Sam T. Smith, son of Presley William Smith

Sam T. Smith, son of Presley William Smith, was referred to as "Muhlenberg County pioneer and venerated county historian."  When construction of the $180 million dollar TVA power plant (at Paradise) was announced, Sam Smith was the first one to be contacted by newspaper reporters from several states about his small community.

Smith was a charter member of the Paradise Baptist Church and was a 50-year member of the Masonic Lodge at Central City.

It is said that Sam T. Smith was married twice but that no children were born to his first marriage.  At his death he left a widow Mildred, the second wife, and their children were:

           

Electa Smith, of Paradise                          

Judith Smith. m. Mr. McCarraber and they lived in Coatesville, Pennsylvania  

Pressley Smith, of Greenville, Kentucky

Samuel Levi Smith, of Paradise, Kentucky

Samuel T. Smith was born in 1877 and died in 1961 at the age of 84. He was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery at Central City, Kentucky.

I was told in 1959 by a relative of both his and mine that he had bought up most of the original land owned by the Smiths of his family and that on some of that land still stood the house in which Elias Guess Smith (see later) lived.