James Luther Smith Family....The Beginning

James Luther Smith (1830-1911)

James Luther "J. L." Smith was born on November 9, 1830 in Saratoga County, New York.  He left New York at a young age and traveled by boat to New Orleans.  There, it is believed that he worked on boats and was a policeman for about a year.  

Henrietta DeGlando Smith

While living in New Orleans, J. L. met and married Henrietta DeGlando circa 1853.  Henrietta was born in New Orleans on September 29, 1836.

By 1860, J. L. and Henrietta had moved to Catahoula Parish and were living in the area of Trinity.  Some time between 1870 and 1880, they moved to Sicily Island where they bought a farm joining Gottleib Krause's farm.  The farmland was purchased from Mrs. Mary Doniphan and was part of Midship Plantation.  Part of this property is now Highland Cemetery.

In 1875, J. L. built a larger home.  The front part was four large rooms divided by a hall from front to back with an extra large fireplace in each of the two front rooms.  There was a railed gallery running the width of the front.  The large dining room and kitchen was an ell on the back with a porch on the inner side of this ell and across the back of the main house.  In the yard, out from the kitchen, there was a summer house where many household chores were done in the summer. (Our Island Heritage, Vol. 3, 1978, compiled by Sophie Haley and Mickie Smith) 

Amanuensis Monday - The Stories That Should Be Told, Part 64

The following transcription is from a series of recordings my father made in the early 1990s:

Persimmons….

Something I forgot to mention on earlier tapes when I was talking about exploring the forests and swamps around the village of Sicily Island was persimmon trees.  Every so often we would find persimmon trees in the swamp.  If anyone has ever bitten into a green persimmon, they will know what I’m talking about.  

Green Persimmons

You could bite into one of those green persimmons and it would draw your mouth up something terrible.  I don’t know what was in them but it would almost choke you.  After the first frost of the year, the persimmons would begin to ripen.  A ripened persimmon was one of the best tasting things.  

Ripened Persimmon

My mother loved persimmons.  She’d always tell me to bring her some persimmons if I came across any when I was out exploring.  I always made a special effort to find her some persimmons.

I remember one persimmon tree that was over in the swamp going towards Peniston’s and Brown’s lakes.  It was a great big ole tree.  When I got out of school I would walk over there.  It was a good ways from my house.  By the time I walked over there and made it back home it would almost be dark. 

My mother told me about the time they all went out to Grandpa and Grandma Smith’s house back in 1908 or 1909 when she was about nine years old. 

James Luther Smith

Henrietta D. Smith

James Luther and Henrietta Smith were Grandma Steele’s grandparents.  

She and her sister, Nettie, were raised by their grandparents when their mother, Ginny, died at a young age. 

The Smith family was a big family.  They would all gather at the Smith house on Sundays.  

The Smith house used to sit on some land out behind what is now the cemetery just outside town.

Smith House:  J. L. and Henrietta seated LtoR; Jennie standing

Formerly property of James Luther Smith; farmed by Grandpa Steele

Old Smith house sat at the back of this land

On this particular Sunday, some of the boys and girls had gone out to a persimmon tree that stood behind the old Smith house.  Mother said her cousin Charlie Smith was up in the tree shaking limbs to make the persimmons fall. 

Grandpa Steele

Grandpa Steele was out walking around in the fields he farmed that were right beside the Smith house.  He saw Charlie and all the other children and decided to sneak up on them. 

Once he got close he let out a scream like a wildcat. 

Charlie dropped out of that tree and led the pack of children who were running and screaming to get away from that wildcat. 

Mother said every time Grandpa Steele told that story he would laugh and laugh.

Note:  Parts 1-63 of 'The Stories That Should Be Told' can be found in the Tags List on the right-hand side of the blog.

Amanuensis Monday ~ The Stories That Should Be Told, Part 42

The following transcription is from a series of recordings my father made in the early 1990s:

Most of my kinfolk here on the Island came through my Grandma Mollie Steele.  Her mother was Virginia Smith.  The James Luther and Henrietta Smith family was a big family.  They had three sons named James William, Francis Marion and Edward Dorsey. Their two daughters were Virginia and Kate. Right now here on the Island the old ones have gone on before us and we’re down to 4^th and 5^th cousins.  I’m kin to over half the people living here in the little village. 

Henrietta D. Smith

James Luther Smith

My Double Cousins...

The double cousins come through the sisters, Virginia and Kate Smith.  

Tom Chisum married Kate Smith. Tom's nephew Al Steele (through his sister, Lucinda Chisum Steele), married Virginia's daughter (and Kate's niece), Mollie.  

Uncle Tom and Aunt Kate Chisum's four children, Big Emmett, Big Walling, Cousin Eva [Gordon] and Cousin Jessie [McNair] were my Grandma Mollie Steele’s first cousins through her Aunt Kate Smith and they were my Grandpa Al Steele's first cousins through his Uncle Tom Chisum.

Uncle Tom and Aunt Kate Chisum’s four children were my double 3^rd cousins.

From that point on it was double kin.  Double 2nds, double 3rds, double 4ths, and on down the line.

Allye Steele and Bruce Edmonds

My father, Bruce Edmonds, came to Sicily Island from Arkansas.  He came here as a section foreman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.  He was born near Whelen Springs.  His mother was living in Gurdon when she died.  

On March 29, 1926 he married my mother, Mary Allye Steele.

He quit working for the railroad in about 1927 or 1928.  In the 1930s, he worked for the auditors of the state of Louisiana.  During World War II, he worked off on defense projects where they were building army camps.  

In about 1942, he came back and lived here in Sicily Island permanently.  He was a cashier in the Sicily Island State Bank up until several years before his death in 1974.  He opened the first Drive-In on the spot where the old Charlie’s Nite Club had been.

Sunday School...

Brother [Otis W.] Spinks was the first preachers I remember.  One of the hymns he liked to sing was “In My Heart There Rings a Melody”. 

Brother [C. Fenwick] Reed.  Originally from England.  He told a joke in church one time.   The story was about a mama polecat and her babies walking around in the forest. 

They heard the hounds coming.  The little baby polecats were running around the mama polecat saying, “Oh, Mama.  The hounds are coming! What must we do?”  The mama polecat said, “Children, all we can do is spray.  Let’spray.”

Sunday School Teachers I remember...

Sophie Lee Haley, Mabel Chambless and Eugnenia Smith.

Children I went to Sunday School with:

John Fairbanks, Evelyn Ogden, Virginia Ogden, Ouida Seal, Juanita Seal, Dorothy “Bit” McNair and Cleo Foster.

Older people who went to Sunday School:

Aunt Lena McLelland, Fred Chambless, Bro. Woodward, Jessie McNair, Eva Gordon and Estelle Peck.

Remembering some of my little friends...

I’m thinking about and remembering some of my little colored friends who I grew up with back in the early 1930s.  We played marbles and had Chinaberry wars.  I spent about as much time playing with my colored playmates as I did with the white boys.  Willie Jim, Tommy Lee, Dolly and a little boy who lived on the Peck place named Jack.

I heard Jack died several years ago out in California.  I hadn’t seen him since we were little children.  Willie Jim is still living.  I saw him four or five years ago.  I don’t know where he is now.  Dolly’s name was Willie Cain.  He lives in Monroe.  I hadn’t seen him in forty something years then I saw him at his Aunt Mag Cooper’s funeral a few years back.  Tommy Lee Williams died young.  He had moved away from here to Chicago.  I heard some of the colored folks tell about him dying so young.  

Minnie Mae....

I’ve been up visiting Minnie Mae Colbert.  She’ll be 83 or 84 in February.  I try to go visit her at least once a week, sometimes twice a week.  She still seems to get along pretty good.  Her daughter, Nannie, stays there with her.  Nannie is about 55 or 56 years old. 

Minnie Mae’s husband and Nannie’s father, Louis, has been dead at least ten years.  Louis died a young man.  I think he was only about 57 or 58 years old. 

As I’ve said before on other tapes, Mac Harris lived there with Minnie Mae and Nannie for several years.  There was no direct kinship between Mac and Minnie Mae.  Mac’s brother, Iverson “I-Bo” was married to Minnie Mae’s sister, Cora.  Cora is still living but she is up in the nursing home in Wisner. 

Minnie Mae and Cora were Hamiltons.  Their family lived over behind the school house on the Peck place until about 1931.  Mr. [William Barney] Bowman moved into the house after the Hamiltons moved out.

Mr. Bowman was Mrs. Cloy’s [Pinkie Paralee Bowman] brother.  The Cloys and the Hamiltons were from around Lucien and McCall’s Creek, Mississippi, on the other side of Meadville and Bude.

Note:  Parts 1-41 of 'The Stories That Should Be Told' can be found in the Tags List on the right-hand side of the blog.

Virginia "Ginnie" Smith Blackman, daughter of J. L. and Henrietta Smith

Virginia "Ginnie" Smith was born on March 14, 1856 to James Luther and Henrietta DeGlando Smith.  On November 15, 1872, she married Joseph A. "Frank" Blackman in the home of her parents by the Justice of the Peace.  Witnesses were:  E. L. Keenan, James Kelly and James H. Young.

 

Isham Alfonso "Al" Steele Family

Isham Alfonso "Al" Steele (1870-1934)

Isham Alfonso "Al" Steele, the son of Francis Marion "Frank" and Lucinda Chisum Steele, was born November 20, 1870 in Limestone County, Texas.

Other children born to the marriage of Frank and Lucinda Steele were:  Lula, 1866-1955 (m. Henry H. Stubbs); Lydia Francis, 1867-1941 (m. Silas A. Greer); Louella "Ella", 1868-1954 (m. Walter A. Walling); Mary Allye "Madie", 1872-1961 (m. Henry R. Eaton); Lena Rhoda, 1877-1960 (m. James "Jim" McLelland).

Lucinda Chisum Steele

Frank Steele

The Children (and grandchildren) of Edward Dorsey "Dorse" Smith

Edward Dorsey "Dorse" Smith was born on March 3, 1870 to James Luther and Henrietta DeGlando Smith.  He married Helen Jackson circa 1905.  Helen was born on May 30, 1885 in Mississippi.  After Henrietta's death and the property division, Dorse and Helen lived in several different houses before buying the lot where the Gordon and Mary Nell Higgins house stands today.  When Dorse's brother, Buck, moved to town, Dorse sold his house to Mr. Denham and bought the old Smith home back. 

Dorse died on April 2, 1940 and Helen died on April 10, 1917.  Both are buried in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery.

Dorse and Helen had the following children: 

The Children (and grandchildren) of Tom and Kate Smith Chisum

On March 23, 1881, Thomas Jefferson "Tom" Chisum married Catherine "Kate" Smith.  Tom, the son of Isham Russell and Mary Polly Walling Chisum, came to Sicily Island circa 1876 from Limestone County, Texas.  He was born on January 3, 1852.  Kate, born on September 24, 1859, was the daughter of James Luther Smith and Henrietta DeGlando Smith.

Kate died on April 23, 1936 and Tom died on December 4, 1934.  Both are buried in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island.

To the marriage of Tom and Kate were born the following five children: 

The Children (and grandchildren) of James William "Buck" Smith

James William "Buck" Smith was born on December 10, 1862 to James Luther and Henrietta DeGlando Smith. On February 8, 1883, he married Margaret A. "Mary" Kendrick.  Upon the death of his mother in 1917, he received twenty acres and the old Smith house which was included in the acreage. 

Buck died on July 23, 1936 and Mary died on January 4, 1921.  They are both buried in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island.

Buck and Mary had the following nine children: 

Wedding Wednesday - Frank and Nettie Smith Celebrate 50th Wedding Anniversary

Monroe News Star 9/30/1936

Francis Marion "Frank" Smith was the son of James Luther and Henrietta D. Smith.  He married Nettie Watson on September 19, 1886.  Nettie was the dauther of Elias and Sarah Mathis Watson.

The following children were born to the marriage of Frank and Nettie Smith:

Isom James
Jennie
Mollie
Jessie
Clayton Francis
William Edward "Buck"
Sadye
Sidney

The Children (and grandchildren) of Francis Marion "Frank" Smith

Francis Marion "Frank" Smith was born on November 24, 1867 to James Luther and Henrietta DeGlando Smith.  On September 19, 1886, he married Nettie Watson.  Nettie was born on September 4, 1868 in Harrisonburg.

Frank died on July 7, 1953 and Nettie died on August 9, 1946.  Both are buried in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island.

Frank and Nettie had the following children: 

Sentimental Sunday ~ The Old Steele House

Side view showing the storm cellar

My three-great grandfather, James Luther Smith, built the original house for his granddaughter, Mary Virginia "Mollie" Blackman and her husband, Isham Alfonso "Al" Steele.  In the beginning, the house had only four rooms and a kitchen.

The front room was built some time prior to 1900 as Mollie and Al's daughter, Mary Allye, was born in this room on March 9, 1900.  The storm cellar seen in the photograph above was built prior to 1911 by a white mustached man referred to as "the Irishman."  A long porch was built across the front of the house in 1922 by Mr. Tom Hardin and a bigger kitchen was built ca. 1925.  The side porch was built in the early 1930s. 

In 1911, Al Steele and family moved to Childress, Texas to live near one of Al's sisters, Lydia Francis "Lyd" Steele and her husband Silas Abe Greer.  While the Steele family was living in Texas, the Edmon Clark Chambers family lived in the Steele House.  In Ollie Chambers' collection of remembrances, Down Memory Lane, she recalls the following:

Our parents rented the Steele house in 1912.  That was indeed a terrible year for our family.  Mearine, Luceil, Darris and Ollie had typhoid fever.  The only help our parents could get was an old colored woman named, Annie Barkshire. 

There seemed to be many tornadoes or hurricanes at this time.  There was a storm cellar in the side yard in easy access to the front porch, in which our parents kept a lantern, plenty of matches in a can, fresh water was kept in jars or bottles, also quilts for us to sleep upon.  There were benches in the storm cellar.

Annie Barkshire always came to our house to join us in the storm cellar.  Our parents always had a big can that had a top on it, in which they kept canned foods, vienna sausage, potted meat, crackers and cookies.  If Mama had time, when we went to the storm cellar, she took cottage cheese that she had made, also fresh milk.  Fortunately, we never had to stay in the storm cellar long enough to use up all the food.  However, you can imagine with four hungry girls, Annie Barksire, and Mama and Papa, that a great deal of nourishment was consumed.

In 1912, Claude and Vivian Martin Enright were living in the Steele house where their son, Claude Martin Enright was born. 

Robert Otis Moss and Marion Smith were married in the Steele house ca. 1922. 

Sisters, Sarah Virginia and Evelyn Steele Ogden, were born in the Steele house in 1922 and 1926, respectively.

My grandparents, Bruce and Mary Allye Steele Edmonds lived in the Steele house until 1958 when they swapped houses with their son (my father), Bruce Alfonso Edmonds and his family.

The old Steele house is gone now.  Fire destroyed it about twenty years ago.  I grew up in this house.  Many years were spent playing under the old pecan trees planted over 100 years ago by my great-grandfather, Al Steele. 

We never had to use the storm cellar for protection from tornadoes and hurricanes but it made the perfect fort for playing cowboys and indians with my brothers and friends.



(Cross-posted from Pathway To Remembrance)

The Chosen Ones of Family History

James Luther Smith (seated; left)
Henrietta D. Smith (seated; center)

The following poem was originally written by Della M. Cummings Wright circa 1943.  It was re-told by her granddaughter, Della JoAnn McGinnis Johnson.  Below is my adaptation of The Chosen Ones.

The Chosen Ones

In each family there is one who is called to find the Ancestors.
To make them live again.  To tell of their family story.

To feel that somehow they know and approve.

Researching family history is not a cold gathering of facts.

It is breathing life into all who have gone before.
Those who have gone before cry out to us.  Tell our story.  Remember who we were.
In finding them, we find ourselves.

It goes beyond just documenting facts or endless hours of research.
It goes to awe in what our ancestors were able to accomplish.

It goes to thankfulness in how they contributed to what we are today.
It goes to respecting their hardships and losses.

It goes to honoring their perseverance to continue on and build a life for their family.
It goes to pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation. 
It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us so that we might be born who we are.

That we might remember them.

We are them and they are us.

I have gazed upon the graves of my ancestors.

I have felt the connection between us.

I am telling the story of our family history.

I am one of the chosen ones.

I have answered the call.

It will now be up to the chosen one in the next generation to answer the call.

To step up and continue to tell the history of our family.

Thomas "Tom" Jefferson Chisum

From Our Island Heritage, Vol. 2, 1977, compiled by Sophie Haley and Mickie Smith:

Thomas Jefferson "Tom" Chisum

Thomas "Tom" Jefferson Chisum was born in Limestone County, Texas on January 3, 1852, son of Isham Russell Chisum and Mary Walling.  Tom was eight years old when his father died.  Due to this, plus the hardship of the war, Tom's boyhood and educational opportunities were narrowed.  Fortunately the duties of the farm and the care of the stock interested him more than anything else.  By the time he was sixteen years old, he had become a livestock trader.

In 1876, Tom brought a bunch of horses to Sicily Island to sell, but this venture was unsuccessful because of crop failure that year.  As a result of this he found himself $1,500 in debt.  Although it took the hard work of five years to accomplish it, the debt was paid in full.

After deciding to remain at Sicily Island, Tom Chisum, in partnership with his brother, opened a store at the end of The Texas Road, later moving to Florence (now Sicily Island).  Later, he built the store pictured below, which was located where the old Graves' Super Store building stands today.  The Chisum store faced the railroad tracks.  This was the center of the village's activity at that time for here was also located H. M. Peniston's gin and sawmill. 

Descendants of Clay W. Fairbanks

William Fairbanks, Jr. was born on January 5, 1805 in Copiah County, Mississippi.  On March 5, 1829, he married Elizabeth Ann Watkins in East Feliciana, Louisiana.  Elizabeth was born on October 7, 1806 in Copiah County, Mississippi.

William Fairbanks, Jr. died on April 15, 1856 and Elizabeth Watkins Fairbanks died on March 1, 1871.

The following children were born to the marriage of William and Elizabeth Watkins Fairbanks:

Edward J, 1829-?
William A, 1832- aft 1880 (m. 1. Julia L. Johnson; m. 2. Eliza E. Empress)
Mary M, 1833-?
Clay W, 1837-1920 (m. 1. Mary V; m. 2. Mattie A. Lovelace)
Samuel David, 1839-1918 (m. 1. Mary Ella Sullivan; m. 2. Alice L. Clark)
Osborn Pulaski, 1842-1917 (m. Cassie Husbands)

Descendants of Clay W. Fairbanks

Clay W. was born on May 17, 1837.  He first married Mary V. (1817-abt 1881) and had the following children:

Thomas J.
Francis B.
Annie Laurie
Henry Osborne

On December 25, 1883, he married Mattie A. Lovelace and had the following children:

John Lovelace, 1884-1944 (m. Rosa Cerniglia), son Clay W. (1912-1944)
Mabel, 1887-1971 (m. Robert D. Swayze), children:  Augustus, Mabel, Mattie

Clay W. Fairbanks died on January 19, 1920 and Mattie A. Lovelace Fairbanks died on April 5, 1911.  Both are buried in the Old Pine Hill Cemetery in Sicily Island.  The actual date of death and location of Mary V.'s burial are unknown at this time.

The Gotleib Krause Family

Gotleib Krause was born on November 14, 1832 in Posen, Prussia.  He was a member of the Cavalry Division for four years.  At the age of twenty, having been advised by his superior officer to go to America where he could have a better life, he set sail. 

Gotleib arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 27, 1859 aboard the ship "Adler".

Full Passenger List; Ship: Adler; arrived in New Orleans on May 27, 1859

 An enlarged portion of the passenger list below:

The John Griffin Cooper Family

John Griffin Cooper was born on January 22, 1867 in south Louisiana to Lawrence Martin and Emily Wooly Cooper.  He moved to Marion County, Mississippi where he met and married Mary Eliza Parnell on December 20, 1887.  Mary was born on May 20, 1866 and died on February 12, 1905, two years after the birth of their eighth child.  She is buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Fortenberry, Marion County, Mississippi.  (Editor's note:  tombstone photograph is courtesy of Arthur Fortenberry at FindAGrave.com)

In early 1906, John married widow Louise Delilia "Lila" Cameron Gill.  Lila was born on March 7, 1882 in Mississippi and had one daughter, Vernon (abt 1902), from her previous marriage.

From Our Island Heritage, Vol. 3, 1978, compiled by Sophie Haley and Mickie Smith:

John Cooper continued to live in Mississippi until he moved his family to Sicily Island in December of 1917.  A friend and former neighbor, I. E. Bass, had moved to Sicily Island around 1914 and it was he who encouraged the Coopers to move here along with the Williamsons and the Newsomes.  The three families moved at the same time, some members driving through with wagons and others coming by train.  Mollie Cooper Salter recalled that when they checked in at the Eola Hotel in Natchez for the night, they were told by the management that no pets were allowed.  Seymour Williamson had his pet dog which he was not about to give up.  Seymour waited until the right moment to sneak his dog up the stairs to their room where he put him in bed and crawled in with him.  The management was none the wiser.

I. E. Bass had secured farmland for the three families and so the Cooper family settled down to farm for T. J. Peniston.  They lived in a house near where the Town Hall is located today.  Over the years, John Cooper farmed at various locations on the Island until age brought him to retirement.  After retiring, John and Lila moved into Sicily Island where they first rented and then decided to build their own home.  They started building but in 1938, before the home was completed, Lila Cooper died.

John Cooper lived a long and useful life.  He was an active member of the Masonic Lodge and of the Baptist Church.  Lila was a member of the Eastern Star and the Baptist Church.