My Genealogy Hound

J. J. Smith. The estate which Mr. Smith is now engaged in cultivating embraces 240 acres, which will yield about 1,000 pounds of cotton to the acre and twenty bushels of corn. Mr. Smith is a native of this State, his birth having occurred in 1844 to George and Pollie (Turrentine) Smith, natives of North Carolina, the former a farmer, and both members of the Methodist Church. Of a family of eleven children born to them, the subject of his sketch is the youngest. Mr. Smith was of German-Irish descent, a soldier in the Florida War, and died in July, 1865, his widow passing from life in July, 1886. In 1866 J. J. Smith began doing for himself, but had previously served in the Confederate army, enlisting November 8, 1861, in Company B. Eighteenth Arkansas Infantry, and was in the service eight months, during which time he was in the engagements at Elkhorn, Ark. At the end of the above mentioned time, he was discharged on account of being under age, and upon returning home was sent to school. At the end of five months he rejoined the army, becoming a member of a brigade in Fagan’s division, and afterward took part in the engagement at Pine Bluff, Poison Springs, Mark’s Mill, and was then in all the engagements in which Price participated on his raid through Missouri, the first important one being Pilot Knob. He received his discharge at Corsicana, Navarro County, Tex., after which he returned home, taking up his residence on his present farm in 1883. Sarah E. Jackson, a daughter of J. N. Jackson, of Missouri, became his wife in 1876, and to them three children have been born: William J., George N. and Wade Preston. Mr. Smith is a Mason, a Democrat, and he and Mrs. Smith are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.