Descendant Sally Gregory provided the following information about John Lewis Smith:

"I'm afraid I don't know much about John Lewis Smith, but I will tell you what I know. The family story is that John Lewis Smith, William Nelson Baker, Marshall Meyers, Burl Pool, and a McPherson came to Texas together from Alabama. John Lewis met and married Rebecca Jane Rees, who is the granddaughter of Richard Jesse Cheshire. They had 2 children together John Hardy Smith and Henry Arthur "Connie" Smith. I always thought there was a third child, but come to find out she was the daughter of a second husband. Based on the dates of the children, John Lewis died sometime between Uncle Connie and the daughter's birth dates, so that would put his death between 1892-1898. Uncle Connie married a McPherson and the daughter I mentioned married the son of William Nelson Baker.

When I started asking the older members of our family why he died so early, none of them remembered him because he died before they all were born. The only thing that some of them remembered was the "back" way from Montgomery area to Danville and that he was buried there. They gave me vague directions of taking Long Street to Shepard Hill Rd. Uncle Connie's daugther-in-law Marcia Smith is the one who told me that he was buried in the Danville Cememtery next Rebecca's grandfather, Richard Cheshire.

I can't confirm John Lewis Smith's age because the only census that would have him with the his wife and one of the sons is the 1890 census, which doesn't exist. I've found a J. L. Smith on the Montgomery County, Texas 1880 census from Alabama, but there isn't anything to confirm the info against because he was listed as boarder in a boarding house.

Also, I have been corresponding with another of my distant cousins who has a letter about Richard Jesse Cheshire's grave. The letter is from one of Richard's grandchildren and she says that she got permission to place a headstone in the general area of where her mother showed her that his grave was located."

Family contact Sally Gregory

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Created July 29, 2008

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