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BARBOUR COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: SMITH, J.E. Williamson
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 26, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 282-283
Barbour County
J. E. WILLIAMSON SMITH, of Phillipi, is a native of
Barbour County and a member of one of the substantial
old families of this section. He was born in Barker Dis-
trict on Bill's Creek, January 13, 1848.
His grandfather, Henry Smith, left old Virginia in early
boyhood with his brother Jacob, crossed the mountains on
foot and settled on the waters of Sugar Creek in Randolph
County, within what is now the limits of Barbour County.
The two brothers located in the woods, put up a cabin of
round logs, notched together, and they kept bachelor's hall
there until they married. The old log house at a later
period in the family history was used by Mrs. Henry Smith
as a loom house. Henry Smith did some of the work that
first brought the virgin soil of that locality into cultivation.
To eke out the slender income from the farm he worked at
the carpenter's trade. After reaching advanced age he
turned over the property to his children, lived with his
daughter in Roane County and died there about 1890, when
past ninety years of age, and is buried near Spencer. The
wife of Henry Smith was Katie Lesher, who died at the
old homestead on Sugar Creek, the mother of the follow-
ing children: Polly, who married Bryan Gainer and died
in Roane County; Alpheus; John, who spent his life as a
farmer in Roane County; Hiram, who served two years
in the Confederate army, was a tanner by trade, and spent
his last years in Texas; George, a farmer who was a Union
soldier and died in Roane County; Bettie, who married
Michael Nestor and died in Gilmer County; Martha Jane,
who married Oliver Buck and died in Roane County; Hulda,
who died in Roane County, the wife of Daniel Phillips;
Rebecca Ann, who is living at Philippi, at the age of
eighty-five, wife of Charles Wolverton.
Alpheus Smith was born on Sugar Creek, started life
with only the meager advantages furnished by a term or
two of school in an old log shanty in his neighborhood,
and farming was the work which he prosecuted as a means
of rearing his family. He lived on Bill's Creek and died
in 1906, when almost eighty years of age. He was a member
of the Missionary Baptist Church and a republican. The
wife of Alpheus Smith was Ann Glasscock, daughter of
William and Mahala (Cole) Glasscock. Her father, a native
of Bath County, Virginia, came to West Virginia as a
young man, served as a soldier in the War of 1812, and
was a farmer. He died about 1855, survived by his widow.
Their children were: William, who went to Iowa and died
there; Chapin, who died in Iowa; Spencer, who died at
Grafton; Ailsy, who married Abraham Reed and died in
Barbour County; Peggie, who died in Barbour County,
wife of Abner Bilan; Joshua, who lived in Barbour County;
Susan, who was the wife of Meredith Hathaway, of Barbour
County; Nettie, who became the wife of Rev. Thomas
Wood, a Baptist minister; Hannah, who died in Barbour
County, wife of Henry Wood; and Mrs. Alpheus Smith,
the youngest of the children, who died at the age of sixty-
five. She was the mother of Mozell Smith, who spent her
life in Barbour County, wife of Marshall Lake; John R.
Williamson; Bettie, who died in childhood; and Julia Ann,
of Barbour County, wife of Ransom Bennett.
John Rickmier Williamson Smith so far as his literary
education was concerned is a product of one of the old
time schools now happily obsolete in West Virginia. Over
the windows was pasted greased paper, there were slab
benches for seats, no desks, and the material of instruc-
tion was almost as crude as the equipment. Mr. Smith
continued to live at home with his parents for two years
after passing his majority, and then married and went to
farming in the same community. Eight years later he moved
to the Philippi locality, and continued farming and stock
raising here. In an early day he freighted coal for fuel
for Philippi. Mr. Smith was old enough to observe some
of the local events involved in the Civil war. He heard
the guns at the battle of Philippi. He has been a resident
of Philippi for thirty years, and is still keeping in touch
with his farm. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and
has voted the regular democratic ticket for half a century,
beginning with Horace Greeley.
In Barbour County he married Miss Celia A. Wilson,
daughter of Isaiah Wilson. An article on another page
gives the very interesting history of this Wilson family,
one of the most prominent in this section of West Virginia.
Mrs. Smith was born at Galena, Ohio, in 1838, but was
reared in Barbour County and was married November 29
1872. Mr. and Mrs. Smith had three children. The oldest
is Winfield Scott Smith, the Philippi physician. The second
is Alpheus, professor of physics in the State University
of Ohio. The only daughter, Zanna Grace, died unmarried
in March, 1904.
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