Will of Samuel P. NeSmith, Lowndes, Alabama

http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/wills/willbookc/spnesmith.txt
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This file was contributed and copyrighted by:
Carolyn Golowka
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August 1999


Will of Samuel P. NeSmith
Lowndes County, Alabama
Will Book C, pages 7 - 8


The State of Alabama, Lowndes County.

I, Samuel P. NeSmith of the State and County aforesaid, do make and 
publish and declare this my Last Will and Testament.

I give and bequeath to my beloved wife, Julia A. NeSmith, all of my 
property of every description, reposing in her the confidence that in 
the disposition of the same she will do justice to your children.

I appoint my said wife Executrix of this Will and request that she be 
not required to give and bond for the execution thereof.

Witness my hand and seal this 9th day of May, 1861.

                                                 S. P. NeSmith (Seal)

Signed, sealed, published and declared by the Testator at his last Will
 and Testament and signed by each other as witnesses in the presence of
 the Testator on the day above written.

                                                            R. M. Williamson
                                                            John P. Mushat

Richard M. Williamson, Esq., being duly sworn and examined says that he 
saw Samuel P. NeSmith, dec'd, sign his name to the papers named in the 
petition as the Last Will of deceased, and here shown to him, and declared 
the same to be his last Will, that deceased signed the same in the presence 
of John P. Mushat, whose name appears thereto as a subscribing witness, as 
well as in the presence of said Williamson, and that said Williamson and 
John P. Mushat signed their names to said Last Will, as witnesses in the 
presence of said Samuel P. NeSmith at his request and in the presence of 
each other, and that they alll, the said Testator as well as said witnesses, 
so signed said Last Will on the day the same bears date, to-wit:  on the 
9th day of May, 1861; that his acquaintance with the said Testator has 
been long and intimate, their intercourse having been both social and 
legal; both practicing lawyers, that their said intimacy has been at 
least ten years duration and that in his opinion, that said Testator 
was of sound and disposing mind and memory at the time of making and 
executing said last Will.

                                                 R. M. Williamson

Subscribed and sworn to before me July 23rd, 1862
James W. Graham
Judge of Probate

The foregoing is a true copy of the original Will received for and 
admitted to probate and record in this court, July 23rd, 1862, and 
recorded this 13th day of April, together with the proof thereof.

                                         James W. Graham, P. J. L. C.

Samuel Perry NeSmith was killed in the Civil War.  From the book, "Lowndes 
Court House," by Mildred Brewer Russell, a quote from his obituary in the 
Montgomery Advertiser, July, 1862:

"Major S. P. NeSmith, the law partner of Colonel David Baine, entered the 
volunteer service at the very opening of the conflict; and although qualified 
by the force of his intellect and a year's experience in the Mexican War to 
adorn any office in the regiment, yet he refused to accept any, so supreme was 
his disgust for office seeking.  He gloried in the privilege of being a private, 
and never was there a better soldier.  No duty or peril came unacceptably; and 
no hardship or privation could disturb his cheerful and genial good nature.

On the reorganization of his regiment, the noble 6th, his companions in arms, 
without solicitation on his part, as we are informed, elected him their major.  
He fell gallantly leading his regiment at the enemy's strongworks in 
Chickahominy swamp, on the memorable 31st of May last.  Thus fell as spotless 
and unselfish a patriot as ever adorned life.  He was about forty years old."


Reprinted with permission from the Lowndes County Historical Society which 
holds the copywrite.