Farmington, New Mexico
January 29, 1932
About 1833 Pa took a notion to see his sisters at Mobile and his cousin , Batt Smith, so he straddled a horse and rode through outlaws and Indians from Petersburg, Virginia, to Mobile, Alabama. He had not been long at his half sisters' before they began to inquire about Grandpa's money matters, so he took his hat and went to visit cousin Batt Smith, spent a few days and started home; Cousin Batt Smith being so well-pleased with his visit he gave him 600 dollars in gold to take back with him, but Aunt Martha would not let him leave until he gave her half of it.
In 1838 he married Miss Dorothy Ann Graves (both pure English). To them were born four boys; Edward, 1840; Waverley, 1842; Marion, 1844; Emmett, 1846.
Near this time he started with Uncle Tom _____ to move, landing in Memphis,
Tennessee. He settled 20 miles east of Memphis, lived there
four or five years, and then sister Lilla and I were born. While there he
took a contract with Peters Bros. for six mile of railroad and then he moved
to Tippah County, Mississippi, eight miles south of La Grange, Tennessee,
and six miles south of Grand Junction, Tennessee.
He hired a man name of Bob King to oversee the farm and work another contract at Pocahontas, Mississippi, I think with Sam Fate and Bosly, and another at Corinth, Mississippi. By this time he was making money, so in 1858 he took a sixty mile contract alone and finished it in the first of 1860. This contract was near ______, Miss.
Then the Civil War came on. He worked in the Quarter Master's Department at Grand Junction till our troops evacuated the place. Then the Yanks came down there and he remained at home. The soldiers would go out at night and hold up the farmers for what cash they had. Ten of them came one night to hold him up. He shot into them and killed two. They came back with a company of a hundred men and burned him out. (Second Iowa Infantry). He called together about ten men and a few of our slaves and shot the picket guards at night and kept them scared good and plenty.
But before this burning, three or four months, the Yanks were hauling off corn. We had about thirty-five men slaves and about thirty women and children. We raised on an average of one hundred bales of cotton a year. The wagons were being loaded and talk to PA and some of them seemed to like him.
Pa saw the wagons going by and asked the officer where he was going and he said "To Captain Hardy's". Pa said to him: "If you go there you will take all he has and he has a lot of girls and has a hard time to live", so the officer ordered the wagons to our house to load corn.
The Yanks, after foraging on Pa for two or three times, start over to our
neighbor, Captain Hardy. One of the officers seemed to be attracted to Pa
and came by to visit him. Pa saw the wagons going
by and asked the officer where he was going and he said "To Captain Hardy's".
Pa said to him: "If you go there you will take all he has and he has
a lot of girls and has a hard time to live", so the officer ordered the wagons
to our house to load corn.
(Six or seven months after this that officer came back to La Grange and started out to visit Pa. Uncle John Graves live about half-way to our place and he told him Pa had been killed. The officer told Uncle John he had read of such men and heard of such but had never seen such a man before and anxious to meet Pa because such a man was was wonderful and a grand humanitarian.)
Our house was bured on the sixth of January and Pa was killed on May 1. As I had no home but had a horse (I was only 14) I was sworn into the army with the rest of the company and was a soldier from February to May.
Soon after this Brother Wave was made Lieutenant Colonel and Ed was made
Captain of our old Smith company. When General Forest went
into Memphis, Brother Ed had his horse killed under him. Wave was shot in
the shoulder at Richmond, Kentucky. That was his reason for being home at
this time.
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This page was last updatedMarch 09, 2018 |