BIOGRAPHY OF WATTERS SMITH, HARRISON CO, WV ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. THIS BIOGRAPHY WAS DONATED TO THE HARRISON COUNTY WVGenWeb PROJECT/ARCHIVES ONLY: ********************************************************************** SUBMITTED BY: Patti Hickman (Ittapmusic@aol.com) Genealogical and Personal History of the Upper Monongahela Valley West Virginia Vol. II By: Bernard L Butcher, 1912 pg 1128 - 1137: Harvy Faris Smith was born at the homestead of his maternal grandfather Capt. Samuel Hoff, near West Milford, Harrison County, West Virginia, July 20, 1873, being the second son of Thomas Marion Smith and Amy M Hoff Smith. He was the younger and only brother of Edward Grandison Smith. Both were lawyers in Clarksburg, WV. Mr Smith joined the Sons of the Revolution 22 February 1912. He is a descendant of eight worthies of the revolutionary war from the following branches of his family: Thomas Smith of New Jersey; Captain James Jett and William Jett of Virginia; Daniel Grant, a "minuteman" of Fauquier County, Virginia, who was one of the one hundred minutemen who from his county responded to the call of Governor Patrick Henry for Virginia troops in 1775. In the same company was Thomas Marshall, of Fauquier County, and his son John, afterwards Chief Justice Marshall. These minutemen were under Colonel Daniel Morgan's regiment. Mr Smith was married at Mt Lake Park, MD at the summer home of his father-in-law, on June 17, 1903, to Anita Collins, daughter of Creed Collins of Pennsboro, WV. Children: Collins Haymond, born August 4, 1905; Rachel Adelia, July 28, 1908. He has one sister (Ella E), Mr Floyd E Morrison of Philadelphia PA. Mr Smith now has in preparation a genealogical history of the various branches of his family. ..............due acknowledgment is here made for the genealogical data of the following families, William Green's family into which Thomas Smith married, including the descendants of Thomas Smith, James Faris, Philip Fottro (Fedrow), Adam Hoff, Chapman Grant and the Jett family. Thomas Smith was born in England, May 23, 1743. He came to West Jersey (about two miles northeast of Trenton, New Jersey) about 1760. He married Sarah, second child of Joseph Green, granddaughter of William Green, January 25, 1764, in Hunterdon County, NJ. Thomas Smith was a prominent farmer. Owned land in Hunterdon County most of his life. He and his family attended church at Old Hopewell. He later moved to Monmouth County where he died October 17, 1799. He and his wife are buried in Old Tennant Cemetery. The following are his children: 1) Hannah, who died sinle at age 39. 2) Watters, born 15 July 1767, moved to Harrison County, (W)V and settled on Duck Creek in the southern end of the county and is the ancestor of all that branch of the family now residing in Harrison County. He died in 1849 in his eighty-second year. He and his wife Elizabeth Davisson Smith are buried at Broad Run Church Cemetery. 3) Nancy, who died single at age 35. 4) Rebecca, who married Samuel Morris in NJ and moved to Harrison County in 1818. They settled on the waters of Lost Creek at the Morris homestead, about one and one-half miles southwest of what is now Lost Creek Station, and are the ancestors of all that numerous family of Morrises in that part of Harrison County, and who have intermarried with the Gastons, McWhorters, Posts, Davissons and others. 5) John T Smith, born May 22,, 1778, died April 30, 1846. He married and resided in Monmouth County, NJ, and had nine children, among whose descendants at this time is Mr James Smith Parker, who is a great-grandson of the above named Thomas and a grandson of John T Smith. Thomas Smith was a successful prosperous farmer, one of the leaders in his community, as is shown by his sale bill. He was a typical ruddy Englishman. He was a soldier responding to every call of his military record from the adjutant general's office from the state of NJ which is in the following words: "State of New Jersey Office of Adjutant-General Trenton, December 27, 1911 It is certified, That the records of this office shows that Thomas Smith served as Private in the First Regiment, Monmouth County, New Jersey Militia; Private First Battalion, Second Establishment, New Jersey Continental Line; Private, Captain Aaron Ogden's Company, First Regiment, New Jersey Continental Line; also Private, New Jersey State Troops - during the Revolutionary War." (Signed) W F SADLER, JR., The Adjutant-General Adjutant - General's Seal No doubt much of his success was due to his fortunate marriage to Sarah Green, four years after he came to this county. As stated above, she was the granddaughter of William Green who is the ancestor of most all of the families of that name in NJ. He left England at the age of twenty, landed at the port of Philadelphia prior to 1700, married Joanna Reeder who was of an excellent family. They had 11 children, the second child being named Joseph (the father of Sarah). William Green was one of the first Judges of the first court of Hunterdon County in 1714, judge of the court of common pleas in quarter session in old Hunterdon County from 1714 to 1721. He was also the first assessor of Hunterdon County. The order books of his court are still legible and deposited in the State House at Trenton, NJ. His second son, Joseph, married Elizabeth Mershon (French Merchand). He was an elder in the Ewing church and died 12 March 1784 at age 85. They had four children: Jemima, who married James Hunt; Sarah, above named, married Thomas Smith; Ann Green, born 1748, died unmarried; Joseph Green Jr who married Hannah Lanning and died 23 February 1826. He was executor of and settled his father's estate in 1784. (For full history, family tree and record of this Green family, see Cooley's genealogical work, "Early Settlers of Trenton and Ewing", page 78 et seq.) Watters Smith married Elizabeth, daughter of William Davisson, recently of NJ, about 1793. He and his father-in-law's family left NJ, went westward through PA and settled on George's Creek in what is now Fayette County PA. At that time George's Creek was within territory claimed by VA. He lived not far from the old home of Albert Gallatin, and during his temporary stay there, the Whiskey Insurrection broke out, and he served as a militiaman to retain order for the new federal government. He was a neighbor of and persoally knew Baron Steuben, the distinguished Prussian officer who previously did so much to reorganize and improve the American army. Watters Smith and his wife remained with his father-in-law until the spring of 1769 when he moved his family to Duck Creek, Harrison County, Virginia, on a farm of two-hundred acres, which he had purchased from John Prunty by indenture deed bearing date of January 21, 1792, which deed is recorded in DB #1 pg 258, consideration sixty pounds. This land adjoined a tract of land which John Prunty had previously conveyed by indenture deed to Thomas Smith, father of Watters, on the 18th day of September 1787, which was afterwards purchased by William Davisson and settled on by some of the heirs of John Gaston, who married Ann Gaston, the sister-in-law of Watters Smith. Elizabeth, the wife of Watters Smith, was of Scotch-Irish descent. Her father, William Davisson, had been a prominent and leading citizen in NJ having owned and conducted a fashionable old time tavern located on the main highway between Trenton and New York, and his family had been reared amid the society and fashions of that old-time colonial life which rapidly gave way to a new order of things some years after the Revolution. The following is a list of the children of Watters Smith (sometimes called Walter or Wattes): 1) Sarah 25 April 1794, married Benjamin Holden. 2) Charles (first white male child born on Duck Creek) 3 November 1796. 3) Elizabeth "Betsy" 25 August 1798, married James Faris son of Humphrey, who was a son of James faris who was killed by Indians while furnishing food supplies to Fort Pitt. 4) Thomas 29 July 1800, died young. 5) Andrew D 6 August 1802, died 3 July 1818. 6) Nancy 20 August 1808, married James Bailey. 7) John D 12 November 1810, married Mary, daughter of Matthew Mattox. 8) Watters Jr 2 September 1814, married Ruhama, daughter of Job West. Charles Smith married Mary "Polly", daughter of Chapman & Polly Jett Grant, 22 January 1823. Watters Smith was, with three of his neighbors, the founder of the Broad Run Baptist Church in 1804. The church minutes show that Elder John Carney of Buckingham VA visited a number of Baptists who had settled on Duck Creek in Harrison County, the Rev Carney having been sent out as a missionary by the VA Board of Missions. As the result of his labors, the location of the Baptist church known as Good Hope was affected with the following members: Watters Smith and his wife, Elizabeth, Jobe West and wife, Solomon Hires and wife and Samuel Romine and wife. So far as known Watters Smith was the first deacon and Jobe West the first clerk of the church. In 1816 a member of the Bailey family settled in the vicinity of Broad Run and that event probably caused the removal of the church the next year, 1817, from Duck Creek to its present location, when its name was changed from Good Hope to Broad Run, in honor of the old Broad Run church in Fauquier County, VA, from whence the Baileys came. In 1818 John Bailey was licensed to preach and within the same year the church was strengthened and encouraged greatly by the reception by letter of Elder John J Waldo, an ordained minister from Bridgeport, (West) Virginia, born in Connecticut, who became pastor. Thomas Marion Smith and wife have the following three children: Edward Grandison and Harvy Faris Smith, each prominent lawyers of Clarksburg, and Ella Earle, born 7 November 1880, married Floyd E Morrison, son of Columbus B Morrison, 24 July 1898 and resides in Philadelphia. Mary "Polly" Grant, who married Charles Smith, was the daughter pf Chapman & Polly Jett Grant. Her father, Chapman Grant, was reared in Fauquier County, VA. Her mother's maiden name was Polly Jett, and when quite young she married ---------Jett in Culpeper County VA. A few years later Mr Jett died, leaving her a young widow with three children: Maria, married Isaac Swisher, Sally married Richard Dobsen and Washington Jett, the youngest, married ----------and is the ancestor of all the Jetts in Harrison County. Chapman Jett married Polly Jett in Fauquier County VA 14 October 1803. They, with Mrs Grant's three children by her first marriage, moved to Harrison County in 1806 and settled on a farm half-way between Lost Creek Station and William Swisher, a great-grandson of Mrs Polly Jett Grant. Chapman Grant was perhaps the best informed amn in his community. He had been well educated in VA and taught school there prior to his marriage. His wife was a woman of marked refinement, ambitious and rather exclusive in her social tastes. She was of one of the the oldest and best families of old Culpeper. She was and her family for generations had been large slave-owners, coming from westmoreland County, VA to Culpeper prior to the Rev War. She was a descendant of Burket or William Jett of Culpeper. The details of the Jett genealogy have not as yet been verified, but Harvy F Smith of Clarksburg, the great-grandson of Polly Jett Grant, has undertaken the work and will have the family names in the Jett family tree complete within the next few years. Leading family names in the Jett family are: William, John, James, Steve, Francis, Duncan, Robert, Burket, Sally and Polly. The Jetts were French Huguenots and the name originally spelled Jette. Mr Grant and his wife Polly were buried in their private family cemetery on the home farm. Polly died in 1841, Chapman died in 1857. They had the following children: 1) Mary "Polly" married Charles Smith. 2) George Chapman married Jane Wine from Culpeper Co VA and lived in Harrison County, later moving to Jackson and married a second time. 3) Mary Ann married Oliver Shurtliff. 4) Matilda married Thomas Cheuvront. 5) Susan married Zachariah Patton. 6) Sophia married Jacob Bond. 7) Edward Francis married Amanda, daughter of Wilson Bartlett.