My Genealogy Hound

J. J. Smith is a farmer of this section and is also well known as a merchant, being a member of the firm of Smith & Hartin, their establishment being located at Macedonia, in Buena Vista Township. Mr. Smith was born in Troup County, Ga., in 1846, to Jerry and Matilda (Tucker) Smith, also natives of that State, who came to Arkansas in 1849, settling in Columbia County, where he entered and purchased a large amount of wild land, which afterward became very valuable. He continued to make his home in this county until his death in 1854, his widow still surviving him, being now seventy years of age. To them a family of ten children was born, the following three, only, being now alive: Nancy E. (wife of Calvin Rotan), Blanche (wife of Andy Johnson), and J. J. (whose name heads this sketch). The latter, like so many of the substantial citizens of this country at the present time, was initiated into the mysteries of farming from the very first and this has since continued to be the calling to which his attention has been directed. Owing to the opening of the war just at the time when he should have been attending school, his early advantages were very meager. He joined John A. Logan’s cavalry, a part of the Eleventh Arkansas Regiment, and he served in the Trans-Mississippi Department, taking part in a number of skirmishes, but in no regular engagement. He surrendered at Duly’s Ferry and returned home, but only remained a short time, going to Texas, where he worked on a farm and in a saw mill for three years, after which he came back to Arkansas, and engaged in farming on rented land. At the end of one year he purchased a farm of his own, which consisted of eighty acres of wild land, but is now the owner of 240 acres with about 125 under cultivation, improved with good houses of all kinds. In 1871 he married Miss Martha M., the daughter of James and Tempy (Todd) Perkson, and to them two children have been born: Nancy (who died in 1874), and W. H. (who was born December 24, 1873). Mrs. Smith is a member of the Baptist Church. In 1888 Mr. Smith formed a partnership with R. K. Hartin in the general mercantile business at Macedonia, and in this they are doing a prosperous business.