Page 26 - People & Places In Time

Jamestown to Tulare County
80 acres for a wagon load of guns which he later traded for sufficient funds to buy the land he wanted, south west of West Plains at about $1.25 an acre (the amount of land settled is vague but approximately 160 acres). The journey from North Carolina to Missouri was a long and arduous one that took more than three months. Livestock totaled, 1 horse, 1 mule, 1 yoke of oxen, 15 hound dogs and 1 bulldog. The bulldog
was quite fearless until he had an encounter with a bear and came off worse for the skirmish. He then became a wagon dog for the rest of the trip. The final touch to the story came when they arrived in the West Plains Valley. The country did not look
as good to Thomas as it had the year before, and he was ready to return to North Carolina. After taking a vote with his family, they decided to put their roots into the Missouri soil. And they settled on an unimproved farm near West Plains.
Although a Union man in principal, Zadoch took no active part during the Civil War, in fact the whole family fled north to the hills near Rolla, about one hun- dred fifty miles north. I’ve wondered at his mother and grandfather’s history with the Quaker faith, if this had influenced his felling’s about the war? Of course, I don’t know how that stacks up with the large cache of ammunition hidden on the farm and kept a secret by the older boys of the family (I don’t know if this means they stayed on the farm, or what), not to mention the wagon load of rifles he traded to finance buying land in Missouri. The countryside around West Plains was pillaged by raiders from both Confederate and Union alike after the war.4 In time things were repaired, and everyone settled back down again.
Zadoch died in 1879 having been a lifelong and industrious farmer, nineteen years in Missouri, and a justice of the peace for many of those years. He was a great reader and well posted on all general topics though in every respect a self-educated man. It is said his last words were ‘there’s not a cloud in the sky.” Thomas had been mar- ried over 42 years and raised 12 children.
In following the Smith family west it seems, there is less to be found about their movement. The people I knew best, the grandparents I grew up with in Exeter are gone, as are my aunts and uncles who may have aided my understanding, are gone as well.
Thomas D. Smith, my great grandfather, the son of Zadoch and Candice Snow, was born in Surry County, North Carolina and traveled by wagon with his parents, brothers and sisters to Missouri. When grown he became a carpenter in West Plains, just as his grandfather James had been when he left England, just as his son and my grandfather Roland would become as well.
Thomas married Nancy Jane Hawkins, my great grandmother in Missouri and they would raise seven children, three of whom died young. They were Bertha, Mat- tie and Ethel. The four who survived, are the family I would eventually come to know growing up in Exeter they were my aunts Carrie Ora (Smith) Whitney (born January 4, 1880 died October 3, 1961), Bessie (Smith) Hayes Curry (born March 2, 1888), my uncle Emmet Smith (born June 14, 1884 ) and Roland D. Smith, my grand- father was born September 5, 1886.
Thomas and Nancy decided to leave Missouri sometime following the birth of their youngest daughter Bessie, leaving West Plains for Creek County, Oklahoma. The difficulty here was that Thomas and Nancy died far too young of tuberculosis. I wonder if this was the cause of death for the three children who passed away earlier. I have no way of knowing. Thomas was 37 years old at the time of his death in March of 1897. My grandfather Roland was Eleven years old at that time and was eventually raised by his sister Carrie who was seventeen when their parents died. Their brother Emmet was thirteen and sister Bessie nine.
Hawkins County Tennessee to McDonald County Missouri
In 1836 Lewis Mitchell and Elizabeth Mary Duff left Rogersville Tennessee for McDonald County in southwestern Missouri (as far south and west to still remain in the state). To the south and west of this corner of the state was Indian Territory. Making the trip with Lewis and Mary were children Stephen, Amanda, Marcellus, Robert,
and Adolphus Mitchell, My great grandfather. Born May 28, 1829 so he was only a boy of seven when the trip west was made. His younger brother Ozro Mitchell, my great uncle was born June 4, 1831 and only five for the trip. Once settled, Lewis soon became as prominent and respected man in this new local, just as he had been at his previous home in Hawkins County, Tennessee.
Once again, I wonder at leaving family and friends at the age of forty-two; packing everyone’s belongings into a wagon and gathering livestock to embark on an eight-hundred-mile trip. A trip across little known territory. I can only suppose there were others traveling together. I don’t know that Lewis knew where he was going, had he made a previous trip? There must have been a planned destination. It’s likely, as with his father, the lure of cheap land was the main factor. The Missouri compro- mise and the resulting statehood had brought an increase in settlers. Missouri began to open in the 1790’s initially by Daniel Boone but that was mostly in the north east
4 By the end of the war in 1865, nearly 110,000 Missourians had served in the Union Army and at least 30,000 in the Confederate Army; many had also fought with bands of pro–Confederate partisans known as “bushwhackers”. The war in Missouri was continuous between 1861 and 1865, with battles and skirmishes in all areas of the state, from the Iowa and Illinois borders in the northeast to the Arkansas border in the southeast and southwest. Count- ing minor actions and skirmishes, Missouri saw more than 1,200 distinct engagements within its boundaries; only Virginia and Tennessee exceeded this total.
Among the most notorious bushwhackers were William C. Quantrill, a young Jesse James and his older brother Frank James. The notorious James-Younger gang capitalized on this and became folk heroes as they robbed banks and trains while getting sympathetic press from the state’s newspapers
Quantrill joined a group of bandits who roamed the Missouri and Kansas countryside apprehending escaped slaves. Later on, this group became Confederate soldiers, who were referred to as “Quantrill’s Raiders”. This group was a pro-Confederate partisan ranger outfit best known for their often-brutal guerrilla tactics.
Quantrill is often noted as influential in the minds of many bandits, outlaws and hired guns of the Old West as it was being settled. In May 1865, Quantrill was mortally wounded in combat by Union troops in Central Kentucky,
10