My Genealogy Hound

J. D. Smulling was born in La Grange, Lewis Co., Mo., May 21, 1841. His father, Curtis Smulling, was a native of Maryland, and of German descent. The mother was a native of Virginia, and of Scotch-Irish descent. The father married his second wife, Eliza Davis, in Knox County, and followed the trade of a carpenter in early life. He was ordained a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, many years before the division of that church. At the time of his second marriage he was a circuit preacher in Lewis County, Mo., before all the Indians had left this State. By his second marriage were born two children, both of whom are living. At the age of sixteen he was disinherited by his father for not withdrawing from the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was cast out upon the world. He then served as apprentice at the carpenter’s trade, working at his trade during the day, and studying his Bible at night. He was a Whig in politics, and as a husband and father was kind and affectionate. He died in 1839. Several years after his death his widow married D. Mangle, a farmer in Washington Township. She died in 1884, and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years. Our subject and his brother, after the death of their father, came back to Knox County, where they lived, and were reared by an uncle, Samuel J. Davis. At the age of seventeen he began working for himself at the modest sum of $7 per month, and thought he was getting good wages. He married Miss Mahala Hume, a daughter of L. B. Hume, and a sister of the cashier of the Kahoka Bank. By this union five children were born, viz.: Sarah M. and Mary E. (twins, dead), Alice A., Eliza V. and Sarah M. Eliza V. is the wife of B. R. Carman, a farmer in Clark County. The other two are at home. Our subject started life with very little means, and now has a splendid farm of 180 acres, all well improved. He is a Republican in his political views, and he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church. In 1861 he enlisted in Company I, home guards, under Col. Moore, was in the Athens fight and in many skirmishes.