My Genealogy Hound

G. F. Smith has been a resident of Arkansas since 1860, when he located in what was then a part of St. Francis County, but which now forms a portion of Lee County, and was one of the first men to advocate this county’s formation. Born in Rutherford County, Tenn., on December 15, 1819, he was a son of William and Rebecca (Webb) Smith, natives of North Carolina and Tennessee, respectively. William Smith moved to Tennessee when a young man, where he worked at his trade, as a gunsmith, and also engaged in farming. He was a soldier in the War of 1813, and was present at the battle of New Orleans. To himself and wife ten children were born, five sons and five daughters, two of whom only are living: G. F. and Jasper N. (a farmer of Hardeman County, Tenn.). G. F. Smith commenced farming for himself at the age of nineteen, and four years later removed to Hardeman County, where he was engaged in the same occupation until his removal to Arkansas. He first purchased 1,000 acres of land for $4,800; now he owns 3,600 acres in the western part of Lee County, and has some 700 acres under cultivation, which he devotes principally to cotton and corn. He also owns a steam grist-mill, saw-mill and cotton-gin, with a capacity of eight bales per day, which were erected at a cost of $3,000. Mr. Smith was married in Tennessee, in 1838, to Miss Elizabeth Bell, a daughter of Samuel Bell, of that county; she died in about 1840, leaving two children, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Smith was married on January 17, 1843, to Miss A. J. Smith, also of Tennessee origin, who passed away in 1878, having been the mother of one son; the latter died in 1853. His third and present wife, Miss V. M. Granger, was a daughter of A. H. and Mary Granger, and a native of Phillips County, Ark. They are the parents of four children: George F., Melvine, Philip J. and Stephen C. They are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mr. Smith belongs to the Masonic order.