor University in 1861 to 1864,
and had later been the first President of the Board of Trustees for
what is today Mary Hardin Baylor University. Additionally, Charles
Creth Smith's mother, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith, and aunt,
Nancy Sophronia Baines Collins, had been the first two women in
the State of Texas to have teaching certificates.
Charles Creth Smith and his seven Smith Children moved to Norman
in the summer of 1918. They rented a house and lived across the street
from Washington School until he could build the house at 126 South
Flood Street, which was also across the street from Washington School.
CHARLES CRETH SMITH: DESCRIPTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith was not a tall man at about five foot seven
inches. Nor was he a stocky man since he only weighed about one
hundred forty pounds. His father James Calvin Smith and his
brother Edgar Smith were both five inches taller than he. Charles
Creth Smith did not have the Smith Good Looks as had his
grandfather, John Calvin Smith, his father, James Calvin Smith
and his brother Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr.
Once when Charles Creth Smith got up to weighing one hundred fifty
pounds he claimed to be so fat that he could not tie his shoes! His
daughter, Neva Eugene Smith, often told this story about "Papa",
which is the way his daughters referred to him in later years.
One characteristic of Charles Creth Smith which showed up in the
pictures of him whether age twenty or age sixty was that his ears
stuck out from his head. A picture of him taken in Denton when he was
about twenty showed him stockier than he was in later life. His
mother's cooking no doubt contributed to this. Even in later life he
always had plenty of dark brown hair on the top of his head. In some
of the last pictures of him, which were taken of him while sitting in
a chair outdoors of his house at 126 South Flood in Norman, Oklahoma,
Page .20. 06-JUN-2004
he appears very lean with greatly varying expressions on his face.
Leola May Smith remembered that his face was extraordinarily
expressive. From these pictures of him dressed in a suit it is obvious
that his customary overalls would have looked more natural on him.
In 1957 when three of the daughters of Charles Creth Smith were
visiting Carroll Library on the campus of Baylor University in Waco,
Texas, they saw two paintings of George Washington Baines, the
noted educator and Baptist preacher, who was a great uncle to Charles
Creth Smith. The three daughters, Neva, Crethie and Leola, all
three agreed that except for the beard on Reverend Baines, that he and
their "Papa" looked exactly the same. It is known that George
Washington Baines and Charles Creth Smith were about the same
in stature.
CHARLES CRETH SMITH: HIS HABITS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith was completely different from his father who
was always neat and very well dressed. Charles Creth Smith's
daughter Crethie was the one who could get him to get things done. She
would insist upon him taking a bath. He would protest: "I just had a
bath last week or so." Charles Creth Smith would then take a bath
and Crethie would gather up his dirty clothes which she would take to
the basement to be washed. He would protest by saying "Where are my
clothes: I have only worn them about a week." About his clothes he
would also say, "Washing them is what wears them out". He really liked
to fuss.
He never shaved at home. Once a week on Saturday he would go to a
barber in Norman to get a shave. He never shaved himself. It is little
wonder he never remarried.
THE PORCH SWING AND TOM MIX MOVIES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He liked to sit in the porch swing with his shoes off but with his
socks still on. He would not swing back and forth but rather would
swing the porch swing lengthwise. He liked to do this on Sundays in
particular. The front porch was screened in. He built the porch on the
house at 126 South Flood in Norman in just such a way that he could
swing lengthwise on the porch swing.
Another thing he really enjoyed was Tom Mix movies. He would whoop and
holler during the movie so the other persons sitting around him would
wonder. He would holler out, "Get him, cowboy". He would take his two
youngest daughters, Calie Anona Smith and Leola May Smith,
with him. Charles Creth Smith would pay the ten cents each for
them and the quarter for himself to get in. He did not like any other
movies. It was fun to go with him to Tom Mix movies because he enjoyed
them so much.
CHARLES CRETH SMITH LOVED TO SQUARE DANCE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
He really liked to square dance. He liked to dance with Mrs. Storm
who lived on south on Flood Street.
Minnie Ines Haggard Storm "Mrs. Storm" F.1885-1969
Walt Lowe M. -
Page .21. 06-JUN-2004
Mae Lowe F. -
After he had danced with Mrs. Storm he would turn his daughters in
the other direction when he danced with them to unwind. He liked to
roll back the rug and get with it. Walt Lowe and his wife Mae
would come over and away they would go. Mae Lowe who suffered
badly from arthritis would just sit and tap her foot. Walt and Mae
Lowe had given the younger three Smith girls a home when Odessa had
scarlet fever and was quarantined with Neva. Walt Lowe played
Santa Claus for the Smith Children and their children for over forty
years.
Mrs. Storm was a widow who had five children about the same age as
the Smith Children. They lived in the second house south of the Smith
family on Flood Street. Her children were Alfred, Mary, John, Sybil
and Leonard. Her sons delivered the washing and ironing which Mrs.
Storm did for a living. All of the Storm children were very good at
school. Her children never came over to square dance.
CHARLES CRETH SMITH REALLY LIKED TO FISH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith really liked to fish. When the Smiths lived in
Olustee he would fish in Turkey Creek. He very rarely got to go
fishing. When the lakes in Oklahoma City were opened up Charles Creth
Smith would go seining for fish in them. His daughter, Leola May
Smith would swim out and carry one end of the seine while Charles
Creth Smith would hold the other. A seine was a long net with a
small pole on each end which could be used to catch fish. He just
could not believe that Leola May Smith could really swim. He would
say, "Hun, you can't swim and hold the seine too." They could really
catch the fish that way. That was in Lake Overholser on the west side
of Oklahoma City.
He really enjoyed life and was always fun to be around.
CHARLES CRETH SMITH: EATING
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith really liked to eat battercakes, especially,
on Sunday mornings. What were called battercakes we, today, would call
pancakes. He would say "Hun, cook me some battercakes." He could have
eaten battercakes three times a day.
Another thing he liked to eat was boiled cabbage. He liked his cabbage
with a little bacon cooked with it. Charles Creth Smith liked all
the vegetables whether the ones eaten raw or the ones eaten boiled.
He loved to work in the large vegetable garden behind the house at 126
South Flood. It was not unusual for him to go out into the garden to
hoe a little without his shoes but with his socks still on. The garden
was the first place he went to when he got home from work.
CHARLES CRETH SMITH'S FALSE TEETH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Robert Henry Pendleton "Dr Henry" M.1865-1954
Dr Dan Pendleton M. -
Page .22. 06-JUN-2004
Charles Creth Smith had worked on a house over on Acers Street for
Henry Pendleton who was a dentist in Norman. Dr. Henry
Pendleton and his brother Dr. Dan Pendleton were half brothers
to Mae Lowe. Originally they and the Lowes were from Missouri.
Charles Creth Smith Smith had worn out all of his teeth. Dr.
Henry told him to come to see him and he would make him some teeth.
Dr. Henry Pendleton had an office with his brother, Dan, who was
also a dentist. Grandfather Smith liked Dr. Henry and did go to
see him. Charles Creth Smith always wore the top set of teeth that
Dr. Henry made for him but would not wear the bottom set.
Consequently, Charles Creth Smith could readily eat all the foods
that were soft but he had trouble with fried chicken because of the
crust.
CHARLES CRETH SMITH AND LUNCH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When he got home from work he was ready for supper. He never called
the evening meal "dinner" to him it was always supper. He carried his
lunch with him when school was going on and there was no one to take
his lunch to him. When school was out he would always have his
daughters walk over to where he was working to bring him his lunch.
Charles Creth Smith never liked to eat out when he worked because
he liked to sit down and have a smoke. He occasionally smoked a pipe
but usually smoked cigarettes which he rolled himself.
CHARLES CRETH SMITH MADE HIS OWN BEER
----------------------------------------------------------------------
During the times of Prohibition Charles Creth Smith made his own
beer. He stored it in bottles in the basement of the house at 126
South Flood. Sometimes a loud bang would be heard which would be one
of his bottles of beer exploding. As the brew fermented the pressure
inside the bottle would sometimes be too great. He mixed up his beer
in a ten or twelve gallon crockery open top jar. He then sealed it in
bottles which then had to age. The stuff smelled awful and none of his
family would have anything to do with it. It was especially bad when a
bottle happened to explode. The mess all over the basement had a
terrible smell and would have to be cleaned up. Charles Creth
Smith actually drank the stuff. On occasion he even invited other
men over to drink his foul smelling homemade beer.
COFFEE DRINKER
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith lived the first twenty or more years of his
life in Denton, Texas. Persons familiar with the history of Denton
during this era are usually aware that coffee was THE DRINK and that
people in Denton wanted it boiling hot and black. Creth was quite a
coffee drinker all of his life. A coffee pot in those days was just a
tall narrow stew pot with coffee grounds that were boiled in water.
The grounds settled to the bottom, and the coffee was carefully poured
off the top so as to try not to get any of the grounds. The way he
made it was to add some more grounds to the pot each day. Probably,
when the coffee pot was half full of grounds, he would only then throw
them out and start fresh. His daughters used to tell that his coffee
smelled terrible. He made it himself faithfully every morning and
loved it. He liked it hot and black. His daughters, Neva, Crethie and
Page .23. 06-JUN-2004
Leola, grew up not liking coffee because their father's coffee was not
something they wanted to try. Only in later years, when they each had
very often smelled coffee that was brewed from fresh grounds did Neva
and Leola become ardent coffee drinkers in their own right. They too
liked it hot and black: Crethie preferred a little cream and sugar
with her coffee. Years later, his youngest daughter, Calie, liked her
coffee hot and black, and liked to drink it all day long.
CHARLES CRETH SMITH: HIS WORK
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Creth Smith always was able to find work. Even when the
Smith family first moved to Norman he got a job as a janitor at
Washington School. He put all the family to work cleaning the school.
The principal was Helen Olander and she thought so much of Charles
Creth Smith because he could build anything for her. Helen
Olander really helped out the Smith family that first year when
they lived in Norman. Neva made her a pin cushion for Christmas that
was pink and blue and was great big and round and braided for him to
give her to help repay all that she had done to help his family. All
of the Smith family lived in the school until Grandfather Creth
Smith got the house ready across Flood street. They even cooked
their meals in the school basement.
At that time there was only two elementary schools in Norman.
Washington School was on Flood Street across from 126 South Flood
where the Smith family would make their home. The other school was
Jefferson School in the northeast part of Norman. Helen Olander
was at Washington School but Foy Runyan was at Jefferson School.
Helen Olander F.1893-1972
Foy Runyan F.1891-1982
Foy Runyan lived from 07-JUN-1891 until 17-JAN-1982. Helen
Olander lived from 1893 until 1972. These two women were the
pioneers of elementary school education in Norman, Oklahoma. Both of
them thought a lot of Charles Creth Smith because he could build
them anything they wanted. Both of them used his great abilities as a
finish carpenter to create whatever they wanted that could be
fashioned from wood. Both of them were such driving forces in
elementary education in Norman that they influenced all of the
descendants of Charles Creth Smith who went to grade school in
Norman.
Later he got a job for a construction company doing the finishing work
inside of houses and other buildings. In Norman there was one builder,
Mr. Criswell, who said that he would let no finish carpenter but Creth
Smith touch the insides of the homes he was building. Charles
Creth Smith did the inside of Mr. Criswell's own house just across
the railroad tracks to the west of the House with Round Rooms. Creth
also built the house for Julia Beaird Smith and her husband J. B.
"Ballard" Smith on the south side of Lindsay Street just east of the
creek east of Berry Road. Ballard Smith, as far as is known, was not a
relative. Julia was a step aunt to the Smith Children.
At that time everything for the inside of a house had to be built by
hand. He could build the most beautiful stairways, kitchen cabinets
and other inside woodwork.
Page .24. 06-JUN-2004
Charles Creth Smith's tool box which contained his carpenter tools
was strictly off limits to anyone else. He was very particular about
his tools. No one could even touch the tools in his tool box without
him being aware that his tools had been rearranged. No one could put
them back into his tool box in exactly the same way that he kept them
there.
THE HOUSE WITH ROUND ROOMS BUILT BY CHARLES CRETH SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
About 1921 Charles Creth Smith built the House with Round Rooms
for Forrest Monroe Doughty.
Forrest Monroe Doughty M.1872-1955
Forrest was a step uncle-in-law of Charles Creth Smith's children,
the Smith Children. This House with Round Rooms still stands in Norman
north of downtown by the railroad tracks at 602 North Jones Avenue at
the intersection of Jones Avenue and Acres Street. It is on the
northwest corner of the intersection which is about five blocks north
of Main Street just east of the railroad tracks.
The House with Round Rooms is a two storey house and three of the
rooms on the first floor have outside rooms cylindrically shaped. If
you cut the top off the first floor with a plane and look down from
above the house would appear as a three leaf clover. This house which
is painted bright yellow today was built by Charles Creth Smith
about 1921.
Leola May Smith remembered that her father was quite proud as he
built the "round house" as he called it. He would have his daughters
bring him his lunch each day so he could show them how much further
along he had gotten on the House with Round Rooms.
WHEN JAMES CALVIN SMITH, FATHER OF CHARLES CRETH SMITH DIED
----------------------------------------------------------------------
When James Calvin Smith died on 12-MAY-1929 his son Charles Creth
Smith was at his bedside. Present at the funeral was the other
remaining son of James Calvin Smith, Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr
along with his three daughters from his first marriage.
It is believed that Charles Creth Smith stayed on in Vernon for
two or three weeks because when he got back to Norman his daughter
Leola May Smith had already finished the semester teaching at
Camargo and was herself back in Norman.
His daughter, Leola May Smith, remembered one thing about when he
returned to Norman after his father's death. When he came home on the
train to 126 South Flood he brought a cardboard box full of fish which
his mother, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith, had fried up. He
hollered out to his daughters when he came in, "Come on and eat the
fish which Maw fried up." He always called his mother "Maw" in the
same way that his brother Edgar John Smith did. The fish were
mighty good but had to be eaten up right then because they would not
keep. Charles Creth Smith and his daughters were up much of the
night eating and enjoying those fish. Without a doubt, Charles Creth
Smith, had caught the fish himself. His brother, Edgar John
Page .25. 06-JUN-2004
Smith, who had been the main fisherman in the family had died just
over a year before.
When Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith died on 12-MAR-1930 Charles
Creth Smith as well as Clarence Eugene Smith and the three
daughters from Clarence's first marriage were there for that funeral.
Leola May Smith remembered that when Charles Creth Smith
called his brother, Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr, to tell him of their
mother's death that Clarence said he would come if Creth would loan
him the train fare. Apparently, Creth did help with this because
Clarence was at the funeral. The Great Depression had well gotten
under way by that time and was badly affecting working men everywhere.
CHARLES CRETH SMITH: HIS TRAVELS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
At sometime Charles Creth Smith had been to Eureka Springs,
Carroll Co, Arkansas. He always used to say to his daughters:
"Hun, you just must go to Eureka Springs over in Arkansas." No one
remembered him saying why he had been to Eureka Springs, Arkansas but
now it may be surmised. Since the Smith family as well as the closely
related Fagan family had lived just twenty-six miles south of Eureka
Springs in Huntsville, Arkansas it is most likely true that there were
still Fagan relatives in that part of Arkansas. Furthermore, thirteen
miles east of Eureka Springs is the town of Berryville in which lived
at that time several of the children of Joseph Benjamin Baines who
was a great uncle to Charles Creth Smith. Joseph Benjamin
Baines, himself, lived in Harrison, Arkansas which was a mere
fifty miles east of Eureka Springs. Very likely Charles Creth
Smith had travelled by train to Eureka Springs to visit these
relatives. One of the most interesting facts about this is that he
must have been in Eureka Springs about 1895. Eureka Springs was in its
glorious heyday from 1879 until 1900.
In support of this, it is known today that there are still Fagan and
Baines relatives living in that part of Arkansas.
Charles Creth Smith never learned to drive. One time, his daughter
Calie was driving to Cushing with him and three of her sisters. He
said to her: "Hun, go faster: it ought to go faster than that." Calie
had learned to drive in high school. Charles Creth Smith thought
that every time they came to a filling station that they would have to
fill up. The car they were in that day actually belonged to his
daughter, Crethie. They were going to Cushing, Oklahoma to visit his
son, Cellers, and the son's family.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 008: Edgar John Smith M.1874-1928
**********************************************************************
INTRODUCTION TO EDGAR JOHN SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Edgar John Smith was born on 05-JAN-1874 in Denton, Texas to James
Calvin Smith and Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith. Charles Creth
Smith was the older brother of Edgar John Smith, and Clarence
Eugene Smith,Sr was his younger brother.
Page .26. 06-JUN-2004
In 1900 Edgar John Smith was living with his wife, Daisy, and his
parents in the town of Gordon in south Palo-Pinto County, Texas.
Sometime before 1910 he moved to Vernon, Texas in Wilbarger County
with his parents. Edgar John Smith died 05-JAN-1928 in Vernon,
Texas after a three weeks illness.
On 21-JUL-1898 Edgar John Smith had married Daisy Harwell in
Denton Co, Texas. They had a baby which lived only a short time.
Tragically, Edgar's wife also died sometime before 1910. He never
remarried.
In his younger days Edgar was a blacksmith, but later he turned to
fishing and trapping for a living. Most people called him Ed but his
nieces called him Uncle Edgar.
Most of the information about Edgar John Smith comes from
conversations with his niece, Leola May Smith, regarding the
summer of 1925 when she stayed with her Grandparents James Calvin
Smith and Martha Julia Ann Baines in Vernon, Wilbarger Co,
Texas for two months. At that time their son, Edgar John Smith,
visited his folks in between his fishing trips.
EDGAR JOHN SMITH: OUTDOORS MAN
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1925 Edgar lived in a house which he had built on the back of his
fishing truck. Behind this truck he pulled his fishing boat. When
Edgar John Smith visited his parents James Calvin Smith and
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith he did not sleep in their house at
all. He would always sleep in his house on the back of his truck
rather than in the house of his parents. The house on the back of his
truck was the only house that Edgar had.
In the nineteen twenties having a house on the back of a truck and
pulling a boat behind the house was an unknown contraption. In today's
world having a camper and pulling a boat behind it is not at all
unusual.
When visiting his parents, James Calvin Smith and Martha Julia Ann
Baines, Edgar would ususally go out on the dirt patio on the
northeast side of their house to eat or smoke. He never spent much
time in their house at all. Edgar was an outdoors person who felt
uncomfortable when he was indoors. Leola May Smith said that it is
no wonder that he died of pneumonia.
EDGAR JOHN SMITH: FISHING IN THE SUMMER OF 1925
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That summer of 1925 when Leola May Smith visited Vernon, Texas,
her uncle, Edgar John Smith, could really catch the fish. He would
fish in the Pease River up north of Vernon. The Pease River was a
tributary of Red River. His mother, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith
would fry the fish up and everybody would eat them. When Edgar would
come in he would have so many fish that the cleaning, cooking and
eating would go on at the same time late into the night. There was no
way to keep fish so they all had to be cooked up and eaten right then.
Page .27. 06-JUN-2004
Edgar would sell the fish too. This is how he made his living. Since
James Calvin Smith delivered groceries for people, he could easily
find customers for the fish that Edgar caught.
Edgar would be gone for two or three weeks and then would come in with
a wagon load of fish. Then after a few days in Vernon he would be off
again to catch more fish.
EDGAR JOHN SMITH: HIS PERSONALITY: SUMMER 1925
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Edgar ususally wore overalls when he went fishing and usually the rest
of time too. Like his father, James Calvin Smith, Edgar was clean
shaven excpt for his mustache. Edgar was a little taller than his
father and was much more filled out. He was at least six feet tall.
Edgar would leave without saying where he was going or when he was
coming back and presumably would go fishing. He was like his nephew,
Silas Alaska D Smith, in personality in that he was such a cutup
and never could be found when there was work to be done. The two of
them were very much the same in appearance and in personality.
That summer of 1925 any thing funny always came from Edgar. He was
quite a tease. He teased everybody. It was he who had nicknamed his
brother Clarence's three girls Tinsy, Tina and Sack. The letter "i" in
Tinsy and in Tina was pronounced as in "like". Edgar called his
mother, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith, "Maw". She and her husband,
James Calvin Smith, called Edgar "Ed".
EDGAR JOHN SMITH: PERSONAL FACTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On 21-JUL-1898 in Denton, Denton Co, Texas, Edgar John Smith
married Daisy Harwell who was born in Tennessee in SEP-1878. They
had one child who did not live. Daisy, also, died after they had been
married a few years. She was living in 1900 but was gone by 1910.
Edgar John Smith never remarried.
Edgar was hollow to his toes. He was a large sized man who could
really eat. When he got back from fishing he would be especially
hungry. He would not stay away too long from the battercakes and
cornbread with buttermilk that his mother, Martha Julia Ann Baines
Smith, so often cooked when he was there. Edgar was the largest of the
three Smith brothers.
A couple of weeks before Christmas of 1927 Edgar John Smith came
down with pneumonia. He died on 05-JAN-1928 at the home of his folks
at 569 McGhee in Vernon, Texas where he had been living. He died on
his fifty-fourth birthday. His brother Charles Creth Smith
attended the funeral. Edgar was buried in Eastview Cemetery out east
of Vernon. His grave is unmarked but is the second grave from where
his father, James Calvin Smith, was buried the next year.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 009: Clarence Eugene Smith M.1879-1942
**********************************************************************
Clarence Eugene Smith was born in Denton, Texas on 07-OCT-1879.
His father was James Calvin Smith. His mother Martha Julia Ann
Page .28. 06-JUN-2004
Baines Smith.
On the 1900 Census he was not living with his folks. He got married
about 1901, and his wife, Mary Josephine Anderson, died on
09-FEB-1910 of typhoid fever. She was born in Illinois and her name
was Mary Josephine Anderson. He and his first wife had three
daughters: Ava M. Smith, Martha Smith and Artie May Smith.
On the 1910 Census he was living in Wilbarger County, Texas which
is where Vernon is located. He was living alone on a farm. The Census
definitely shows that he was a widower. Apparently his three daughters
were too much for him since they ranged in age from one to six. From
that time on they lived with their grandparents James Calvin Smith
and Martha Julia Ann Baines in nearby Vernon, Texas.
THE FIRST THREE DAUGHTERS OF CLARENCE EUGENE SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clarence Eugene Smith had three daughters by his first wife who
were nicknamed Tinsy, Tina and Sack by their uncle, Edgar John
Smith. The letter "i" in Tinsy and in Tina is pronounced long.
Tinsy whose real name was Ava M. Smith was born about 1903. Tina
whose real name was Martha Smith was born about 1905. Sack whose
real name was Artie May Smith was born in JAN-1909. These three
girls lived with and were raised by their grandparents, James Calvin
Smith and Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith in Vernon,
Wilbarger Co, Texas. Clarence Eugene Smith's first wife was
Mary Josephine Anderson. She was born in Illinois on 20-APR-1885
and died on 09-FEB-1910 in Vernon, Texas of typhoid fever.
Tinsy or Ava married a railroad man named Olin A. McCoy, and they
lived in Ashland, Oregon.
Tina or Martha married a man named Ed C. Walker, and they lived on
a farm northeast of Vernon. He apparently had two children from a
previous marriage.
Sack or Artie May married a man named Earl Wilson. They had a son
born about 1924.
TINSY OR AVA MCCOY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tinsy whose real name was Ava M. Smith was born in late 1902 or
early 1903.
Tinsy used to come to visit the Smith Children when they lived at 126
South Flood in Norman. She and her first cousin, Leola May Smith,
would take a nap every afternoon in the basement. At the time that
Edgar John Smith died in 1928, Tinsy was already married and was
living in Ashland, Oregon. Tinsy's husband was Olin A. McCoy.
Leola, Crethie and Neva always called her Tinsy.
Leola used to tell about the time when Tinsy was visiting in Norman
and the two of them had a sleeping contest to see who could sleep the
most. They only got up to eat or to take care of the calling of
nature. This occurred one summer during the 1920's. Leola never said
who won the contest.
Page .29. 06-JUN-2004
In the fifties Tinsy came to visit Crethie Munro Smith Mashburn
and her sister Neva Eugene Smith from Oregon. Neva had been quite
excited when she had learned that Tinsy was coming for a visit. Tinsy
kept in touch with Neva and Crethie until after 1960.
MARTHA "TINA" OR MRS. ED C. WALKER
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martha Smith or "Tina", as her Uncle Edgar John Smith called
her, was born in late 1904 or early 1905. Her real name was Martha
Smith. Since her Uncle Edgar had nicknamed her "Tina" it is
possible that her middle name was Clementine.
Martha Smith married a man in Vernon named Ed C. Walker. They
lived on a farm northeast of Vernon with his two children from a
previous marriage.
During the summer of 1925 Leola May Smith, who was visiting her
grandparents, James Calvin Smith and Martha Julia Ann Baines
Smith, visited the Ed C. Walker family for a week. The Ed C.
Walker family farmed and raised lots of chickens. Very often that
week they ate fried chicken.
The main thing about visiting Tina that Leola May Smith remembered
was swimming in the farm pond. Tina's step son who may have been as
old as ten often swam in the pond. He would have to get in first
because he did not wear a swimming suit. Leola May Smith swam in
the pond every day and thoroughly enjoyed it. The neighbor men came
and peeked over the dam to watch her swim. They asked if she minded
them watching since they had never seen a girl swim before. She told
them that she did not mind and that they should come on in too. No
doubt men in 1925 liked to look at girls in swimming suits pretty much
in the same way that men do today.
SACK OR ARTIE MAY WILSON
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sack whose maiden name was Artie May Smith was born in JAN-1909.
She was married to Earl Wilson, and they lived in Vernon, Texas
during the late 1920's.
Sack came to visit her grandparents, James Calvin Smith and Martha
Julia Ann Baines Smith, during the summer of 1925 when, her first
cousin, Leola May Smith, was visiting them in Vernon,
Wilbarger Co, Texas. Sack and her little boy who was about three
years old came on the train and stayed about three weeks. Leola May
Smith did not remember learning anything about Sack's mother or
husband, and cannot remember where Sack lived. Leola was never able to
remember the little boy's name, either.
CLARENCE EUGENE SMITH IN TEXAS PER 1920 CENSUS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The 1920 Census showed that Clarence Eugene Smith was living in
Vernon, Wilbarger Co, Texas. He had remarried to a lady who had
been born in Germany in 1890 and had had four children by her. Her
name was Martha Annie Walbrick. She went by the name "Annie". The
four children were: Clarence Eugene Smith, Jr, James C. Smith,
Page .30. 06-JUN-2004
Ola Mae Smith and Fannie Alma Smith. After the 1920 Census,
Clarence and Annie had two more children. While they lived in Vernon,
Texas they had Ann Smith who was called "Sweetie". After they
moved to near Fayetteville, Arkansas they had another son named Ernest
Eddie Smith who was called "Sonny".
It is believed that they moved several times in Arkansas but
eventually ended up in Lavaca, Sebastion Co, Arkansas. Some
sources give their location in Alma, Arkansas and some in Altus,
Arkansas. It is not known why they moved to Arkansas. For a long time
it was believed that the Clarence Eugene Smith family moved to
Arkansas because of the German settlement around Altus, Arkansas. Now
it is believed that, though they probably lived there shortly, that
Annie's close kin from Germany all had stayed in Texas.
CLARENCE EUGENE SMITH IN ARKANSAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In times past whenever Crethie made reference to her Uncle Clarence
she said that he was tied up in Alma, Arkansas with a bunch of
children. Leola May Smith did not ever remember even meeting her
Uncle Clarence. Crethie was quite the lady to look up relatives when
she travelled to places where they lived; however, she never expressed
an interest in looking up her Uncle Clarence and his later family.
Crethie, Neva and Leola had been very close to the three daughters
that their Uncle Clarence had had by his first wife. However, his
second family had apparently been out of touch with the children of
Charles Creth Smith since 1930 when their grandmother in common,
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith had died.
In several cases it was said that Clarence and his family lived in
Alma, Arkansas. Alma, Arkansas is just east of Ft. Smith twenty miles
and is in Crawford County. Alma, Arkansas claims to be the Spinach
Capitol of the world. It is now known, of course, that they were just
south of Alma in the very small town of Lavaca. It is due to the
genealogical research of Carrie Thomas Dominguez that the contact
between the descendants of Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr and the
descendants of Charles Creth Smith was reestablished. Carrie is a
great granddaughter of Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr.
When Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith died on 12-MAR-1930 Clarence
Eugene Smith and his three daughters from his first marriage
attended the funeral along with his brother, Charles Creth Smith.
Clarence Eugene Smith died on 06-MAY-1942 and his wife, Annie, in
FEB-1979. They are buried in Riverdale Cemetery on Highway 96 at
Arbuckle Island south of Lavaca, Sebastion Co, Arkansas.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 010: James Lafayette Smith M.1855-1922
**********************************************************************
James Lafayette Smith, or Fate as he was called, was a nephew to
John Calvin Smith who showed up on the 1880 Census for Denton
Co, Texas living with his uncle's family.
Fate married Liola Elizabeth Stone on 25-DEC-1887 in Denton,
Texas. They had two children: Nina Lee Smith and William Owen
Page .31. 06-JUN-2004
Smith.
It is known that in 1925 Nina Lee Smith spent the fall and maybe
the winter of 1926 with some cousins in New Mexico.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 011: The Events 1914-1918 and the Smith Children
**********************************************************************
THE TRAGIC TIMES FOR THE SMITH CHILDREN
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On 19-JUL-1914 Leola James Ward, the wife of Charles Creth
Smith, died of typhoid fever in Olustee, Jackson Co, Oklahoma
where she and her family were living at the time. Her husband was left
a widower with seven children from age one to age fifteen.
Fortunately, the two grandmothers of the children were still living.
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith and her husband James Calvin
Smith were living in Vernon, Wilbarger Co, Texas some thirty
miles south. They were the parents of Charles Creth Smith. Susan
Mary Stone Ward Beaird was living in Corinth, Greer Co,
Oklahoma some twenty-five miles north and east. She was the mother of
Leola James Ward Smith. Corinth was an unincorporated community
about three miles north and two and one half miles west of Blair,
Oklahoma.
Charles Creth Smith moved his seven Smith Children to Corinth to
stay with their grandmother, Susan Mary Stone Ward Beaird, where
they lived until school was out the next year.
THE SETTING IN THE SUMMER OF 1914
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In the summer of 1914 Susan Mary Stone Ward Beaird was a
sixty-five year old widow. Her two unmarried daughters, Virgie Abigail
Ward and Orra Josephine Ward, were living with her. Her older
son, Charles Baxter Ward, and his wife and daughter had all died
of tuberculosis by 1914. By 1914 her younger son, Jesse Butler
Beaird, and his wife Estelle were living in a small square house
on the south side of the road to the west from Susan Mary Stone
Ward Beaird.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Susan Mary Stone Ward Beaird "Susan" F.1848-1939
Spouse1: James T. Ward "Jim" CSA M.1835-1876
Spouse2: Benjamin Butler Beaird "Ben" M.1839-1891
----------------------------------------------------------------------
They had the following children.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Baxter Ward "Baxter" M.1870-1900
Virgia Abigail Ward "Virgie" F.1871-1947
Orra Josephine Ward "Arie" F.1873-1919
Lula Frances Ward "Lula" F.1874-1951
Leola James Ward "Ola" F.1876-1914
Jesse Butler Beaird "Jesse" M.1891-1949
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Lula Frances Ward Nowlin who was another daughter of Susan Mary
Stone Ward Beaird had long since married and even had a grand
daughter by 1914. Susan Mary Stone Ward Beaird had outlived two
Page .32. 06-JUN-2004
husbands. Her second husband, Benjamin Butler Beaird, had died on
14-JUN-1891 just one day after their son, Jesse Butler Beaird, had
been born.
During the year that the Smith Children stayed with their Grandmother,
Susan Beaird, their father, Charles Creth Smith, was gone most of
the time because he was in the surrounding towns working as a
carpenter. He would be gone from Sunday evening until Saturday
afternoon. Leola May Smith has said that "We always looked forward
to Papa coming in on Saturday afternoon."
About two thirds of a mile north of Corinth Cemetery was an east-west
road. Susan Beaird lived to the west on that road about one quarter of
a mile. Her house was on the north side of that road and sat back
quite a ways from the road. It is known that Susan Mary Beaird owned
the northwest quarter of the section in which Corinth Cemetery was
located. This land was across the section line road to the south from
her house.
SUSAN BEAIRD'S HOUSE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Susan Mary Stone Ward Beaird's house was a one storey house which
had two rooms across the front. One of these rooms was the parlor and
the other was a bedroom. To the north of the parlor was the dining
room. North of the dining room was the kitchen which had a door
opening towards the west porch. This main porch of the house was
indented into the side of the house on the west side. The well which
the Smith Children's Aunt Virgie kept covered up with boards was to
the west of this porch. The barn was northwest of this entrance into
the house.
Diagonally across the southeast corner of the kitchen their Aunt Orra
had put up a dark blue curtain with a chair behind it. She would run
and hide behind this curtain whenever anyone would come. On the south
wall of the kitchen was a door into the dining room. On the west side
of the dining room was Grandma Beaird's rocking chair. Calie was just
learning to walk that year when the Smith Children stayed with their
grandmother. About all that Leola May Smith remembered of "Grandma
Beaird" that year was that she sat in her rocking chair and rocked
Calie.
Against the south wall of the dining room to the east of the door into
the parlor was a chifforobe. A chifforobe is a chest of drawers with a
place to hang clothes inside it.
SEEING THE FIRE FROM THEIR GRANDMOTHER BEAIRD'S HOUSE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
While the Smith Children were staying with their Grandmother Susan
Beaird another very sad event occurred which years later was often
related by Neva with deep emotion.
It was about May of 1915. Their father was off working in another
town. The sisters and brothers saw a great fire many miles to the
south. Everyone went outside to watch the fire. Leola May Smith
was only about five years old at the time but she remembered seeing
the fire from the front yard of her Grandma Beaird's house at Corinth.
Page .33. 06-JUN-2004
The next day they learned that it was their own house in Olustee which
had burned.
For more on the Olustee house see the chapter about it.
VISITING CORINTH CEMETERY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Even fifty years later when visiting Corinth Cemetery Crethie would
relate the heartbreaking story of the younger Smith Children walking
the two-thirds of a mile or so south from their Grandmother's house
while carrying pails of water "to water the flowers on Mama's grave".
Leola May Smith remembered carrying a half gallon syrup bucket
full of water the two-thirds of a mile to her mother's grave. She does
not remember whether or not there was a stone to mark her mother's
grave. All of them would go along to water the flowers accompanied by
their Aunt Virgie Ward.
Only the youngest child, Calie Anona Smith, was too small to go.
She would stay in the house and her grandmother, Susan Mary Stone
Ward Beaird, would rock with her in a rocking chair. The cemetery was
southeast of their Grandmother Beaird's house.
In 1938 when Charles Creth Smith died, a very nice granite
monument was placed to mark the place where he and his wife were
buried in Corinth Cemetery.
The seven Smith Children lived with their Grandmother Beaird for about
a year until their father, Charles Creth Smith, moved them back to
Olustee into a small three room house which he had rented. They moved
at the end of the school year in 1915.
To get to Corinth Cemetery go two miles north of the downtown
intersection of Blair, Oklahoma then turn west and go two and one half
miles. At that point there is a road going north into a pasture. Go
about three tenths of a mile north to the cemetery which has a
dilapidated barbed wire fence around it. Be very careful of the
electric fences north of the road in the pasture.
1914-1915: GOOD THINGS TO EAT
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Smith Children's Grandmother Beaird had a big black stove in the
kitchen of her house with a oven underneath. Her daughters, Virgie
Ward and Orra Ward, could bake four or five loaves of bread at
a time in the oven. They had a great big bread board on which they
would knead the bread and work it to get it ready to bake. Since there
were five school age Smith Children who were going to school that year
of 1914-1915 they needed lots of bread for sandwiches for them to take
in their lunch. Their Aunt Virgie and their Aunt Orra did all the
work. Their Aunt Orra usually stayed in the kitchen.
During that year of 1914-1915 when the Smith Children lived with their
Grandmother Beaird there were always bisquits for breakfast which had
been baked in the big oven. The bisquits were eaten with butter which
their Aunt Virgie had kept at the end of a rope in the well to keep it
cold. Milk was also kept in a bucket on a rope down in the well so
that it would be cold and keep better. Leola May Smith remembered
Page .34. 06-JUN-2004
going to the well with her Aunt Virgie to pull up the rope to get
either butter or the milk. They must have had a cow in a shed out back
but Leola May Smith did not remember one. Since Leola May
Smith was only four she was too small to help much with the chores
anyway.
For the other meals they always had beans either on the side or for
the main course. They raised a large garden so there was lots of fresh
vegetables. A bread and butter sandwich made with homemade bread and
butter from down in the well made a pretty good lunch with a glass of
milk from the bucket in the well. Leola May Smith did not ever
remember having meat to eat at the meals. Leola May Smith did not
remember chickens in the yard or the gathering of chicken eggs at her
Grandmother Beaird's house that year.
Neva Eugene Smith used to tell that her Aunt Virgie and her Aunt
Orra when preparing to bake a cake would say, "Look at the receipt to
see what goes in the cake." In those days they used the word "receipt"
to mean what we today call a "recipe". They did not use the word
"recipe" at all. Leola May Smith remembered her aunts referring to
a recipe in this way. They pronounced the word "receipt" just a we do
today. Recipe is in fact, even today, a dictionary meaning of the word
"receipt" in addition to the usual meaning.
GATHERING GUINEA EGGS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Straight south of their Grandmother Beaird's house along the south
side of the road going east and west was a row of trees which guineas
roosted in. Guineas are birds which are larger than chickens and which
are occasionally raised for their eggs. The guineas built nests on the
ground under the trees and laid eggs in them. Leola May Smith
sometimes would get to go with her Aunt Virgie to gather the guinea
eggs. The would take along a small rake to rake the eggs out of the
nests. Aunt Virgie would tell Leola May Smith that they could not
reach their hands into the nest because then the guineas would build a
nest somewhere else. For some reason Leola May Smith always
remembered gathering the guinea eggs with her Aunt Virgie and often
told of it over the years. Leola May Smith was only four or five
years old at the time. Their Aunt Orra never went along to gather
guinea eggs.
Today there is nothing but a plowed field where their Grandmother
Beaird's house was in 1915. There is not even any sign left of the
lane upto her house. However, on the south side of the road across
from where her house was there is still the row of small trees growing
beside the road in which the guineas used to nest.
1914-1915 EVERYDAY MATTERS AND MIDWAY SCHOOL
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Their Grandmother Beaird never went anywhere. Any thing which needed
to be bought was gotten by their Aunt Virgie when she went to town.
Their Grandmother Beaird did not do any work around the house. Their
Aunt Orra and their Aunt Virgie did all the housework. Their
Grandmother Beaird usually sat in a rocking chair and rocked their
little sister, Calie Anona Smith, who was still a baby that year.
When the Smith Children stayed with their Grandmother Beaird that year
Page .35. 06-JUN-2004
from the summer of 1914 until the summer of 1915 they slept on the
floor.
Nobody went to Sunday school or church that year. Leola May Smith
and Calie Anona Smith stayed home and played while the other Smith
Children went to Midway School.
Midway school was east and north of their Grandmother Beaird's house.
Their older brother, James Cellers Smith, would hitch up the horse
for the wagon and would drive the wagon to take the school age Smith
Children to school. Midway School was a two storey brick building on
the west side of a north-south section line east of their Grandmother
Beaird's house. When their Aunt Virgie went to town she hitched up
Hattie the other horse. Since she went to town on weekdays there must
have been two horses.
SCHOOL PICNICS ON BYRD MOUNTAIN
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One thing the older Smith Children really enjoyed getting to do when
they stayed that year with their Grandmother Beaird was when the
school had a picnic over on top of Byrd Mountain. From Corinth
Cemetery, Midway School or Mrs. Beaird's house there were several
mountains close by to the northeast. The farm land around is so very
flat that these mountains appear almost unreal. There are several of
them to the east and northeast. They are part of the Wichita Mountains
which is the only major outcropping of igneous rocks in the state of
Oklahoma. This accounts for the fact that the dirt has river rocks of
quartz and other igneous minerals in it at Corinth Cemetery. These
mountains are very old and well rounded. This is why they are really
fun to climb to have a picnic on top of. Neva Eugene Smith used to
tell of the fun they had picnicking on top of Byrd Mountain.
The Smith Children could not wait until school was out in 1915 to move
back to Olustee. They were anxious to get back to the school in
Olustee they had previously been going to before their mother died.
When school was out in the spring of 1915 the Smiths moved back to
Olustee.
MISCHIEVOUS LEOLA MAY SMITH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One day the older Smith Children were in school and the women were
working in the garden. Only Calie Anona Smith and her older sister
Leola May Smith were in their Grandmother Beaird's house. Leola
who was only four at the time decided she wanted curly hair like
Calie's hair. Calie who was not yet two years old had golden curls
about two inches long all over her head. Leola's hair was dark, dark
brown and as straight as it could be.
Against the south wall of the dining room over a little east from the
door into the parlor stood a chifforobe. The chifforobe was a chest of
drawers with a mirror on top of it. Leola moved a chair upto the
chifforobe, and by standing on it on tiptoe she could see a large pair
of scissors on top of it. Leola put two chairs in front of the
chifforobe, picked up Calie and stood her on one of the chairs. Then
Leola stood up on the other chair so she could see herself in the
mirror and have Calie in reach too. Leola took the scissors and cut
Page .36. 06-JUN-2004
off all of Calie's curls. Calie just stood there and did not seem to
mind at all. Leola remembered cutting them off one at a time right
next to Calie's scalp. She remembered holding them against her own
head while looking at herself in the mirror to see what she looked
like with them on her head. Leola remembered that she could not
understand why they would not stick to her own head. Because she could
not get them to stick to her own head she gathered them up and put
them in the coal bucket. Then Leola put the coal bucket on top of the
chifforobe and sat on the chair in front of it. When her Aunt Virgie
and the others came in they said, "What did you do to Calie's hair?"
Then her Aunt Virgie said, "Where did you put Calie's hair?" Then
Leola pointed to the coal bucket on top of the chifforobe. Leola did
not remember getting spanked for her mischief. Most likely, though,
the scissors were well hidden after that.
LIVING IN OLUSTEE AGAIN
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Spring of 1915 Charles Creth Smith moved his family back
the twenty-five miles southwest to Olustee in Jackson Co, Oklahoma
to a small three room rented house.
Charles Creth Smith had to work in other towns because there was
no houses being built in Olustee. He would leave on Sunday evenings
and would not return until Saturday afternoon. Whereever he went he
had to walk. He would always go to the grocery store before he came in
on Saturday evening. Leola May Smith remembered that, "Papa would
bring a sack of sticks of candy with him when he came in and would go
around passing them out." Leola May Smith also remembered that,
"We were so glad to see Papa when he came in on Saturday afternoons."
Leola May Smith just does not know how the the Smith family
survived those three years in Olustee after moving back there from
their Grandma Beaird's house. It must have been a tremendous strain on
her oldest sisters Cora Odessa Smith and Neva Eugene Smith
during those years to keep everything going.
BACK IN SCHOOL IN OLUSTEE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Neva was still in school when they first moved back to Olustee. A
neighbor lady kept Calie and Leola May Smith was sent off to
school even though she was not but five years old. At that time Neva
was having so much trouble with her eyesight that Calie who was just a
toddler had to lead her around the house. Neva had to quit school
shortly after they moved back to Olustee because her eyesight was so
bad.
Since the location of their house which had burned was just east a
ways from the school the Smith Children must have experienced an empty
feeling upon leaving school and glancing down that way.
ODESSA BEGAN TEACHING SCHOOL
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The oldest sister, Odessa, finished high school and went to summer
school at the college at Weatherford, Oklahoma. She got enough hours
for her to get a teacher's certificate. At this time Odessa began to
teach at a small two room school south of Olustee. She rode to the
Page .37. 06-JUN-2004
school in a wagon with a young man who was also a teacher. Since this
was not considered proper, Leola May Smith who was in the third
grade was sent along with them as chaperone. Leola May Smith was
taken out of the school at Olustee and sent to this country school.
Odessa taught her younger sister, Leola May Smith, in the third
grade that school year of 1917.
THE MOVE TO NORMAN, CLEVELAND CO, OKLAHOMA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In the summer of 1918 Charles Creth Smith moved his family to
Norman, Oklahoma. They eventually moved into a house at 126 South
Flood and attended what was to become McFarlin Methodist Church. By
this time Odessa was teaching in Duke, Oklahoma which is west of
Altus. Their older brother, Cellers, had joined the army and was in
World War I before the Smith family moved to Norman.
Charles Creth Smith was a man with five daughters whom he felt
needed an education. His mother, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith,
and her family had been well educated and had been teachers. By moving
to Norman where the University of Oklahoma was located Charles Creth
Smith could avoid much of the expense of sending his daughters to
college. He told his daughters, "You girls have to go to the
university so you can become teachers." Each of the five Smith girls
at one time or another was either a public school teacher or a teacher
in a nursery school. Three of the Smith Children girls became public
school teachers.
The Smith Children attended church at the Methodist Church located two
blocks north of downtown. In just a few years this church would become
McFarlin Methodist Church and would move into its current location
north of the university. The first Sunday that the new church was open
there was a group of young people who had been in the pastor's class
who joined the church and were baptized. Calie Anona Smith and
Leola May Smith were in this class.
IN SUMMARY ABOUT THE SMITH CHILDREN
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The seven Smith Children produced seven children. The Smith Children
were five girls and two boys. They produced five girls and two boys.
It is remarkable how successful the seven Smith Children were in later
life in spite of the tremendous hardships they went through in the
years from 1914 to 1918.
**********************************************************************
CHAPTER: 012: James Calvin Smith and Martha Julia Ann Baines, 1925
**********************************************************************
THE SMITH CHILDREN'S GRANDPARENTS SMITH: INTRODUCTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Leola May Smith visited her Grandmother Martha Julia Ann
Baines Smith and Grandfather James Calvin Smith for two months
during the summer of 1925. Most of the following information comes
from conversations with Leola May Smith about that summer.
James Calvin Smith and his wife Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith
lived in Vernon which was the county seat of Wilbarger County,
Page .38. 06-JUN-2004
Texas. Cora Odessa Smith Simpson and her husband Earl Simpson
were going to travel to Crowell, Texas which was southwest of Vernon.
Their daughter, Veroqua, was a baby about nine months old at the time.
Earl worked in Crowell in the oil business. They were going to stop by
to see Odessa's grandparents, James Calvin Smith and Martha Julia
Ann Baines Smith, who lived in Vernon, on the way to Crowell. The
Grandparents Smith were the parents of Charles Creth Smith who was
the father of Odessa, Leola and Calie in additiion to the other four
Smith Children. Leola May Smith and Calie Anona Smith went
along to visit with their Grandparents Smith. Leola decided to stay
with her Grandparents Smith but Calie decided to go on with Odessa,
Earl and Veroqua. The time must have been about the middle of June of
1925.
Leola May Smith ended up spending most of the summer with her
grandparents. Calie returned to Norman with Odessa, Earl and Veroqua
on the Fourth of July.
Neva Eugene Smith sent the money in a letter so that Leola May
Smith could return to Norman, Cleveland Co, Oklahoma on the
train at the end of the summer. Leola's Grandfather James Calvin
Smith bought her return ticket and took Leola May Smith to the
train about the middle of August so she could get back in plenty of
time to get ready for school. The train took Leola May Smith to
Oklahoma City from where she took the Interurban down to Norman. Her
grandfather was concerned about whether or not Leola May Smith,
who was fifteen at the time, knew how to get from the train station to
the Interurban station. She assured him that she knew the way and that
it was just a few blocks.
Leola May Smith really enjoyed visiting her grandparents and
getting to help her grandmother work around the house and in the
garden that summer.
THE SETTING SUMMER 1925
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That summer Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith was seventy-three years
old and her husband James Calvin Smith was seventy-five. They had
been married fifty-four years. Their oldest son, Charles Creth
Smith, was fifty-two, and their second son, Edgar John Smith,
who was there quite a bit that summer was forty-nine. Their third son,
Clarence Eugene Smith,Sr, who was living with his second family in
Arkansas, was forty-six. Leola May Smith, who was visiting for the
summer was a teenager at fifteen. She had just graduated from
University High School in Norman, Oklahoma.
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith always wrote her name as Mattie
Baines Smith. She would live nearly five more years and her husband
would live nearly four more years. They had lived in Vernon,
Wilbarger Co, Texas for about twenty years. Prior to that they had
lived in Palo-Pinto Co, Texas for a few years. Previously they had
lived in Denton, Denton Co, Texas.
Edgar John Smith would only live another two and one half years.
Leola May Smith would live another seventy years.
Page .39. 06-JUN-2004
VERNON, TEXAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vernon is today about an hours drive west from Wichita Falls, Texas.
The land there is very flat and is used for growing cotton. The town
today has a population of about thirteen thousand. The town was named
after Mt. Vernon which was George Washington's home. Vernon is the
county seat of Wilbarger County and was organized about 1885. The
Wilbarger County courthouse which we see today in Vernon was not
built until 1937. Some of the buildings around the town square today
were there in the summer of 1925.
In the late nineteenth century the town of Vernon had been on the
Great Western Trail which was a cattle trail going from deep in Texas
up to Dodge City, Kansas. In the 1880's, particularly, hundreds of
thousands of head of cattle, many of them Texas Longhorns, had been
driven up this trail to Kansas. While the Chisholm Trail over east
about one hundred miles has received all the acclaim, the Great
Western Trail was just as important historically.
THEIR HOUSE, THE SETTING
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith and her husband, James Calvin
Smith, lived in a house in the northwest part of Vernon,
Wilbarger Co, Texas which even at that time was a run down part of
town. They had moved to Vernon before 1910 after spending a few years
in the town of Gordon in Palo-Pinto Co, Texas where they were
living in 1900. They had built in the northwest part of Vernon with
the thought in mind that the town was going to grow that way. Very
probably their oldest son, Charles Creth Smith, had built their
house for them since he was a carpenter who built and finished houses
for a living. They owned some land behind the house to the extent that
they had a barn for a milk cow and for the horse for James Calvin
Smith's dray wagon. The also kept some chickens both for eggs and
to eat.
The Smith family's house was located at 569 McGhee Street. McGhee is
an east west street located two blocks north of Highway 287. Their
house is located two or three blocks west of the street that goes
north and south on the west side of courthouse square. Sometime after
1930 all of the addresses were renumbered. The address 569 probably
has become 1869 in the address numbering system of today. The area is
an industrial part of town today. Several blocks of McGhee Street have
been taken over by a meat packing plant. As late as 1995 their house
was still standing, but was in great disrepair.
Martha Julia Ann Baines worked a small garden to the west of the
house. There were potatoes in the garden to be dug as well as green
beans to pick. However, her husband, James Calvin Smith, never put
a foot in the garden. He always wore his coat and tie and was too
dressed up to do gardening. Leola May Smith helped her grandmother
dig the potatoes and pick the beans. When she worked in the garden
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith always wore her bonnet to keep the
sun off of her face. She and her granddaughter, Leola, sat out on the
dirt patio while they shelled the beans. The grandmother sat in her
little rocker and shelled beans. She would rock like the mischief
while shelling them.
Page .40. 06-JUN-2004
Mattie and James Calvin Smith had moved to Vernon after 1900 but
before 1910 from Gordon in Palo-Pinto County. They had moved from
Denton to Palo-Pinto County sometime after 1880.
THE ROOMS IN THE HOUSE: THE PARLOR
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Their house faced the south. The southern most room of the house was
the parlor. The parlor was the room that Leola May Smith
remembered hardly ever going into because it was for company. The
parlor had a full size folding bed in a cabinet catty-cornered in the
north west corner. On occasion Leola May Smith or her grandmother,
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith would dust in the parlor but
otherwise they stayed out of the parlor. The parlor had an outside
door onto the front porch towards the east. There was a door on the
north side of the parlor which led into the room that was both James
Calvin Smith's bedroom and the dining room.
JAMES CALVIN SMITH'S BEDROOM AND THE DINING ROOM
----------------------------------------------------------------------
North of the parlor was James Calvin Smith's room which was also
the dining room. This room had three doors in it but no outside door.
The south door went to the parlor. The north door went to his wife's
bedroom. The east door went to the spare bedroom which stuck out of
the east side of the house and which was Leola May Smith's bedroom
that summer.
In James Calvin Smith's bedroom, the bed was on the west side with
the headboard against the north wall. After the bed was made up each
morning by him, he would push his bed up against the west wall.
The dining room table was against the east wall and was just north of
the door going into the east bedroom. James Calvin Smith sat at
the south end of the dining table. That summer, Leola May Smith
sat on the west side of the table. Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith
sat at the north end of the table. When Edgar John Smith, their
son, was there, they pulled the table out from the wall and he would
sit on the east side of the table. Of course, if the weather outside
was nice, Edgar would pick up his plate and take it out onto the dirt
patio. He was very much the outdoors type of a man.
THE OTHER BEDROOMS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
East of James Calvin Smith's room was the spare bedroom in which
Leola May Smith stayed that summer. The door to this room was on
the east side of James Calvin Smith's room just south of the
dining room table. This room had an outside door on the south side
opening onto the front porch. This room was the biggest bedroom and
had a full bed against the west wall north of the west door.
Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith's bedroom was to the north of her
husband's bedroom. Her bed was also against the west wall with the
headboard against the north wall. While her room did not have an
outside door it did have doors in both the north and south walls.
THE KITCHEN
Page .41. 06-JUN-2004
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The kitchen was north of Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith's bedroom.
In the south wall of the kitchen was the door which led from her
bedroom. The kitchen had an east outside door and the entrance to the
cellar. The cellar entrance, which opened from the inside of the
kitchen, was on the west side of the kitchen. The outside door of the
kitchen opened to the east and this is where Martha Julia Ann
Baines Smith's dirt patio was. This patio was north of the spare
bedroom in which Leola May Smith stayed that summer of 1925. The
floor of this dirt patio was packed dirt which was dried and hard.
That is all the rooms that were in the house.
OUTSIDE THE HOUSE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To get to the outhouse, one had to go out the kitchen door on the east
side of the house and then north and west around the kitchen to its
location northwest of the house. Every bedroom had a chamber pot to be
used at night. They did not go to the outhouse at night. Everyone had
to empty her or his own chamber pot in the morning. The garden was
west of the cellar on the west side of the house.
The house did not have electricity or water. There was a well to the
north of the house from which James Calvin Smith and his wife got
their water. They had to bring water into the house in a bucket. They
used kerosene lamps for light at night.
The house had been painted white and did have screens on the doors.
Leola May Smith does not remember it raining that summer at all.
THE HOUSE YEARS LATER
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In the nineteen-fifties when Crethie Munro Smith Mashburn, Neva
Eugene Smith and Leola May Smith Ballard visited Vernon, Texas
they were able to find the house that their grandparents, James Calvin
Smith and Martha Julia Baines Smith lived in there. On that
visit the people who were living in the house let the visitors drink
from the well north of the house. The water tasted pretty good but was
very brackish because of the heavy mineral content.
Neva pointed out the two trees on opposite sides of the house that she
used to use when she was a girl to climb over the house. One tree was
on the dirt patio on the northeast side of the house, and one tree was
on the west side of the house. The limbs of the two crossed overhead
so that she could climb up one and down the other. In this way she
could climb over the house. With great delight, Neva often related
this story of her early tree climbing adventures.
JAMES CALVIN SMITH HAD THE DRAY WAGON BUSINESS IN VERNON, TEXAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------
James Calvin Smith had a dray wagon business in Vernon, Texas.
Leola May Smith could not remember the name of his business or the
name of his horse. James Calvin Smith had a four wheeled horse
drawn dray wagon which he used to deliver groceries and luggage for
people in Vernon.
Page .42. 06-JUN-2004
For the times that Leola May Smith got to ride on her
grandfather's dray wagon she had to climb up to the seat using the
spokes of the right front wheel for steps. James Calvin Smith had
her sit on his right side. The wagon was just big enough to haul a
couple of trunks or maybe some boxes. It did have springs under the
seat for more comfortable riding.
James Calvin Smith would wait on the north east corner of the town
square for people who needed his services to hire him. He would wait
on the north side of the street which today is a used car lot. He kept
his dray wagon backed to the sidewalk with the horse facing south
ready to go. He also would meet all the trains at the Katy Depot
because local passengers often needed him to haul their luggage.
He always carried a small bottle of perfume so that he could dab a
little on before he entered someone's house when delivering things. In
this way he would smell nice. During the hot summer months he would
take his coat off and lay it over the seat of his dray wagon when
outdoors. Even so he would put his coat back on if he had to go into
someone's house.
James Calvin Smith worked at this seven days a week. Everyday at
noon he would come home to eat lunch. His wife, Martha Julia Ann
Baines Smith, always fixed a good lunch because by that time her
husband was hungry. When he came home for lunch he would unhitch his
horse and give the horse water. Then after lunch he would hitch the
horse back to his dray wagon and would be off to downtown again. Lunch
was actually called dinner.
He would bring home things which were in torn sacks and could not be
sold. He carried extra sacks in case a sack of cornmeal had a hole so
he could salvage it and bring it home. One never knew what he was
going to bring home. Any thing which had been damaged in shipment he
would salvage.
One time, that summer, he brought home some boxes of blackberries. His
wife, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith, baked blackberry cobbler
which was mighty good.
When James Calvin Smith came in from his work in the late
afternoon he would take off the coat and tie, which he always wore for
work, and would read his Bible until supper time. Then he would put
his coat and tie back on and come to the supper table. He never came
to the table without his coat and tie on. He was always very proper
and looked nice.
Every evening Mr. and Mrs. Smith counted the money that he had made
during the day with his dray wagon. Then Martha Julia Ann Baines
Smith put the money into a small cloth bag and hid it in the flour bin
in the cellar. The entrance to the cellar was inside her kitchen on
the west side.
JAMES CALVIN SMITH WAS SO PROPER
----------------------------------------------------------------------
James Calvin Smith was very proper. He always wore his coat and
tie to the table for all meals even though the others present were
Page .43. 06-JUN-2004
much more casual. James Calvin Smith was the first person to get
up each morning. He insisted upon everyone getting their beds made
before coming to the breakfast table. After each family member got her
or his bed made each had to "brush out" which meant a quick broom
sweep of their room. It was convenient that he was so proper to get
his bed made and his bedroom cleaned since his bedroom also served as
the dining room of the house.
James Calvin Smith was refined and polite in addition to being
proper and precise. He was very kind and softspoken and quiet. He kept
his hair cut very neatly to match the rest of his appearance. His hair
was grey and his eyes were blue. Each morning he carefully shaved
himself in his room with his straight razor. He wore a bushy mustache.
James Calvin Smith never teased and was always serious in his coat
and tie. His wife, Martha Julia Ann Baines Smith was not that way
at all.
James Calvin Smith sometimes wore a suit but usually his pants and
coat were not of the same material but did look good together. His
shirts were always perfect for his wife ironed them with an old flat
iron with wooden handles which sat on the back of the stove. He wore a
long tie that he had tied himself in front of