Biography of James Hardy Smith of Spearsville, Union Parish Louisiana Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by Lyle Smith, 3/2005 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================= BIOGRAPHY OF JAMES HARDY SMITH, Researched and written by his nephew, Lyle Smith, 2005 ================================================================================== JAMES HARDY SMITH, April 20, 1878-July 18, 1958 "Uncle Jim" ============================================================= James Hardy Smith (Jim) was born April 20, 1878, at Lapile, Union County, Arkansas (pronounced LA peel, it is a French word meaning “the heap” or “the pile.” Lapile is located about 10 miles east of Strong, Union County, Arkansas, half way between Highway #82 and Highway #129 to Huttig). Jim was the first child of Woody King Smith and Martha Jane Poole. Woody K. Smith was born April 26, 1857, at Ouachita Township, Bradley County, Arkansas. He died June 26, 1933, at his home north of Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana. Martha Jane Poole was born June 28, 1856, at Lapile, Union County, Arkansas. She died May 22, 1880, after only 3 years and 2 months of marriage. She left behind 2 little children: Jim and Lizzie. Martha died in Union County, Arkansas. The 1880 census was taken in June, shortly after Martha died. James Smith was listed as a grandson, 2 years old, living with his maternal grandparents, Hardy Garrison Poole and Susan Rebecca Gathright. Woody King’s parents were Hansford Willis Smith and Martha Ann Davis. Woody K. Smith, age 20 years, of Oakland, Union Parish, Louisiana, married Martha Jane Poole, age 20 years, also of Oakland, Union Parish, Louisiana, on February 8, 1877. This marriage was duly filed and recorded in Book “D”, Page 234 of Union County Marriage Records. Children of Woody K. Smith and Martha J. Poole were: 1- James Hardy Smith (Jim) was born April 20, 1878 at Lapile, Union County, Arkansas. Jim was just 2 years old when his mother died. 2- Sarah Elizabeth Smith (Lizzie) was born December 13, 1879, at Lapile, Union County, Arkansas. She was 5 months and 9 days old when her mother died. The 1880 Census was done shortly after Martha J. died. “Elizie” Smith was listed as a grand daughter living with her maternal grandparents, Hardy and Rebecca Poole. Lizzie died June 1, 1972, in Bernice, Union Parish, Louisiana. Farmers needed children to help on the farm, and it was a necessity to have a wife to bear those children, and to keep house. So, 3 months later Woody K. Smith married Mahala Elizabeth Head. They were married September 2, 1880, in Union County, Arkansas. Their license was duly filed and recorded in Book “E”, Page 288 of Union County Marriage Records. Mahala was the daughter of Thomas Jackson Head and Francis Johnson. Thomas was born September 20, 1822, in Jones County, Georgia. Francis died in 1867. Children of Woody K. Smith and Mahala E. Smith were: 3- Thomas Jackson Smith (Tom) was born October 5, 1881 in Lapile, Union County, Arkansas. 4- William Hansford Smith (Bill) was born June 2, 1883, in Lapile, Union County, Arkansas. 5- Nancy Jane Smith (Nannie) was born June 12, 1885, in Lapile, Union County, Arkansas. 6- Armon Smith (twin) was born July 5, 1887, in Lapile, Union County, Arkansas. 7- Harmon Smith (twin) was born July 5, 1887, in Lapile, Union County, Arkansas. 8- Woody Columbus Smith was born July 9, 1890, in Lapile, Union County, Arkansas. Woody K. and Mahala lived near Lapile and farmed there the first few years of their marriage. During the years of 1880 to 1895, Uncle Jim lived around Lapile. He was 17 years old when they moved from Lapile to Randolph, in northern Louisiana and to Blanchard Springs. After giving birth to 6 children from 1881 to 1890, Mahala E. Head Smith died March 20, 1895, leaving 6 small children of her own and 2 step-children. Woody K. Smith married his third and final wife, Mary Rebecca Barron, July 18, 1895, in Union Parish, Louisiana. Mary Rebecca was born November 2, 1864, in Union Parish, Louisiana, during the Civil War. Mary Rebecca Barron was a 31 year old, “OLD MAID,” having lived with her father, Henry Callaway Barron, and had her own crops on his farm, on Big Corney Bayou; south of Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana. Into the marriage she brought her life savings of $900.00. Mary purchased a team of mules, food, and clothing material enough for her and Lizzie, Jim’s younger sister, to make sorely needed clothes for the entire family. On January 20, 1896, Woody K. Smith purchased the following parcel of land from Hosea H. Rockett: “The Northeast Quarter, (NE1/4) of Section 26, except one acre where J.D. Barron’s house lot is, and nine (9) acres in the NW corner of the said quarter section in Township 23, North of Range 3 West, containing 150 acres, more or less.” Witnesses were John Murphy and H.W. Breazeal. The house the Smith family moved from Blanchard Springs was taken apart carefully, the pieces marked and moved 4 miles north of Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana. While the house was being rebuilt on Smith Hill, the family lived in a large log cabin off the “Big Cut”, just north of Little Corney Creek. (The Big Cut was a field.) Apparently, Uncle Jim lived at home and worked the place with his father until he married 6 years later. Jim Smith married Ida Tabitha Dettenheim on October 26, 1902, at 10:30 a.m., in Union Parish, Louisiana. This marriage being duly filed and recorded in Book “10”, Page 159, of Union Parish Marriage Records. Ida was born March 25, 1876, the first child of Phillip Dettenheim and Mary Jane Langley. Phillip was born January 3, 1850. Mary was born October 21, 1850. Children of Jim and Ida were: 1- Robert Odell Smith was born August 2, 1903, near Spearsville, Louisiana, in the Beech Grove Community of Union Parish. He married Dorothy Elizabeth Bethea on May 27, 1929. Odell died May 7, 1970, in LaPorte, Texas. Dorothy was born December 30, 1909, and died ( ). Children of Odell and Dot are: a- Teresa Ann Smith was born March 8, 1934, in LaPorte, Texas b- Barbara Jane Smith was born March 22, 1938, in Baytown, Texas. c- Dorothy Elizabeth Smith (Dottie) was born September 30, 1944. 2- Myrtle Ann Smith was born February 26, 1905, near Spearsville, in the Beech Grove Community of Union Parish, Louisiana, and died January 10, 1983. She married Grady Jones on February 16, 1928. They had one child: a- Hannah Myrtle Jones was born March 16, 1929, in Houston, Texas Myrtle Ann Smith Jones married Ramon Veles on March 24, 1934. Children of Myrtle and Ray are: a- Ida Ramona Veles was born November 26, 1936, in Washington, D.C. b- Elizabeth Ann Veles (Betty) was born April 24, 1943, in Jaciento City, Texas. c- Alicia Louise Veles was born February 7, 1944, in Houston, Texas. 3- Mary Elizabeth Smith was born on September 6, 1908, near Spearsville, on a 40 acre farm, in the Beech Grove Community of Union Parish, Louisiana. Mary married Lyle M. Berkley on April 30, 1930, in Vinton, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. Children of Lyle and Mary are: a- Doris Jean Berkley was born August 25, 1931, in LaPorte, Texas. b- James Franklin Berkley was born December 25, 1932, in LaPorte, Texas. c- Charles Robert Berkley was born January 18, 1939, in LaPorte, Texas. d- Ruth Jolene Berkley was born June 4, 1943, in LaPorte, Texas. 4- King Philip Smith was born January 20, 1910, near Spearsville, in the Beech Grove Community of Union Parish; on the Luke farm. He married Ethel Mae Barrow June 21, 1932, in Vinton, Calasieu Parish, Louisiana. Children of Philip and Ethel are: a- Kenneth Philip Smith was born on January 14, 1933. b- Leslie Howard Smith was born December 13, 1941. c- Robert Allen Smith was born January 18, 1944. 5- James Hardy Smith, Jr. was born March 12, 1912, near Spearsville on the Luke farm in the Beech Grove community of Union Parish, Louisiana. He married Winnie Genevieve Meaux on November 17, 1936. Children of James and Winnie are: a- James Hardy Smith III (Hardy) was born on January 31, 1940 in Goose Creek, Texas. b- Carol Ann Smith was born February 19, 1943 in LaPorte, Texas. c- Joan Gail Smith was born August 14, 1952, in Houston, Texas. Uncle Jim joined New Hope Primitive Baptist Church September 23, 1916, and was baptized by his father, Elder Woody K. Smith. Jim Smith was 5’ 10 “tall and weighed 180 pounds. He had sandy hair and blue eyes. Uncle Jim was a small scale cotton and corn farmer north of Spearsville. Times were hard, and he worked at a saw mill, where he lost a big toe. He was not making a living on the Luke farm near Randolph, so Woody K. and Jim built a house near the Smith house, but toward Little Corney Creek. Jim and his family lived with Woody K. and Mary Rebecca while the well was being dug and the house constructed. Jim’s entire family had the measles while they were there. Mary Smith, Jim’s second daughter, recalled her mother making hominy in a big black wash pot out in the yard. She soaked the corn over night in lye water, and then stirred the husk off. She then washed the corn several times before cooking and canning it. All the children liked hominy. Mary remembered a side room where her father emptied his cotton from his sack each day. “All the kids like to lie on the soft sweet smelling cotton when they could get away with it.” “Once a month we’d go to my grandfather Woody K. Smith’s church at Spearsville in our big wagon. We’d go one day, stay overnight with relatives, and return the next day. Those were the hi-lights to us kids. We didn’t care for the 2 or 3 hour long sermons by 2 or 3 preachers, but did love the ‘dinner on the grounds,’ food, and seeing cousins and aunts and uncles. WRITER’S NOTE: in a letter written to her cousin, June Vanderpool, in Colorado, in 1976, Mary stated the following: “We moved to La Porte, Harris County, Texas, in January of 1920. Papa had visited Mom’s brother and family and thought it might help Mama’s health. She had what the doctors up in Louisiana called the ‘sneezes’. It must have been hay fever or allergies. Later she developed polyps in each nostril, which also caused her to sneeze, and her nose to run. She had 2 operations, but moving there didn’t help change her problem.” Mary Smith was 12 years old when her family moved to La Porte. She was salutatorian of the 1928 class of La Porte High School. She was also one of the first telephone operators in La Porte. Uncle Jim moved his family to La Porte, Texas in 1920. He had visited one of Aunt Ida’s brothers there and thought he might be able to improve their plight there. He worked at various occupations after the family moved to La Porte, to put the bacon on the table. He did yard work and was a custodian at a high school; was a crossing guard, and also ran a paper route. He always had a wonderful garden each year on 6th. Street in La Porte. WRITER’S NOTE: The following are selected excerpts from a diary Uncle Jim kept for three years while working at the high school in La Porte. A copy of the diary was presented to me, courtesy of Uncle Jim’s granddaughter, Joan Smith Glover. I have inserted these parts of the diary to try to show Uncle Jim’s personality and sense of humor. This is copied just as Uncle Jim wrote and spelled it. On the inside front cover Uncle Jim wrote: WKS JHS Woody King Smith Born April 26, 1857 J.H. Smith Sr. I was born April 20, 1878 September 22, 1941: Woody and Tom Smith and family left my house for home this morning, Sept. 22, 1941. They got to my house last Wednesday. Keep tuned Sept. 24, 1941: We had a storm equal to the 1915 storm in intensity lots of damage ever fishing pier for miles up and down bay washed out all buildings in the low lands wrecked and washed away all telephone phones cut off from La Porte lights still off. September 25 no school. September 26, 1941: The weather is just fine this morning. Fair and some cooler. We still get reports from the Gulf shores. Lots of damage such as boats fishing piers and fishing camps. All the way from La Porte to Connor to Porte Author. September 30, 1941: Still partially cloudy, but no rain, but plenty hot. Joe Lewis and Nova fought last night. Nova got knocked out in the sixth round, so bye Nova. Oct. 2, 1941: It is cloudy and looks like rain. Sure hope we don’t have lots of rain otherwise everything is Hunky Doory. So, Ok Keep tuned in. October 5, 1941 Sunday: T.J. Smith’s birthday of Lillie, La. And it rained here in La Porte. Oct. 7, 1941: Remember to not to forget to remember J.D. Dettehhaim-Junction City, Ark. Oct. 27, 1941: Well, yesterday was our wedding anniversary. Come on the same day of the week as the wedding day. We had a baby northerner this morning with a little rain, it don’t look like we will ever have any nice weather. Keep tuned on this station. Oct. 28, 1941: We had the northerner last nite but it is about over but it helped. This is my first day to wear my uniform. It looks good, lots of compliments. We had our first fire. December 7, 1941: Japan bomb Honolulu, a part of the US possessions which will cause the declaration of war by the United States of America. The above was done on Sunday December the 7, 1941. Stay tuned for news. December 8, 1941: Cool and cloudy this morning. I guess the US will declare war with Japan today and maybe Germany at the same time. It seems like Japan has already attacked the US in Honolulu. We will know later the President makes his speech today at 11: 30 oclock. So we will what we will see. So keep tuned in. War was declared today against Japan. December 9, 1941: We have cloudy and cool weather & war in nearly every country on the globe and more of them every day are declaring war. Let us hope this will be a short war, but it is hope against hope and too much involved. We will have Germany to contend with in the near future and that war machine is bad for her enemies. Look out boys. December 10, 1941: We have cool weather and clouds. The wind is from the east very gently with a small trace of rain at times. We are getting lots of reports of the war conditions. Most if not all are unconfirmed so we just don’t know where we stand. Lots of activity with air planes around here but couldn’t say any more than common. New pilots getting more hours to their credit. Let us hope. December 11, 1941: Well, we have a very nasty day started. Its cloudy and a small sift of rain is falling. Wind is very calm to gentle to moderate from east to NE. Not much change in temperature, about 65 degrees. Our foreign troubles are still raging but it seems the US boys with their Navy and airplanes are beginning to make sign that they are in “it” to act in a big way. Its too bad it had to happen this way but look out, they will get you. Keep tuned in. December 12, 1941: We still have bad weather, cloudy with a small trace of rain and fairly warm. We are still in war with Japan and Germany and Itley have declared war on the United States which was no surprise. Well we will see a long war according to high authority. Let us hope we don’t because war is a terrible thing at its best. See you again Monday if nothing happens to prevent. Keep listening for more news. Dec. 15, 1941: We are having cloudy weather but no rain, wind NE about 10 mi. per hr. Temperature about 44 degrees. We are just getting started on the war against Japan, Germany and Itley. Lets hope it won’t last long. Seems like a lot of suffering. Germany seems to be giving ground to Russia. Keep tuned in. January 19, 1942: Weather is fine and fair. I went to Goose Creek and had two teeth extracted or pulled out, so that is all for today. See you later. Keep tuned in. 1-27-42: Coole and fair, a northwester blew out during the night. U.S. landed soldiers in Irland yesterday. I guess Biz, will be going to pick up over there and someone will be doing it besides the Japs and the Nazies, we hope. 2-3-42: It is cloudy and warm today and looks like rain but so far none. We are still at war with Japan, Itley and Germany and seems like our forces, the Navy, Air Force and underwater craft are beginning to be heard from and felt. So look out for revenge for Pearl Harbor. We’ve got to get revenge. Bye till later. September 18, 1942: Rained to beat the band yesterday. More later. Got 2 cards from Miss Ida. Never said a darn word about coming home. Planted mustard and turnips on the 15th of this month. I sent in my resignation to Mr. Williams. No good, his wife had a stroke the 16th of this month. Sept. 29, 1942: I wrote Bill and Annie and John Lee and Delma. October 2, 1942: This is the day the Bulldogs play football with the La Porte Bulldogs. Rice beat a Louisiana team 27-14, a hard fought game. The Cards won their game 9 to 6 with the Yanks and in the Series the Cards have 3 games to 1. October 6, 1942: The world series have been played off and the Cards took 4 games from the N.Y. Yanks. So it was 4 to 1 in favor of the Cards. So that is that. Terry Moore is my “Hero” of the whole big league. I’ve read the history of him in Liberty, and he is good. October 8, 1942: We are going a long time, just a little crowed, but think we will be able to handle the situation all right. Referring to the opposite page. We are still at war with Japan, Itley and Germany, but I don’t think the Axis power is as strong as they were last Feby. The 24th, and the Allies are getting stronger day by day, this Oct. 8, 1942. Oct. 20, 1942: The children say look out for Oct. 26. Don’t know whats going to happen, but will tell you later. That date is our wedding anniversary, will be married 40 years. See you later with more news. Oct 25, 1942: And today is Idas and my wedding anniversary. We’ve been married 40 yrs. Today at 10:30 oclock. Oct. 26, 1902 to 1942. Oct. 27, 1942: We had our first artificial heat in the building and it felt good. Had an easter to blow out last nite. Wind is still blowing about 10 miles per hour. Got a letter from Annie today. All well, Bills working. November 10, 1942: We had a norther to blow out with a little rain. Still cloudy. Rice beat Arkansas 40 to 9 last Sat, which put Ark out of the race in the conference. Nov. 10, 1942: Well, today is the first day of gas rationing. They are registering in the gym today, Fri and Saturday. To come into effect Dec. 1, 1942, with 35 miles speed limit. Do lets see what happens. So look out how you drive. Feb. 12, 1943: We bought Ida home today. Feb. 15, 1943: Ida is back home but not doing well. Going to have to take her back to the hospital, but don’t know when. Will see you later. Keep tuned. Feb. 17, 1943: We had to take Miss Ida back to hospital on the 16th. She seemed to be feeling better. She got a leak in the bladder, so we will see what they do to her later. February 21, 1943: I went to see Miss Ida at the hospital yesterday, and she was OK. James and Winnie had a baby girl born to them Friday, the 18th, 1943. March 15, 1943: Today is Miss Idas birthday, and she is just as fine as she can be. She has had 40 birthdays since we were married , so you see. We had an all nite rain last nite, but it has quit for the present. March 30, 1943: I am wanting to go home very bad this week-end. John Lee is going to be ordained to preach, but don’t know yet. April 20, 1943: My birthday. 65 years. Mr. Knight is cutting down all the olyanders on the school ground. April 26, 1943: My dads birthday, born April 26, 1857. Uncle Jim Smith was 63 years old when he started his diary and was one month past 65 years when he quit keeping it. Uncle Jim and Aunt Ida finished raising their family in Texas, and saw them all grown and married. There is room to argue that the move did improve their plight in Texas. Aunt Ida died in La Porte November 26, 1949. Uncle Jim died there on July 18, 1958, being 80 years and 28 days old. They are buried in the old La Porte Cemetery near their home on 6th. St. Lyle M. Smith February 8, 2005 ######################################################