Appendix F - The Will of Elias Guess Smith

Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, Will Book 3, page 7

E. G. SMITH Will.

This day personally appeared before one Solomon Rhodes, Justice of Peace for

Muhlenberg County, State of Kentucky, Simion Vaught and Hannah Smith made oath as follows; to wit, On the 3^rd day of March 1830 Elias G. Smith did voluntarily give and deliver into the actual possession of his son William B. Smith in their presence, all his personal estate without any exception, he, the said Elias G. Smith, being in his perfect mind--further the witnis saith on oath sworn to and signed by said witnis before me this 3^rd day of March 1830.

                                                                                                            Her

                                                                                                Hanna  X  Smith  

                                                                                                            Mark

Test. Solomon Rhodes

Muhlenberg County J. P.                                                   Simon Vaught

March County Court 1830

The foregoing instrument of writing purporting to be the nuncupative will of

Elias G. Smith, deceased, was executed in the Court proven by the oathe of Simion Vaught and Hannah Smith subscribing witnesses and ordered to be recorded.

                       

                                                                                                Atty. Ch. F. Wing, Clk.

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. 

Leonard Smith, son of Aaron Fairfax Smith

Leonard Smith, son of Aaron Fairfax Smith, born in Kentucky in 1813 or 1814; married Elizabeth Yonts on May 24, 1838.  The Yonts family came from North Carolina about 1812 and "settled near the home of Eli Smith, who was a kinsman of Elias" G. Smith, according to Rothert.  

Leonard Smith died before 1880 and in that year his widow, Elizabeth, was living in the home of William H. Smith, who was probably their only child. 

Elias Guess Smith, son of Peter Smith of Caswell County, North Carolina

Elias Guess Smith (son of Peter and Jemima Smith) was born March 21, 1775, in Virginia it is thought; died March 3, 1830, in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky; married Hannah Vaught in January 1801.

Hannah was a daughter of Christian and Hanna (Crum) Vaught; born April 30, 1781; died in 1842.  She was a sister to John Vaught (m. Elizabeth Martin), Simon Vaught (m. Elizabeth Zimmerman, 1799), Gilbert Vaught, and probably others.  Simon must have been a minister for he is shown as the person who performed many marriages in Muhlenberg County.  It is said that some of the Vaught family came from Prussia and that John came to Kentucky from Pennsylvania.  John was a Revolutionary soldier.  Some people by the name of Vaught lived in White County, Illinois.

Elias G. Smith received 120 acres of land in Muhlenberg County, on Pond River, on September 5, 1823 (Jillson, Book 27, page 142).

Elias Guess Smith was appointed on May 25, 1807, “to survey a road from Fugates sugar camp branch to Littlepage's ferry” and to "keep the same in repair...”  On February 12, 1815, he sold 200 acres of land on Pond River to Elias Smith (son of John Smith who died in 1803, said to be a relative of Elias G.) of Hopkins County for the sum of $1,000. Hannah relinquished her right of dower.

Of Elias G. and Hannah Smith's twelve children, evidently only seven reached adulthood:

Rachel S. Smith, born September 17, 1801; died 1801

Jesse W. Smith, born February 15, 1803

Martha V. Smith, born May 10, 1805

William B. Smith, born March 7, 1807; died February 1882

George L. Smith, born January 23, 1809

Willis S. Smith, born February 3, 1811; died in infancy

John Everett Vaught Smith, born September 27, 1812

Louisa S. Smith, born July 27, 1815; died January 1832

Sisera B. Smith, born May 21, 1817

Elias G. Smith, Jr., born June 27, 1820

Elijah F. Smith, born August 28, 1822; died 1823

Mary E. Smith, born March 8, 1827

Hannah Smith and Simon Vaught appeared before the Justice of the Peace for Muhlenberg County on March 3, 1830, and made oath that on the same date Elias G. Smith “voluntarily gave and delivered into the actual possession of his son William B. Smith, in their presence, all his personal estate without exception, he, the said Elias G. Smith, being in his perfect mind...”  This oath was, in March County Court 1830, declared to be the “nuncupative will of Elias G. Smith, deceased...”  It can only be concluded that Elias G. Smith died on March 3, 1830, and that his widow gave oath the same day. (Appendix F)

I have wondered why everything was given to son William B. Smith, who was then 23 years of age.  The reason, if one may speculate a bit, may be that William B. was the oldest child at home.  His older brother, Jesse W., would have been 27 and probably was married.  Martha V. was already married and all the other living children would have been younger than William B.  It must have been that, with “all his personal estate without exception," Elias G. gave him, too, the responsibility of looking after the family.

The activities of this family of children have proved to be somewhat elusive, in that they are not as well documented as the affairs of some of their cousins. From the "old Smith Bible” now in possession of Mrs. Hattie Brown, of Island, Kentucky (one of the great granddaughters of Elias and Hannah), have been obtained the birth and death dates of this couple’s children.