My Genealogy Hound

S. J. Smith was born about two miles northwest of Paragould, Greene County, Ark., December 20, 1852, and is one of three surviving members of a family of eleven children, born to Charles C. and Millie J. Smith, who were Tennesseeans, and came to Arkansas by ox team when the country was almost a wilderness, inhabited by Indians and wild animals, the latter being very plentiful. A brother of our subject killed sixteen bear the first year. The father cleared the land upon which Paragould is now situated, afterward moving to Buffalo Island, and still later (in 1861) to the farm of 160 acres, on which his sons, John and Joseph, are now living. He died in April, 1865, still survived by his widow, who is living in Craighead County. When S. J. Smith first came to Arkansas his time was about equally divided between farming in the summer, and hunting and trapping during the cold weather, the latter occupation being the more profitable. By industry and good management he has become the owner of 120 acres of land, the most of which is covered with timber, but has forty-five acres under cultivation, and sixty-five under fence, improved with substantial buildings and good orchard. He well remembers the time when there were only two farms in a radius of ten miles, and can point out hundreds of acres of land then covered with timber and water, which is now in dry and well cultivated farms. He raises cotton and corn, also horses, cattle and hogs. He was married, in 1870, to Miss Mary F. Sypes, a daughter of Eli and Christina Sypes, natives of North Carolina, who came to Perry County, Mo., at a very early day, where the father followed the occupation of farming and blacksmithing until his death. Five of their eight children are living: Eli J., Calvin L., George W., Martha and Charles Andrew.