Joseph Hamilton Smith

and Docia Roberts Family

CHAPTER 1

 

The Family of Joseph Hamilton Smith and Docia Roberts

 

     Joseph Hamilton Smith was born on August 23, 1815, somewhere in Tennessee.  He died at the age of 84 on September 25, 1899, in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana, where he had spent all of his adult life.  At the age of 20, he married Docia Roberts, a nineteen year old daughter of Aaron Roberts and Elizabeth Loveall, on April 12, 1836, in Martin County, Indiana.  Docia was born on June 22, 1816,  in Wayne County, Kentucky, and died at the age of 71 on January 24, 1888, in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana. 

 

 

     Joseph and Docia lived and worked on a farm in the Mountain Springs neighborhood of Baker Township.  (According to Ermel Lewis (brother of Gladys Lewis and uncle of William Cecil Lewis), Mountain Springs "was so named because a beautiful spring of water flowed there continuously.")  to The crops they grew would almost certainly have included corn, and other vegetables they  grew may have included wheat, oats, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, beans, squash, lettuce, pumpkins, cabbage, melons, celery, asparagus, rhubarb, peas and lentils.  They likely would have had fruit trees, including apples, peaches, pears, cherries, and persimmons (with persimmon pies and pudding being a favorite in the area to this day).  Common berries in the region would have included blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and mulberries.  Cows and hogs, as well as chickens, ducks and geese (for eggs and meat as well as for feathers and down), were common on farms.  Milk from cows could also be used for butter and cheese.  Horses and mules were also common in the area.  Hunters could bring home the meat from deer, squirrel and wild turkeys.  Many farms had a small flax patch, and flax and wool were spun into cloth for clothes on a loom that every home would have owned.  Homes were built near springs for a ready water supply. Furniture was home-made from lumber obtained from surrounding forests.     Harry Q. Holt wrote in his "History of Martin County" that "[e]arly crops grown in the county were introduced by the settlers, and bountiful yields of apples, gourds, grapes, peaches, pears, potatoes, and pumpkins were produced.  Products from the forest were the principal agricultural income for the first one hundred years.  Sales of timber and lumber products, as late as 1930, provided twelve per cent of all farm income."

 

      Joseph's nickname was "Ham." Census records indicate that Joseph could not read or write but that Docia could read.  All of their children attended school and learned to read and write.    Joseph and Docia were married for almost 52 years and are buried together among family (including at least six of their nine children) in Bridges Cemetery at Crane Naval Ammunition Depot in Martin County, Indiana.

 

     The families of Joseph and Docia had both come to Indiana by the 1830's, Joseph's family probably from Tennessee (where Joseph was born)  and Docia's family from Pulaski County, Kentucky.  Large numbers of families from Southern states moved to southern Indiana following the end of the War of 1812.   Following that war,  danger from Indian attacks subsided and new lands were opened up to settlement.  "Indiana's southern population was . . . not from the tidewater, slave-owning plantation South.  These were people who worked their own family farms,  people with years and often generations of experience in making a living on the frontier. "   (The Indiana Way, by James Madison, p. 60.)

 

     Joseph's  father was probably the John Smith who was living in Baker Township in the 1830's.  Jonas Smith (husband of Rosannah Cooper and then Rachel Bridwell) was probably Joseph's brother. Samuel Smith (who married Docia's sister Temperance Roberts) was probably also a brother of Joseph Hamilton Smith.  Probate records of James Smith (see transcription below) list Samuel as a brother of James, and therefore James would also probably have been a brother of Joseph Hamilton Smith. Joseph may also have had a younger brother named Elias Smith, given that Elias is buried in Bridges Cemetery and photographs of Elias are among family photos that have been handed down.  It can be inferred from the fact that Joseph lived among his children all his life that he must have been very family-oriented, and his name was well known to his great-grandchildren.  His oldest daughter, Rebecca Ann, named her first-born son,  Joseph Smith Fields, in honor of her father. 

 

     Docia appears to have been a very beloved member of her family.  Four of her siblings named a daughter Docia, including Temperance Roberts Smith (whose daughter Docia apparently never married),  Rebecca Roberts Smith (whose daughter Docia Ann married Joseph Simmerman),  Jonathan Roberts (whose daughter Docia Ellen married Bartemus Smith), and Moses Roberts (whose daughter Docia Ellen married Thomas Edward Spoonmore).  Jonas Smith (likely a brother of Joseph Hamilton Smith) and his wife Rosannah Cooper also named a daughter Docia, and in return Joseph and Docia Roberts Smith named their very next daughter Rosanna.  Judging from family photographs handed down through the family, it is very likely that Docia suffered a stroke at some point late in her life.    

 

     Docia's father was Aaron Roberts (born August 27, 1777, in North Carolina, died February 25, 1853, in Martin County, Indiana).  (The last name "Roberts" suggests early roots traceable to Wales.)  He married Elizabeth ("Betsy") Loveall in Wayne County, Kentucky, on March 20, 1806.  Aaron's parents were Humphrey Roberts (born about 1740 in either North Carolina or Virginia, and died after 1830) and Doshea, for whom Aaron's daughter Docia was probably named.  (Aaron had a sister named Elizabeth Roberts, who married David Sparks in Wayne County, Kentucky, on November 23, 1809, and a sister Rebecca Roberts, who married Stephen Loveall in Wayne County, Kentucky, on December 10, 1807.)

 

     Docia's mother,  Elizabeth ("Betsy") Loveall (born March 20, 1788, in Pennsylvania, died March 24, 1863, in Martin County, Indiana),  was a daughter of Jonathan Loveall (born 1744 in Maryland, died 1842) and Vianna Stevens. (Note: some researchers believe that Elizabeth's maiden name was Hansford (due to what appears to be an error in the marriage records), but her son Moses' death certificate lists her maiden name as Loveall.  Also, the Hansford family were not in Pennsylvania in 1788, whereas Jonathan Loveall was there.  Finally, the names of Docia's children match those in the Loveall family very closely.)

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Children of Aaron Roberts and Elizabeth Loveall

 

1.  Zachariah  Roberts (born about 1807 in Wayne County, Kentucky; married Sarah Jane Ford on January 1, 1827, in Pulaski County, Kentucky; lived at various times in Lawrence County, Indiana (in 1840), Lawrence County, Arkansas (in 1850) and Taney County, Missouri (in 1860), where he and Sarah likely died between 1860 and 1870).  One of Zachariah's sons was named Stephen Loveall Roberts (born February 7, 1836, in Indiana, married Margaret Stephens, died April 15, 1923, in Indiana).  (Stephen's middle name is yet another indication that Aaron Roberts' wife Elizabeth was a Loveall.)  Other children of Zachariah and Sarah (called "Sally") included Peter (born about 1830 in Indiana;  married Priscilla Hedrick in 1852 in Taney County, Missouri);  John, born about 1832 in Indiana;  Elizabeth, born about 1833 in Indiana;  Samuel, born about 1838 in Indiana;  Nancy, born about 1840 in Indiana;  Joseph, born about 1842 in Indiana;  and Zachariah, born about 1846 in Arkansas, where Zachariah and Sally lived until at least 1850.  Zachariah and Sally were living in 1860 with their son John and his family in Taney County, Missouri.

 

2. Temperance Roberts (born about 1809 in Kentucky;  married Samuel Smith (a brother of Rebecca Roberts' husband James H. Smith, and probably a brother of Josep Hamilton Smith) in Lawrence County, Indiana, on December 14, 1830; apparently died in Lawrence County, Indiana, between 1850  and 1860).  (Note:  This Samuel Smith, who was born about 1813 in Kentucky, is to be distinguished from Samuel D. Smith of Martin County, who was a brother of Isaac Smith who married Catherine Hurt.  This Isaac Smith hanged himself in the woods about 1856 and left his wife a widow with children who included Gideon P. Smith, William O. Smith, Mary A. Smith, Sarah Smith, Samuel T. Smith, and Margaret Smith Baker.  Isaac Smith and his brother Samuel D. Smith were the children of Alexander Smith and Rebecca Aikman.)    Temperance and Samuel had the following children and probably others: Elizabeth Smith, born about 1832 in Indiana, married Morris Woody; Catherine Smith, born about 1837 in Indiana;  Cornelius Smith, born August 29, 1839, in Indiana; married first Sarah J. Hall and second Elizabeth Newland;  died April 1, 1902 in Martin County, Indiana; served in the Civil War;  Cassinda Smith, born about 1841 in Indiana; married first Jacob Kinder in 1854, then to James Waggoner in 1857, and then William Clark Brock on November 22, 1888, in Lawrence County, Indiana;  Docia Smith, born about 1842 in Indiana;  Samuel Smith,  born about 1844 in Indiana; and Jonathan Smith, born about 1846 in Indiana.

 

3. Elizabeth Roberts (born about 1810 in Wayne County, Kentucky, married Benjamin Roberts on November 9, 1829, in Pulaski County, Kentucky;  died about 1894 in Andrew County, Missouri).  Elizabeth and Benjamin had the following children: Gideon Roberts, born about 1832;  Margaret Roberts, born about 1836;  Rebecca Roberts, born about 1838;  Malinda Roberts, born July 25, 1841, in Morgan County, Indiana; Elizabeth Jane Roberts, born about 1844;  James Mason Roberts, born about 1846; and Joseph Roberts, born about 1849.

 

4. Rebecca Roberts (born about 1812 in Wayne County, Kentucky, married James H. Smith (a brother of Temperance Roberts' husband Samuel Smith) on February 27, 1844, in Martin County, Indiana).  James died young (about 1849), and Rebecca and her daughter Docia Ann Smith (born about 1846, probably named for her mother's sister; married Joseph Simmerman) lived with Rebecca's parents at least for a time (in 1850).  It is probable that James was a relative, probably a brother, of Joseph Hamilton Smith, husband of Rebecca's sister Docia.  Rebecca  married James Bowden in 1850 after James Smith's death.  After James Bowden's death (by early 1853), Rebecca  remarried to Abraham Waggoner (born 1809 in Pulaski County, Kentucky, son of Henry Waggoner and Polly Blacklidge) in Martin County on October 9, 1853.  Abraham died a short time later, on September 5, 1855, in Martin County.  Rebecca herself died on January 3, 1869, in Martin County.

_________________________________

 

Will of James Smith:

 

"I, James Smith, of Martin County in the State of Indiana, do make and publish this, my last will and testament, hereby revoking and making void all former wills by me at any time heretofore made.

     I do will and bequeath unto my beloved wife, Rebecca Smith, all the household and kitchen furniture and also her choice cow;  the remaining part of my estate to be sold at a publick sale of twelve months credit and all my just debts paid by the sale money what remains of money after all just debts is paid to be given to my beloved wife, Rebecca Smith, for her to dispose of as she may see proper so long as she remains my widow but when she marries, I do will and bequeath it to my child Doshia Ann Smith and it is my will that my brother, Samuel Smith, shall be my administrator to make this sale and to collect the money and pay my debts also collect all my dues.

     In witness whereof I, James Smith, have hereuto set my hand and seal this fifth day of March one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine."  Signed—James (X) Smith

     Signed, sealed, published and declared by the above named James Smith as his last will and testament in the presence of us who have hereunto subscribed our names as witness there to in presence of the said testator and in presence of each other:  James Denson, James W. Meek and John (X) Mitchell

STATE OF INDIANA, Martin Co. Sct: John Mitchell and James H. Meek being duly sworn depose and say that James H. Smith the testator herein at the time of executing the foregoing last will and testament of full age to devise his property and were of sound mind and memory and was not under coercion or restraint  and that he declared the same in their presence and in the presence of James Denson to be his last Will and Testament and that they subscribed the same as attesting witnesses thereto:

SIGNED: John (X) Mitchell

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 7th day of May AD 1849—Abner R. Brown, Clk. PCMC—per Thomas Brown, Deputy

James Smith—heir

February 7, 1853—Samuel Smith represents to the Court that Docia Ann Smith, age about 5, only child of James Smith, deceased, has no guardian. James Bowden, former guardian, died recently.  Samuel Smith asks to be appointed guardian.

February 7, 1853—Samuel Smith appointed guardian

November 10, 1862—Samuel Smith resigned as guardian, due to ill health.  Asks that Jonathan Roberts be appointed."

 

(Note:  James Bowden was the husband of Rebecca Smith, proobably a sister of Joseph Hamilton Smith.)      

________________________________

 

______________________________

5. Stephen Roberts (born June 1814 in Wayne County, Kentucky; married Mary ("Polly") Buchanan in Monroe County, Indiana, on December 1, 1832;  died February 22, 1854, probably in Indian Creek Township, Monroe County, Indiana, where he was living with his family in 1850).  Stephen and Polly had the following children:  Elizabeth Roberts, born about 1834; James Maxwell Roberts, born about 1836;  Polletah Roberts, born about 1838;  Aaron Roberts, born about 1840;  John Roberts, born about 1842;  Nelson Roberts, born about 1844;  Minerva Roberts, born about 1846;  and Mary Roberts, born about 1853.

_______________________________

 

 

 

Entry in Lawrence County History:

 

     "J.M. Roberts is the second in a family of eight children, born to Stephen and Mary C. (Buchanan) Roberts, and is of Irish origin.  The father of Mr. Roberts was by birth a Kentuckian, but when quite young was brought to Lawrence County, Indiana, where he died in 1854.  When our subject gained his majority, he assumed the duties of life for himself, and at once began farming and dealing in stock, at which he has since continued.  By  industry, energy and economy he has been highly successful in life.  He now owns 530 acres of choice land, 300 of which are devoted to pasture or grazing.  In 1859, Mr. Roberts was united in marriage to Miss Lizzie Strain of Ohio nativity.  To this union have been born the following children:  Ella A., Emma, Martha, Joseph and Luna.  For nineteen years Mr. Roberts has resided where he now lives, and in the home farm are 404 acres of good land, on which is a good house and good improvements.  In politics the subject of this sketch is a Republican, but cast his first Presidential ballot for Stephen A. Douglas.  Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, he having been a member of that church for 25. years."  

 

6. Docia Roberts (born June 22, 1816, married Joseph Hamilton Smith).  Docia apparently named four of her children after her siblings:  Rebecca,   Temperance, Jonathan and Moses,  all of whom named a daughter Docia.

 

7. Jonathan Roberts (born about 1820, married Sarah Mitchell on October 21, 1841, in Martin County, Indiana).  (Sarah was a daughter of William Mitchell, who died in Martin County in 1844, and Elizabeth Patterson, who married Isaac T. Bridges after William's death.)  Jonathan and Sarah's children included Elizabeth Roberts, born about 1843; Samuel Roberts, born about 1846;  Rebecca Roberts, born about 1847;  Temperance Roberts, born about 1849; Aaron Roberts, born January 29, 1851;  Emily Roberts, born about 1854; Mary Catherine Roberts, born August 18, 1856;  Docia Ellen Roberts, born about 1858, married Bartemus Smith (son of Benjamin F. Smith and Amanda Crooke and grandson of Jonas Smith and Rosannah Cooper, Jonas believed to be a brother of Joseph Hamilton Smith); and Vina Caroline, born 1862 in Martin County, Indiana.

 

8.  Eleanor Roberts (born March 4, 1828, in Pulaski County, Kentucky; married Samuel Mitchell; died March 25, 1887; buried in Roberts Cemetery in Martin County, Indiana).  (Samuel was a son of John Mitchell and Isabelle Meek, who apparently named Samuel after her father Samuel Meek.) Eleanor named her first daughter Vianna, born about 1849, for her grandmother Vianna Stephens Loveall;  Eleanor and Samuel's other children included John Mitchell, born about 1851; Elizabeth Mitchell, born about 1853; Isabelle Mitchell, born about 1857; Ann Mitchell, born about 1859;  and William R. Mitchell, born about 1862.

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Letter written to Eleanor (Roberts) Mitchell from Samuel W. Mitchell while he was serving in the Civil War. He died Christmas Day, a month after he wrote this letter.

 

"Memphis, Tennessee

 

November 21, 1862

 

 My dear and much beloved wife and children. It is with much pleasure that I take my pen in hand to let you know how I am getting along.

I am not very well yet but I am still able to drill since I left the boat. I think it is cold that (__?) me mostly and I truly hope when these few lines reach you they will find you all well and doing well. 

I received two letters from you yesterday and was very glad to hear from you and to hear you was as well as what you was. One of them letters that I got from yesterday was dated the 3rd and the other one the 6th of this. Tell (?) that I received her letter and was glad to hear from her and to hear that she was well. I want to see all very bad; it seems to me that nothing could suit me better than to be at home and see you all and talk with you all awhile. I think of you often and sometimes dream of seeing you all very plain. 

You wrote in your letter that you hadn't any of you, only Vienna, taken the Measles yet and I was glad to hear that you was getting along as well as what you was and I was glad to hear that you had friends enough to get you a fine lot of wood and I was glad to hear that your old sow had ten very fine pigs that looks like living.  

I got five letters yesterday, one from Jeff Mitchell and one from papa's folks and one from Sarah Ann Owens and Josiah Jewell, and two from home and Sally Ann wanted to know where to write letters to go to Robert and I can't tell. We left him at Albany but I don't know the name of the hospital and I haven't heard from him since we left Louisville. 

We have a fine lot of soldiers about here; the boys seen ten regiments in one field and they are camped all around here so no move at present.

 

Your loving husband,

 

Samuel"

 

(Note:  Sarah Ann (or Sally Ann) mentioned in the letter was a sister of Samuel Mitchell and the wife of Robet Owens. She married Josiah (or Jocyrus) Jewell after Robert's death.)

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9.  Moses Roberts (born October 13, 1830, in Pulaski County, Kentucky,  married Catherine Mitchell (born January 1, 1832) on February 10, 1848, in Martin County, Indiana; died November 25, 1904, in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana), from general debility followed by paralysis.  Moses and Catherine's children included Samantha Roberts, born June 29, 1849; Jonathan Roberts, born August 29, 1851; Caroline Roberts, born January 18, 1853, died at the age of 51 on April 22, 1904, in Martin County, of breast cancer; Isaac Roberts, born July 18, 1855;  Rebecca Roberts, born November 6, 1858;  Sarah Jane Roberts, born June 29, 1861; Docia Ellen Roberts, born April 6, 1864, in Martin County, Indiana, married Thomas Edward Spoonmore in 1879, died June 8, 1930, in Lawrence County, Indiana; Viola Roberts, born March 2, 1866; Joe Mack Roberts, born June 15, 1869; and Lizzie Roberts, born April 24, 1873.  Moses served in the Civil War in the same unit as his brother-in-law Samuel Mitchell and his nephew Jonathan Smith, but only Moses would live to return home.

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Letter from Elizabeth (Loveall) Roberts to her son Moses, written during

the Civil War:

                                                                        

                                                        Owensburg,  Ind. Oct. 6th, 1862

 

My Dear Son,

     I embrace the opportunity of writing you a few lines to let you know that I am well as common.  I hope these few lines may find you well and well satisfied.  My dear child, I want you to write to me and when you do write to me I want you to put it on a piece of paper to myself so I will get it.  I have not got a line from you since you have been gone.  If you have written to me,  I did not know it.  Mose, you know that I love all my dear children and it does me a heap of good to hear from them.  I want to see you very bad.  I want you to remember your mother, and if I never get to see you again on this Earth, I want you to be prepared to meet me in Heaven.  I wish it was so that you could be at home.  It is not much pleasure to me to be at home without you there.  Be sure to write to me and I can get Nancy Margaret or someone else to read it to me and answer it for me.  I have nothing of much importance to write.  Your mother, Elizabeth Roberts

To Moses Roberts, Good bye.

I will also write a few lines to Sam Mitchell. . . . ."

_________________________

 

     Elizabeth Loveall Roberts died on March 24, 1863, less than six months after this letter was written.  This letter was written from Owensburg in 1862, where Elizabeth was probably living in the home of her daughter Eleanor.  (Elizabeth had been living in the home of her son Moses in Mountain Springs in 1860.)  Moses was discharged from service on Christmas day in 1862, but Samuel Mitchell, husband of Moses' sister Eleanor, was not so fortunate. Samuel died of disease at a camp hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, while serving in Company G, 97th regiment of the Indiana Infantry during the Civil War.  He is said to be buried in the National Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  His pension records describe Samuel as being six feet two inches tall, dark complexioned with gray eyes and black hair, and a farmer by occupation.  Samuel (at the time a resident of Owensburg in Greene County) enlisted (together with his brother-in-law Moses Roberts of Mountain Springs and his wife's nephew Jonathan Smith of Mountain Springs) from Greene County on July 19, 1862, for a period of three years.  Some other members of this same unit who enlisted on that same date included the following:

 

--Hamilton Gaither Baker (of Mountain Springs) (possibly a brother of Rev. William Baker, Jr.) (Hamilton died on August 17, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee)

 

--Cuthbert Bridwell (of Mountain Springs) (father of Rachel Bridwell) (Cuthbert died on January 5, 1863, at Holly Springs, Mississippi)

 

--Aaron Roberts (of Mountain Springs) (probably a son of either Jonathan and Catherine Mitchell Roberts or Stephen and Mary Buchanan Roberts)

 

--Henry Roberts (of Owensburg) (probably a brother of Thomas Evan Roberts, father of Meg Roberts Smith)

 

--John Roberts (of Mountain Springs) (probably a son of Stephen and Mary Buchanan Roberts)

 

--Nelson Roberts (of Mountain Springs) (probably a son of Stephen and Mary Buchanan Roberts)

 

--Samuel Roberts (of Mountain Springs) (probably a son of Jonathan and Catherine Mitchell Roberts)

 

     Joseph Hamilton Smith and Docia Roberts had the following nine children.  One of them (Rebecca) died in childbirth at the age of 43, a common occurrence in the 1800's.  Two of them (Manerva and Mary) died as children.  Diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, influenza and typhoid fever were common killers of children in the 19th century, as was food poisoning. One of them (Jonathan) died in the Civil War, and another (Jonas) eventually died as a result of sickness contracted during service in the Civil War.  Daughter Charlotta died at the age of 28.  And  so, of their nine children, only Temperance, Rosanna and Moses would live to "comb gray hair."

 

1. Rebecca Ann Smith.  Rebecca was born on February 5, 1837, in Baker Township, Martin County,  Indiana.  She died on August 24,  1880, in Baker Township, Martin County,  Indiana.

 

                     2.   Charlotta Smith.  Charlotta was born on February 7, 1839, in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana.  She died at the age of 28 on Aug 18, 1867, in Baker Township, Martin County,  Indiana.  Charlotta married Joseph H. McBride on May 16, 1860, in Greene County, Indiana.  Joseph was born on  February 14, 1839, in Lawrence County, Indiana, and died on December 23, 1907, in Lawrence County, Indiana.  Charlotta is buried in Bridges Cemetery.  It does not appear that she had any children.

 

                            Joseph H. McBride was the son of Francis McBride and Ruth McGee. After the death of Charlotta, Joseph married Sarah Ann Smith, daughter of Simeon and Adea Chesnut Smith and a first cousin of the husband of Charlotta's sister Rosanna (George W. Smith).  Joseph is buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Bedford, Indiana.  Joseph was living with Sarah Ann on the farm adjoining the farm of Joseph Hamilton Smith in 1870.  It seems possible that Joseph McBride received this land from Joseph Hamilton Smith upon marrying Charlotta.

 

                                3.   Jonathan Smith.  Jonathan was born in 1841 in Baker Township, Martin  County, Indiana.  He died on August 20, 1864, in Rome, Georgia, while serving in the Civil War.  He married Mahala Rollins on February 20, 1862, in Martin County, Indiana.  Mahala was born on July 11, 1841, in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana, and died on November 26,  1930, in Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas.  It does not appear that Jonathan had any children.  It appears that Jonathan was named for his maternal uncle Jonathan Roberts.

 

                     "Jonathan Smith   

Residence: Mountain Springs, Indiana 

Enlistment Date: 19 July 1862 

Distinguished Service: DISTINGUISHED SERVICE 

Side Served: Union 

State Served: Indiana 

Unit Numbers: 655 655 

Service Record: Wounded

Enlisted as a Private on 19 July 1862

Enlisted in Company G, 97th Infantry Regiment Indiana on 19 July 1862.

Died of wounds on 20 August 1864 in Rome, GA "

 

                          Jonathan served in the same regiment in which his uncles Moses Roberts and Samuel Mitchell served. Jonathan's wife Mahala Rollins was the daughter of James Madison Rollins and Elizabeth Hert.  After Jonathan's death, Mahala married Jeremiah Parkhurst Love on December 21, 1864, in Martin County, Indiana.  Mahala and Jeremiah Parkhurst Love were the parents of Flora Etta, Charles, William Lowery, Exie Alice, Nora Belle and James Parkhurst Love.  Mahala and Jeremiah are buried in Little Walnut Cemetery, Douglass, Butler County, Kansas.    

 

                     4.  Jonas Smith.  Jonas was born on October 11,  1842, in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana, and died on February 23, 1888, in Owensburg,  Greene County, Indiana.  Jonas may have been named for the older Jonas Smith (who married first Rosannah Cooper and later Rachel Bridwell) who lived in Baker Township in Martin County and who was likely a brother of Joseph Hamilton Smith.

 

                     5.  Temperance Alice Smith.  Tempie was born on September 1, 1845, in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana,  and died on May 8, 1919, in Lawrence County, Indiana.

 

                      6.  Rosanna Smith.  Rosanna was born on July 2, 1847, in Baker Township, Martin County,  Indiana,  and died of chronic myocarditis on September 9, 1932, in Baker Township, Martin County,  Indiana.   Joseph Hamilton Smith was probably a brother of Jonas Smith, whose first wife was Rosannah Cooper.  Jonas and Rosanna Cooper Smith named a daughter "Docia" in 1847;  Joseph Hamilton Smith and Docia Roberts Smith then named their daughter "Rosanna" in 1847. 

 

                      7.   Manerva Smith.  Manerva was born on May 23, 1849, in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana, and died on September 9, 1866, in Baker Township, Martin County,  Indiana.  Manerva died at the young age of 17 and is buried in Bridges Cemetery.  

 

                      8.  Moses Smith. Moses was born on January 12, 1853, in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana, and died at the age of 79 on May 24, 1932, in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana. On October 19, 1876, he married Margaret Roberts, born on November 16,  1858 in Martin County,  Indiana, and died on June 4, 1938, in Bedford, Lawrence County, Indiana.

 

    Moses was probably named for his maternal uncle Moses Roberts.  Moses and his wife Margaret are buried together in Bridges Cemetery. Moses and Margaret lived with their grandnephew Otho Smith and his wife Addie Mae in their elder years, in Mountain Springs, where Moses died in 1932, and later in Bedford, where Meg died in 1938.  Otho's nephew Ermine Pitman remembered Moses' death as Ermine's first exposure to the concept of death.  (Moses died on Ermine's fourth birthday.)  Ermine had been very fond of Uncle Mose, and was told simply that Uncle Mose had gone away.  Moses died of chronic myocarditis (heart disease).  Marie Smith Leach recalled that Moses lived across the field from Adolphus Smith.

 

     Margaret Roberts ("Aunt Meg") Smith was a daughter of Thomas Evan Roberts and Emily Jane McCormick and a sister of Mary Jane (Roberts) Fields. She was also a sister of Sarah Emaline (Roberts) Baker, the mother of Maggie Jane (Baker) Smith, second wife of Adolphus Smith, son of Rosanna Smith.  Nina Fields Colglazier remembered Meg as a wonderful person.

 

     Margaret Roberts was born in Indiana on November 16, 1858.  At age 17, on October 19, 1876, in Martin County, Indiana, she married Moses Smith (son of Joseph Hamilton and Docia Roberts Smith).  Margaret died on June 4, 1938, in Bedford.  The Reverend Logan Hatfield, a minister at the Owensburg Church of Christ who was also the principal minister at the Mountain Springs Church of Christ,  preached Meg's funeral (and would later preach the funerals of other family members, including Adolphus Smith, Charles Bridwell Fields and Luther Fields).  Moses and Margaret spent their elder years in the home of Otho and Addie Mae Smith, their grandnephew.

 

     Nephew Paul Fields recalled that "Aunt Meg" and "Uncle Mose" were devout Christians and well versed in the Scriptures. Paul remembered them as very proud people.  Moses was a farmer and in later life was nearly blind.  Although the couple are believed to have had no children of their own (although one listing of those buried in Bridges Cemetery reports that Lucy Smith, born December 11, 1886, and died October 19, 1896, was in fact a daughter of Moses and Meg), they raised Otho Smith, son of Adolphus Smith (Moses' nephew) and Maggie Baker Smith (niece of Margaret Roberts Smith).  They also took in Nemota Fields, the infant daughter of Moses' older sister Rebecca Ann and her husband Wesley Fields, following Rebecca's death in childbirth, but the baby did not live long.

 

Obituary of Margaret Roberts Smith:

 

"Rites Held for Margaret Smith

Death Comes to aged Woman Saturday Evening -

Funeral At Mountain Springs

          Funeral services for Mrs. Margaret Smith, 79, who passed away Saturday evening at 6 o'clock were held this morning at 10 o'clock from the Mountain Springs Church of Christ with the Rev. Logan Hatfield of Owensburg officiating.

          Mrs. Smith, who has made her home for the past 14 years with her nephew and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Otho Smith, 629 U Street, had been helpless since last January when she suffered a paralytic stroke.

          Following death the body was taken to the Dan Dillen mortuary at Indian Springs for burial preparation and was returned to the residence Sunday to lie in state until the funeral hour this morning.

       A native of Martin county, Mrs. Smith was born November 16, 1858, to Thomas and Jane McCormick Roberts.  She was united in marriage in October, 1877, to Moses Smith, who preceded her in death in May, 1932.  She had lived in this city for the past two years.

          Surviving relatives include one brother, Ivan Roberts, living on east Seventeenth street, and one sister, Mrs. Mary Fields, living on the Oolitic road.

          Burial was made in the Bridges cemetery in Martin county."

     Bedford Daily-Tribune, June 6, 1938, p.1

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                         9. Mary E. Smith.  Mary was born on January 11, 1855 in Baker Township, Martin County, Indiana, and died as a young girl at the age of nine on March 20, 1864, in Baker Township, Martin County,  Indiana.  Mary is buried in Bridges Cemetery in Martin County, Indiana, with her parents and most of her siblings, including Rosanna, Manerva, Charlotta, Tempie (buried in an unmarked grave) and Moses.

 

Submitted by: Thomas A. Pitman

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