Finding the Smiths part 3: The origin story

Editor’s note: This is the third part in a series on my Smith ancestors. Be sure to check out part 1 and part 2 if you haven’t already!

Playing the ancestor name game

One of the biggest hurdles for many African American genealogy researchers is the family surname. A lot of us assume that our family’s surname came from the white people that enslaved them just prior to emancipation, but that wasn’t always the case. Many families derived their surname from a white person that may have enslaved previous generations of their family before they ended up with the last owner. Or some simply chose to name themselves something completely different from those that enslaved them to assert their independence. In the case of my Smith family, I had to follow the clues very closely to find them before the 1880 census. I ended up having to navigate TWO name changes as I painstakingly weaved together the tapestry that led from William and Nancy Smith back to William’s mother Martha and beyond.

I was stumped for quite a while after I found my 3x great grandmother in Mattoon, IL. 1880 proved to be a brick wall—first in my search for William and Nancy, and subsequently as I tried to learn more about Martha. But then I realized there was one vital record that was missing from my research on Martha. Since she died in 1917 in Illinois, there should be a death certificate for her! Luckily, I found it easily but unfortunately, most of the crucial information was missing. Not surprising considering her age and her status as a formerly enslaved person. It was almost expected that the informant would not have known much about her past. But it did give one key bit of info—Martha’s specific birthplace.

It said she was born in Jackson County, Tennessee. Knowing the exact county where she lived is certainly more helpful than having to operate within the broad boundaries of the entire state of Tennessee. It was still a shot in the dark to find any trace of her because, again, SMITH. There could be any number of Smiths all over Tennessee! BUT I also had a timeframe narrowed down.

Tennessee had not been a state for very long when Martha was born in Jackson County. Furthermore, I knew from census records that Martha’s mother was born in North Carolina, so I figured my best bet (though a long shot) would be to search out a Smith family that had moved to Jackson county from North Carolina in the first decade of the 19^th century. And that actually worked LOL. I found the exact Smith family that had owned Martha and her family, and they are WELL documented!

Serendipity and the Smiths

I had a good lead, but I hit yet another brick wall as soon as I began my attempt to research Martha’s origins. Jackson county, TN is a “burned county”, meaning that courthouse fires over the years have destroyed several valuable records. In this case, the courthouse was burned by Union soldiers during the Civil War and again went up in flames in 1872. So, between both fires, all the probate and vital records from 1801-1871 were completely destroyed—dashing my hopes of finding any records of a white Smith family or the people they had enslaved. Or so I thought.

I caught a few VERY lucky breaks in this ancestor hunt. First and most importantly, I found the last will and testament of a Colonel James Webb Smith (1770-1856), on Ancestry buried in a huge court case file from 1876. Seems his grandson, Hugh B Smith, was attempting to regain land he had inherited from his grandfather’s estate that had been sold at an 1876 tax auction to another party. According to notes in the case file, this copy of Col. Smith’s will had been stored in a lawyer’s office, so it was remarkably preserved from the courthouse fires. Thank goodness for land disputes!

This will record is one of the most detailed, extraordinary probate records I’ve ever read. It is nearly 20 pages and it’s obvious from the starts and stops that he wrote it over an extended period. By the time he died in 1856, Col. Smith had amassed great wealth—including thousands of acres of land and more than 100 enslaved people throughout TN. It is clear from the length of the document and details of each bequest that Col. Smith was trying to leave nothing undone. He even had some sort of revelation about the ills of slavery. The last page includes a provision about him wanting all the children of his enslaved women born after 1880 to be freed when they came of age—as long as they agreed to be sent to Liberia 😑.

Of course, this was long after he and his children would be dead and gone, and long after the Civil War freed enslaved people anyway. I’m glad my family didn’t have to wait decades more for his neat little emancipation plan to play out. But I digress…

Anyway, this record was the key to helping me understand Martha’s multi-state journey with her children before emancipation.

To get to know more about Martha, I had to get to know the family of Col. Smith.

The (white) Smiths

The family of Col. James Webb Smith was very influential in shaping early Tennessee. I learned from a book called Smith of Abrams Plains by Jonathan Kennon Smith, that this Smith clan originated on the Abram’s Plains plantation that was built by Col. Smith’s father, Samuel Smith, in Granville County, NC.

Between 1796 and 1840, Col. Smith amassed huge tracts of land in what would become Tennessee— some from tax sales of the original land patents that belonged to Francis and Abner Nash (ever heard of Nashville?). In 1810 he moved with his wife and six young children and several slaves to Jackson county, where he built a plantation that he named Beech Hill, located two miles from the town of Granville.

Land deed records in Obion, Maury, and Weakley counties indicate Col. Smith gave many of the vast tracts of lands in his possession to his children. Weakley is where I first found my Smiths in Tennessee, but we haven’t gotten there quite yet.

The Smith book also listed Col. Smith’s seven children and gave a brief bio of each. The accounts of his daughter Frances’ life and of the youngest son Dr. John Alexander Smith, along with some passages in Col. Smith’s will are how I ascertained that Martha’s life journey was very interconnected with these siblings.

This passage in the will, detailing Col. Smith’s bequest to his daughter Frances, inspired my “lightbulb” moment:

“I have since that time (of her marriage) given her Little Jordan, Little Martha and her children named above was given years afterward at the request of my daughter Frances in exchange for Mandy and her children which was intended for her at my death, both having equal number of children at the time. Little Martha was at the time with my son J.A. Smith as a house servant and cook.”

After comparing records, reading about Frances and John Alex, and using a little deductive reasoning, I realized the “Little Martha” referred to in this passage is MY Martha! (She was probably called “little” to distinguish her from “Old Martha” who is mentioned in the will as having been bequeathed to Col. Smith’s wife).

Tennessee, Alabama and back again – William and Wiley

Martha spent her youth at the Beech Hill plantation, then was sent to serve in John Alex Smith’s household as Col. Smith’s will states. John Alex Smith purchased land in Marengo county, AL in May 1840, and all records mentioning my 2x great grandfather’s William’s birth say he was born in Alabama, so Martha either went with him when he moved there or was sent shortly after. Although records after 1900 suggest Martha was born around 1815, earlier records show she was more likely born around 1825, meaning she was only about 16 years old when she was sent away and had her first child in 1841.

According to various deed and marriage records, Col. Smith’s older son Dr. Sydney Smith and Frances were also living in Marengo, Al at this time, so it is likely Martha had close contact with all of them as the house servant. Moreover, when Frances’ husband Dr. John H. Ray died in 1841, she moved to live with John Alex, who had been managing her assets—including slaves—for a time.

A passage from Dr. Ray’s will states:

“…there is in the hands of and possession of my brother in law John A. Smith some negroes which are called my wife’s, to which I have no legal title or right to dispose of, they never having come into my possession.”

This made me wonder if Martha had always been intended for Frances, but Col. Smith allowed John Alex to “borrow” her, for lack of a better term. It sounds like Col. Smith had arranged it so his son would control Frances’ separate property upon her marriage instead of her husband. Apparently, this was a wise decision, as later records revealed that Dr. Ray’s estate was insolvent at the time of his death, and Frances left Alabama as a young widow with nothing from her late husband. But an odd silver lining for my family at least, was that the enslaved people she came to the marriage with were safe from being sold to satisfy Dr. Ray’s debts.

In 1845 John Alex Smith sold his plantation in Alabama moved back to Weakley county, TN where he’d originally received land from his father in 1838, taking Martha with him. This revealed how Martha’s second son Wiley was born in Tennessee.

Missouri—Celia and Horace

Frances Smith Ray married for a second time in November 1848 to a Dr. Thomas Hawkins and they moved to New Madrid Co, Missouri. John Alex died in 1852, so Martha was once again uprooted and shuffled to another location. And now we know why her younger children—Celia and Horace— were born in Missouri.

Frances Hawkins died in 1859, three years after she officially inherited Martha and her children from Col. Smith. I found Martha, William and Celia listed in the inventory of Frances’ estate in New Madrid. This record was actually a copy of a probate record that was filed in Weakley, TN, but I have never located the original in Weakley records. Illustrating again why its important to cast a wide net in your search for sources.

Since there were no further Smith heirs to inherit, Martha remained the property of Thomas Hawkins, who moved with his slaves back to Weakley in 1861 just before the outbreak of war. There they stayed until 1873, when Martha, finally able to make her own living decisions, joined her son William and his wife Nancy to move north to Mattoon.

1870—Eureka moment!

Even with all this new information, I still had not located Martha or William on the 1870 census. Then I realized the answer was right there – Hawkins. I searched for her under the name of the last person to enslave her, and finally I found the first record of my 3x great grandmother as a free person. In this record only, she was Martha Hawkins.

I used this lead to try and find William and Nancy as well. Though I still haven’t located them on the 1870 census, I did finally find their 1867 marriage record! Neither was married under the names I had known them as. Instead of “William Smith”, he was listed as “Bill Hawkins”. And instead of “Nancy Tansil”—the surname listed as Nancy’s maiden name on her children’s social security records— she was listed as “Nannie Clements”. Where did Clements come from?? Well, that is a story for another day and another post 😊!

The Neverending Story

Any serious family researcher will tell you that their search for the family story is never done. I’m still actively researching Martha and the origins of this branch of my family tree. I keep saying that I never thought I’d get this far researching a “Smith”, and I still constantly amaze myself when I manage to uncover a new document pertaining to her. Right now, I’m attempting to figure out who her parents were. My best guess for her mother is the “Old Martha” who was listed in Col. Smith’s will. There is also a man named Horris listed in the will. Perhaps my Martha’s father? Remember, Martha had a son and grandson named Horace.

The earliest record I found of Old Martha is the 1800 estate inventory of Samuel Smith of Abram’s Plains in Granville. She was an eight-year-old girl listed with her mother Phillis and four sibling. Upon his death, Phillis and her children were passed to Smith’s wife, Mary Webb Smith. In 1828, Col. James Webb Smith inherited Old Martha, now 36, from his mother.

This is still just a hunch, but if I’m right, Old Martha and Phillis are my 4x and 5x great grandmothers. Hopefully I can confirm this one day!

Through all the forced moves and separations wrought by slavery, my Smith family found a way to stick together or find their way back to each other. Even after 40 years of separation, Martha’s sons William and Wiley found a way to reunite in 1909.

Martha spent the second half of her life in her own home, with no one uprooting her at their whim. And although her long life ended tragically in the 1917 Mattoon tornado, it gives me a sense of happiness to know that slavery couldn’t break the family bond.