COCKE COUNTY, TN - BIOGRAPHIES - Life Sketch of George Lowery Smit ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Warren Smit smitsw@cox.net ==================================================================== The following narrative was handed to me by a descendant of Charlotte Smit, GL Smith's daughter who interviewed her father and wrote down his words. Life Sketch of George Lowery Smit George Lowery Smit, son of James Smit, and Leah Serrett, was born on the 16th of October 1833 in Cooke (sic) County, Tennessee. I know but very little of his childhood days. He was born on a plantation or farm and from the time he was 12 or 13 years of age until he was 17, he lived with his uncle and aunt. He rode race horses for his uncle and for two or three seasons he went to the races from Memphis to New Orleans. He told about he and his cousin playing lots of jokes on the negro slaves. When he was 17 years old he and his uncle had some trouble, his uncle put him to work with the negroes, and he left home and came West. His aunt called him back and gave him $300 and told him when that was gone to come back home, but he never saw her again. He went first to Missouri and stayed there for some time. He joined a company of gold seekers in the big rush to California that was in 1853. I don't know how long they were on the road, I have heard him say that they camped right here where Georgetown is now on their way to California. They followed the old Oregon Trail,I don't know how far, but they finally landed in the northern part of California. He spent a good deal of his time prospecting in the mountains between Placerville and Yosemite Park. He made lots of money locating some very rich gold claims but the money came easy and it went easy. He used to go to Sacramento and San Francisco one in awhile, there was a stage then that ran from Placerville to San Francisco. He and six other men were lost in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for seven days, they were nearly starved when they finally found a miner's cabin where they could get something to eat. They waded in snow from a foot to two and a half feet deep -- it was on account of the storm that they got lost. He stayed in California until 1861. When the Civil War started he and some other fellows rigged up some outfits and started back home to help the South. Quite a few of the men had been sick on the way and had had bad luck with Indians stealing their mules and riding horses. Once when and another fellow were hunting for meat for the camp, they were surrounded by a large band of Indians, they thought their time had come but after taking them a good many miles away, the Indians who were on the warpath against another tribe let them go and they returned to the camp very tired but happy to be alive. When they got to Farmington, Utah, George L. Smit, being very ill with the measles decided he couldn't go any further, so with what was left of his outfit he stayed and the others went on. He never heard from any of them nor from any of his people again. He made his home in Farmington, freighting to Montana and other sections of the country. In 1864 he married Mary Thornton, daughter of Levi Thornton and Eliza Terman. They were very happy, he working at various kinds of work, mostly canyon work. In April of 1871, Mary, his wife died after a long illness. He hired out to David Hess coming to Georgetown with the company that was called by the LDS Church to settle here. He helped haul the first load of timber that was hauled out of Georgetown Canyon. He stayed during the summer returning to Farmington in the late fall, working for Morgan Hindman for the next two or three years. On November 4, 1872, he married Mary Jane Terman, daughter of William Terman and Elizabeth Null. They were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. To this union six children were born, five were born in Farmington. In the Fall of 1881, they moved to Georgetown, packing all their household goods and provisions for the winter into a big covered wagon. Some of the things which they brought were a 20 gallon barrel of sugar cane molasses, called sorgum (sic), a fifty pound can of honey, and a seemless (sic) sack that held a 100 lbs. sack of dried apples and dried peaches. They arrived in Georgetown early in November. He ran a sawmill part of the next three years, owning a share in it. He also did canyon work and made lots of ties as they were just building the railroad through this country then. On the 9th of July 1882 their sixth child was born, a boy, they named him William James for his two grandfathers. He moved his family in town in the fall of 1884 so the children could attend school. Five years later he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land northwest of town where he spent most of his time farming and doing other work until his family was grown. He knew many herbs and roots of medicinal value that grew in the mountains. He always kept a supply on hand, some he gathered from the mountains and several kinds he raised in his garden. People came to him from all around the countryside for herbs to doctor with. He was well versed in the geography of the world and did lots of reading of church books and other works. He was always on hand to help in sickness and accidents. His wife, Mary Jane, died on January 1, 1903, he loved for wight years longer, dying on the 15th of January 1911. After his wife died, who was my mother, he lived on with my two brothers the rest of that winter. Then he stayed with us most of the time until my brother, Will, got married, then Will and his wife lived with him for some time. He let them have the farm so really for a few years he lived there with them. My father was six feet one inch in his stocking feet. He was very straight, never did get stooped as he grew older. He had black curly hair and gray eyes and a very clear skin. He always wore a beard, sometimes just a goatee and mustache but mostly a full beard. He was never fat and weighed about 1743 lbs. I never saw him clean shaven. The last summer before he died he rode a horse and sat in the saddle straight as an arrow. When we lived in Farmington he got a pitch fork tine run in this right hand between this fingers, blood poison set in, he was in bed two months. Then they took him to Slat Lake City and Doctor Benedict took his finger off, taking the bone out nearly to his wrist. His hand was badly crippled and was a great handicap to him the rest of his life, nevertheless, he managed after a year or so to do some work and help make a living for the family, but he always had to wear a heavy glove on his hand when working. Written by his daughter Charlotte Elenore.