Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of J. E. WILLIAMSON SMITH This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 282-283 Barbour County J. E. WILLIAMSON SMITH, of Phillipi, is a native of Barbour County and a member of one of the substantial old families of this section. He was born in Barker Dis- trict on Bill's Creek, January 13, 1848. His grandfather, Henry Smith, left old Virginia in early boyhood with his brother Jacob, crossed the mountains on foot and settled on the waters of Sugar Creek in Randolph County, within what is now the limits of Barbour County. The two brothers located in the woods, put up a cabin of round logs, notched together, and they kept bachelor's hall there until they married. The old log house at a later period in the family history was used by Mrs. Henry Smith as a loom house. Henry Smith did some of the work that first brought the virgin soil of that locality into cultivation. To eke out the slender income from the farm he worked at the carpenter's trade. After reaching advanced age he turned over the property to his children, lived with his daughter in Roane County and died there about 1890, when past ninety years of age, and is buried near Spencer. The wife of Henry Smith was Katie Lesher, who died at the old homestead on Sugar Creek, the mother of the follow- ing children: Polly, who married Bryan Gainer and died in Roane County; Alpheus; John, who spent his life as a farmer in Roane County; Hiram, who served two years in the Confederate army, was a tanner by trade, and spent his last years in Texas; George, a farmer who was a Union soldier and died in Roane County; Bettie, who married Michael Nestor and died in Gilmer County; Martha Jane, who married Oliver Buck and died in Roane County; Hulda, who died in Roane County, the wife of Daniel Phillips; Rebecca Ann, who is living at Philippi, at the age of eighty-five, wife of Charles Wolverton. Alpheus Smith was born on Sugar Creek, started life with only the meager advantages furnished by a term or two of school in an old log shanty in his neighborhood, and farming was the work which he prosecuted as a means of rearing his family. He lived on Bill's Creek and died in 1906, when almost eighty years of age. He was a member of the Missionary Baptist Church and a republican. The wife of Alpheus Smith was Ann Glasscock, daughter of William and Mahala (Cole) Glasscock. Her father, a native of Bath County, Virginia, came to West Virginia as a young man, served as a soldier in the War of 1812, and was a farmer. He died about 1855, survived by his widow. Their children were: William, who went to Iowa and died there; Chapin, who died in Iowa; Spencer, who died at Grafton; Ailsy, who married Abraham Reed and died in Barbour County; Peggie, who died in Barbour County, wife of Abner Bilan; Joshua, who lived in Barbour County; Susan, who was the wife of Meredith Hathaway, of Barbour County; Nettie, who became the wife of Rev. Thomas Wood, a Baptist minister; Hannah, who died in Barbour County, wife of Henry Wood; and Mrs. Alpheus Smith, the youngest of the children, who died at the age of sixty- five. She was the mother of Mozell Smith, who spent her life in Barbour County, wife of Marshall Lake; John R. Williamson; Bettie, who died in childhood; and Julia Ann, of Barbour County, wife of Ransom Bennett. John Rickmier Williamson Smith so far as his literary education was concerned is a product of one of the old time schools now happily obsolete in West Virginia. Over the windows was pasted greased paper, there were slab benches for seats, no desks, and the material of instruc- tion was almost as crude as the equipment. Mr. Smith continued to live at home with his parents for two years after passing his majority, and then married and went to farming in the same community. Eight years later he moved to the Philippi locality, and continued farming and stock raising here. In an early day he freighted coal for fuel for Philippi. Mr. Smith was old enough to observe some of the local events involved in the Civil war. He heard the guns at the battle of Philippi. He has been a resident of Philippi for thirty years, and is still keeping in touch with his farm. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and has voted the regular democratic ticket for half a century, beginning with Horace Greeley. In Barbour County he married Miss Celia A. Wilson, daughter of Isaiah Wilson. An article on another page gives the very interesting history of this Wilson family, one of the most prominent in this section of West Virginia. Mrs. Smith was born at Galena, Ohio, in 1838, but was reared in Barbour County and was married November 29 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Smith had three children. The oldest is Winfield Scott Smith, the Philippi physician. The second is Alpheus, professor of physics in the State University of Ohio. The only daughter, Zanna Grace, died unmarried in March, 1904.