Elias William Smith, son of John Everett Vaught Smith

Elias William Smith & Mary Lucinda Baker

Elias William Smith, son of John E. V. and Elizabeth Bromley (Kimbley) Smith, born at Ceralvo, Kentucky, March 18, 1851; died September 12, 1934, and is buried at Nelson Creek Baptist Church, Nelson, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.  He was a farmer in Ohio County and on March 21, 1873, married Mary Lucinda Baker, daughter of Andrew W. and Paulina Fig (Maddox) Baker.  Mary Lucinda, too, was born at Ceralvo, on September 29, 1852.  She died December 22, 1935, and is also buried at Nelson Creek Baptist Church.

Elias William and Mary Lucinda Smith's children are:

William Edgar Smith

Claude Everly Smith

Lula May Smith

Everett Andrew Smith

Jesse Baker Smith

Paulina Elizabeth Smith

John Henderson Smith

Elias William Smith

I have childhood memories of visits these grandparents made periodically to my father's home, in Crittenden County, Kentucky.  In the days before every family owned an automobile, Grandfather Elias would drive by horse and buggy a hundred miles from Ohio County to Crittenden County for an extended visit with his son Edgar and his family.  He always brought a trunk, which, in addition to clothing, contained many curiosities to my sisters and me.  It usually contained chestnuts, candy, family pictures, and a lot of gold coins of different denominations.  He wore a long, white beard and walked with a cane.  He said that at his death there would be a gold coin for each of his grandchildren.  He must have lived many years beyond his expectations and have found it necessary to spend the gold, for no coins appeared after his death.

Mary Lucinda Baker Smith 

Grandmother Mary Lucinda was short of stature and was quite heavy.  She seemed rather stern to us children, and when her brown eyes flashed an order, we lost no time in carrying it out.  She always came laden with many kinds of bean seeds and flower seeds--probably from the previous year's harvest--each tied with a piece of string in a square piece of cloth.  For as long as I can remember there grew in my father's yard a vine-like plant called passion flower--so called from a fancied resemblance of parts of the flower to the instruments of Christ's crucifixion.  The blossom was orchid in color and was shaped like the little Japanese paper umbrellas sometimes used for table decorations on festive occasions.  The plant grew nowhere else in the neighborhood and few people had heard of it.  It was my favorite flower.  When my sister and I visited Grandfather and Grandmother Smith's graves in 1958, we were amazed to see the plant growing there.  Now I wonder if it was she who brought the seeds to my father's yard, and if after her death perhaps they were planted on her grave by the loving hand of her daughter Paulina Johns, with whom she spent her last years.