Smith Clan of North Carolina and Arkansas

Before this year, I had relied quite a bit on The Reverend John Tillett Family History (1955), by C. W. Allison, for background information on the Smith family who moved to North Carolina from Virginia in the late 1700's. We have a "double dose" of the Smith lineage in our ancestry because our great-grandmother Mary Benjamin Smith's parents were first cousins, once removed.

There seem to have been quite a few Smith men who, during the 19th century and earlier, were bestowed with a military title, either officially or unofficially --- usually Colonel. And I've just learned that Mary's great aunt (of the Martin family) was married to a General Nathaniel Smith, one of the many extended family members who established the Tulip community in Dallas County, Arkansas. (He was of a different Smith line and hailed from Chatham County, N.C., instead of the more northern Caswell and Granville Counties.)

There's a Smith descendant named Jonathan Kennon Thompson Smith who has written at least two books: Smith of Abram's Plains (1988), which refers to the name of a large Granville County plantation established during the latter part of the 18th century, and The Romance of Tulip Ridge (1966). Both of these books are out of print and were possibly self-published. I recently looked at an online version of the Abram's Plains book, and the author has added pages quite recently!

J.K.T. Smith is widely regarded as an authority and has been quoted extensively on the RootsWeb Caswell County Family Tree. Accordingly, our most prominent Smith Revolutionary War ancestor was Samuel Smith (1729-1800); he was designated a Colonel in the Granville Regiment in 1778 and is the founder of the large plantation already mentioned. My 2008 blog entry named Col. Maurice Smith as a Revolutionary officer, but this was incorrect. Maurice (1776-1835) was one of Samuel's sons and served as the sheriff of Granville County, having been the paternal grandfather of Mary Smith Tillett. Col. Samuel Smith's wife was Mary Edmondson Webb, and Maurice's first wife (mother of Benjamin M. Smith) was Frances Goodwin.

Mary's maternal grandfather was Samuel H. Smith (1795-1853), who was a grandson of Col. Samuel Smith, through Maurice's elder brother Samuel, Jr. (1765-1816). Samuel Smith, Jr.'s wife was Elizabeth Harrison. This family established a plantation called Hycotee, after the Hyco River, in Caswell County. Their son Samuel Harrison Smith [or originally just H. for Hyco -- to distinguish him from a cousin born elsewhere] married Frances Alston Martin, of the Forest Hill plantation in Wake County, N.C.

Whereas Mary's paternal grandparents died long before the migration of some of the clan to Hardeman County, Tenn., and in 1848 or 1849 on to Arkansas, her maternal grandparents Sam and Fanny moved to Arkansas along with their daughter Anne William Smith and other family members.

Reportedly the Smith properties in N.C. are still owned and occupied by descendants (of family members who didn't move to Arkansas). At least one of the manor houses, the one at Hycotee, was recently demolished, however.

There may be Smith descendants living on the remnants of the Arkansas plantations, as well. The one established by Benjamin M. Smith (1824-1877) was called Tulip Farm and may have been quite prosperous before the Civil War. Dallas County took quite a beating during and even after the war, since many of the settlers left and did not return.

Our Smith immigrant ancestor is said to have been a Scotsman named Alexander Smith, who arrived in Virginia sometime during the 1600's.