Great-great grandparents: Miles Smith, Sr., & Susan Smith
I began a quest over 50 years ago to build an historical record for my family of our ancestry. I have gathered records of our ancestors and their families in this endeavor. As a young man, I photographed what I believed was a significant record of our forebears and I plan to locate it this summer for inclusion in our history. My ultimate goals are to find the origination of our surname and to trace our ancestry back as far as the records will allow. I believe a person should know where he or she came from and take pride in what he or she has done in adding to the accomplishments of those who came before them. Each generation can take pride in their accomplishments and recognize how far we have come and each of us can move that goal post down the field with our accomplishments in this life.
At present, I have been able to trace our family back to about 1790 with the birth of my great-great grandfather, Miles Smith, Sr., who was born in North Carolina, most likely in the South Mills area of Camden County. Miles Smith was a slave for about the first 73 years of his life. Miles’ parents were born in North Carolina and at present I have been unable to identify them by name but I have most likely seen them in the records but not known that they were Miles’ parents. Miles’ parents were probably born in the 1760s, almost two decades before North Carolina became a state in the new nation called the United States of America. In the 1760s, North Carolina was a colony under the control and rule of the King of England. I have identified four of Miles’ children; Miles, Jr., Jack, Stephen and Lucy. It appears that Miles’ wife Susan, was born about 1794, and was the mother of Miles, Jr., Jack and Stephen. Miles, Sr., had a daughter, Lucy, by his second wife, Jane.
Though I have scrutinized many old records, it is extremely hard to track our ancestors unless official records are still existent and the record keepers or slaveholders provided the information that I have sought. I have not as yet seen a record of a slave woman, with a male child, born about 1790 with the name Miles. However, I have seen records in Camden County and neighboring Currituck County that recognized either a boy or a man named Miles. In 1806, in Currituck County, North Carolina, Joseph Gregory, in his Will, bequeathed a boy Miles to his daughter Peggy Gregory. My great-great grandfather, Miles Smith, would have been 15 or 16 years old at the time. In that era of time, children were usually considered to be young people under the age of fourteen, but not always. When I say our great-great grandfather, I am talking about my brother, Johnnie, and our sisters, Cora, Ora, Lucy and Sarah.
In 1808, the Camden County Court of Pleas ordered a slave named Miles to be sold at a public venue. Miles was sold to a Willis Cooper for £25. My great-great grandfather would have been 17 or 18 years old. In 1809, Jonathan Lindsey of Currituck County, bought a slave named Miles from the estate of Samuel Griffin of Camden County. My great-great grandfather would have been 18 or 19 years old. In 1824, Malachi Sawyer, of Camden County, in his Will, bequeathed his slave, Miles, to his wife, Susanna Sawyer. If this was my great-great grandfather, Miles Smith, he would have been 33 or 34 years old and had at least two children, Miles, Jr., and Jack. Jack would have been my great grandfather. In 1830, in a court case in Camden County, Jordan S. Lurry bought a slave named Miles. My great-great grandfather would have been 39 or 40 years old and was the father of a third son, Stephen, who was born in 1829. Some of these entries could have been Miles Smith, Sr.
Miles Smith’s children; Jack, Stephen and Lucy were born in Camden County and most likely Miles, Jr., was born there as well. Miles, Jr., and Jack Smith were born about 1820 and it appears that Miles, Sr., was living and working on the Malachi Sawyer farm and Miles’s wife, Susan, was living and working on the Isaac Lamb farm. The two farms were adjacent to each other which gave Miles and Susan the opportunity to see each other on weekends and possibly mid-week on Wednesdays. Slaves were able to leave their farm to go visit family and friends or to seek employment for money and to work side jobs for money if their owners provided them with a pass. The slaveholders usually got a percent of any money that their slaves earned in these work ventures. In Miles’ and Susan’s situation, they lived next door to each other so a pass may not have been necessary.
Jack Smith’s brother, Stephen, and Jack’s future wife, Mary, were born about 1829. Jack’s half-sister, Lucy, was born about 1842. Jack and Mary Smith were my great grandparents. In 1824, Susan Smith’s master, Isaac Lamb, bequeathed her in his Will to his wife, Polly Lamb. By 1835, my great-great grandmother, Susan Smith, had been sent to Tennessee with her children. I do not know what children went with her. Based upon slave deeds and Wills, if Susan took any children with her then the children were most likely infants. Miles, Jr. was probably already employed on the farm of a member of the Lamb family or had been leased out to another person’s farm or had been sold at auction. About January of each year, slaves were auctioned for the year to other farms to provide income for the slaveholders. After the death of Polly Lamb, their mistress, Susan and her children (all of her children born after her master’s Will in 1824 who were taken to Tennessee) would have been returned to North Carolina to the Lamb and Earle families. This left Miles, Sr., without his wife for a number of years. It is unknown if Miles ever saw Susan again. In the interim, probably about 1841, Miles married Jane, his second wife, and they had their daughter Lucy.
About March of 1865, Miles, Sr., and his wife, Jane, traveled to Portsmouth, Virginia, where they were able to draw food rations and clothing. Miles and Jane Smith had to travel approximately 35 miles from South Mills, North Carolina, a distance that could have been covered in two days in a horse drawn wagon. Apparently they may have been able to travel by wagon courtesy of the United States Army who at the time controlled the part of North Carolina where they lived. About May of 1865, they made their way back to Camden County, North Carolina, where they lived until their deaths after 1880.
I have not been able to ascertain how we acquired our surname but am quite certain that the whole family used the surname of Smith in North Carolina by the years 1863 to 1865. Everyone from Miles Smith down to his grandchildren became Smiths and from that time onward we have been the Smith family.
Miles, Sr., and Jane lived with Miles’ son, Miles Smith, Jr., and daughter-in-law, Harriet, in the South Mills post office district from at least 1870 until 1880. Miles, Sr. was about 90 years old in 1880, Jane was 63, Miles, Jr., was 60 and Harriet was 50. Miles’ daughter, Lucy, was married to Frank Elliott and she and Frank lived with their seven children nearby according to the 1880 census.
As free Americans, everyone had to pay taxes. In 1872, Miles Smith, Jr., paid taxes in the South Mills township for a horse valued at $25, three cattle valued at $15 and 17 hogs valued at $8. Neither Miles, Sr. nor Miles, Jr., paid a poll tax as they were both over fifty years old. The family appears to have been renting land. Miles, Jr., paid fifty cents in state and county taxes. When the 1874 tax season rolled around, Miles, Jr., owned 4 cattle valued at twenty dollars and twelve hogs valued at twelve dollars. He had to pay thirty-one cents in taxes and paid no poll tax. The family was renting land valued at twelve dollars. By 1875, Miles, Jr., owned one mule valued at $60, eight cattle valued at $40 and 15 hogs valued at $22. He had a personal property value of $25 and neither he nor his father paid a poll tax. With such an increase in his assets, Miles, Jr., had to pay one dollar and forty-seven cents in taxes, one penny for each dollar of assets that he possessed.
In 1890, Miles Smith, Jr., was listed as 69 years old. He had two mules valued at $80 and twelve hogs valued at $18. Overall, Miles had real and personal property valued at $258. He was allowed a $25 exemption in the value of personal property and wearing apparel which lowered his taxes to $2.70½. By 1892, Miles was listed as 73 years old and had two mules worth $40 and 7 hogs worth $14. Miles’ real and personal property worth was $54 and that cost him fifty-four cents in taxes.
In 1900, Lucy Gallop was living with her second husband, Charles Gallop, on York Street in Elizabeth City Town located in Pasquotank County, North Carolina. Living with them was her son, George Elliot, and a grandson, Grimes McCoy. Charles and Lucy had been married thirteen years and Lucy was the mother of eight children. According to the census, Lucy was born in May of 1842, in Camden County. She died July 4, 1917, and was buried in Elizabeth City. Lucy was seventy-five years old.
Great grandparents: Jack Smith & Mary Smith
Jack Smith, my great grandfather may have been born on the Isaac Lamb farm around 1820. In 1835, it is unknown whether Jack went with his mother, Susan Smith, to Tennessee or was working on another farm in North Carolina. If he remained in North Carolina, he no doubt received visits from his father, Miles Smith, Sr., and possibly his brother, Miles Smith, Jr. Jack’s brother, Stephen, would have been about five or six years old when their mother, Susan Smith, was sent to Tennessee. In fact, Stephen may have accompanied his mother to Tennessee and returned to North Carolina after their mistress, Polly Lamb’s death.
About 1829, a boy named Jack was sold by Peter Ferebee, of Camden County, to James Cowell, of Currituck County, for fifty-five dollars and forty cents. If this was my great grandfather Jack, he would have been about 8 or 9 years old. In 1836, Philip Northan (Northern), of Currituck County wrote in his Will that he wanted boy Jack and girl Harriet to go to his son, Philip Northan (Northern) and he wanted boy Stephen to go to his daughter Jane Northan (Northern). This is a big coincidence to have young slaves named Jack, Stephen and Harriet. My great grandfather Jack would have been about 15 or 16 years old, great uncle Stephen would have been 6 or 7 and great aunt Harriet would have been 5 or 6 years old. Aunt Harriet was Miles Smith, Junior’s wife.
In 1844, Samuel Ferebee, Sr., of Currituck County, left man Jack to his son Dennis Ferebee, of Currituck County. Dennis Ferebee held land adjacent to Samuel Lamb. Samuel Ferebee, Sr., had a daughter named Amanda Cowell. Jack Smith’s daughter, Hannah, married Monroe Lamb and his daughter, Isabel, married Lemuel Cowell.
In 1852, James M. Ferebee and Samuel Williams, bought the services of a woman named Mary. If this was my great grandmother, Mary Smith, she would have been 23 years old and been the mother of two children, Hannah and Axiom. Mary’s owner had just died and Ferebee and Williams paid twenty-seven dollars to the estate in order to hire Mary. They were also required to furnish Mary at proper seasons with two tow frocks, one woollen frock, three tow or cotton chemises, one pair woollen stockings and one pair of good shoes. Tow cloth was a coarse, heavy linen in the 18th century and was used for clothing. A chemise was a woman’s loose, shirt-like undergarment; a loosely fitting dress that hangs straight. A frock was a woman’s dress; a long loose outer garment.
In Levi Walker’s 1859 Will, Walker left man Jack to his son, Nathan Walker, and man Stephen to the children of his son, Benjamin Walker. In the Freeman’s Bureau letter written on September 1, 1865, it stated that “the property of Doctor O. F. Baxter, known as the Walker, Dozier and Olds farms in Princess Anne Co. Va is restored to him.” Levi Walker’s farm may be the same farm that Dr. Baxter acquired. As such, Baxter became the last slave owner of my great grandfather Jack and my great uncle Stephen. Levi Walker left another slave named March to his son Nathan. March may have become March Ferebee and be one of the signers of the 1867 deed with Jack Smith. In July of 1860, Baxter was living in Princess Anne County, Virginia, when the census was taken. It seems most probable that when these type of coincidences occur, that the truth and therefore the facts present themselves. In the 1860 slave census, it showed Baxter to have 30 slaves, one would have been 40 year old Jack and another would have been 30 year old Stephen. As of 1860, Jack and Stephen were residents of Princess Anne County.
In 1860, in the Camden County slave census, my great grandmother Mary and her children; Hannah, Axiom, Ann Eliza, Miles, James and Isabel were living on the Elizabeth Bright farm. Elizabeth Bright was the last slave owner of Mary and her children. Living with Elizabeth Bright was a seamstress and relative, Sabra or Sabry Bright. This slave census, that records the given names of all slaves, was not the federal census returned to Washington, D. C. This census has always remained in the vaults in Raleigh, North Carolina, and few people recognize that it is held there.
In May of 1861, three slaves; Shepard Mallory, Frank Baker and James Townsend, who were determined not to be separated from their families escaped to Fort Monroe, Virginia. Their flight by small boat from Sewell’s Point led to the phenomenon of Civil War contraband camps. Contraband camps were refugee camps to which between 400,000 and 500,000 slaves; men, women, and children in the Union-occupied portions of the Confederacy fled to escape their owners by getting themselves to the Union Army. The Union army established a policy of providing wages, food, and clothing to former slaves in contraband camps throughout the Confederate States. Fort Monroe was a staging ground for emancipation. In August of 1861, the Union Army and the U. S. Congress determined that the United States would no longer return escaped slaves who went to Union lines, but instead the slaves would be classified as "contraband of war," or captured enemy property.
In 1862, Jack Smith and another man approached their master, Oscar Baxter, about land to build themselves a church. Baxter told them that they could build a church in a particular area but they would have to clear the trees themselves. This land was located near present South Boulevard in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This was the beginning of Smith’s Corner and eventually Union Kempsville Baptist church and cemetery. Many of our family, relatives and their friends were buried in that cemetery.
Dr. Baxter reported on April 30, 1862, as assistant surgeon with the 14th Virginia Cavalry Battalion and served in the Battalion until September 11, 1862, when he was attached to the 15th Virginia Cavalry Regiment. He appeared on the muster roll of Field & Staff Officers in the Provisional Army of Confederate States. According to Baxter’s letter to President Andrew Johnson dated August 12th, 1865, he wrote, “I held no office in the Confederate States except that of Surgeon and did not enter the Service until called out in the Militia of the State in May 1862.” During Baxter’s absence during the War years, an overseer would have been in charge of the Baxter farm and all of Baxter’s slaves including our great grandparents, Jack and Mary, and our great uncle Stephen Smith.
On the morning of May 10, 1862, General John Wool landed 6,000 Union soldiers on Willoughby Spit. Within hours, the Union troops arrived at Norfolk, Virginia. Mayor William Lamb surrendered the city without firing a shot. For the duration of the War, the city was held under Martial law. The Union extended its control from Norfolk all the way down into North Carolina. Many slaves, during the war, who ran away from plantations followed the Union armies back to Princess Anne county as contraband of war.
By October, 1862, the Union Army had confiscated ten farms in Princess Anne county to house new contraband. One of the confiscated farms was Oscar F. Baxter’s farm in Kempsville. Oscar Baxter’s farms were considered as abandoned or deserted and were turned into government farms in order to provide shelter, food and clothing to individuals that were considered war contraband but eventually as freedmen. Jack Smith and his brother, Stephen Smith, may have been freed men by October, 1862. Jack would have been 42 years old and Stephen would have been 33 years old.
Jack and Stephen Smith were in Princess Anne County, Virginia, before Jack’s wife, Mary, and Jack’s children arrived in Virginia. Jack and Stephen Smith were owned by Dr. O. F. Baxter and lived on Baxter’s farm #1 that included the property that I now own and that my house was built upon. Mary Smith, my great grandmother, and her children; Hannah, born in 1850, Axiom, born in 1852, Margaret Ann, born in 1853, Miles, born in 1855, James, born in 1857, and Isabel, born in 1858, were still living in Camden County in July of 1860 on the farm of their mistress, Elizabeth Bright. Jack and Mary had sons, Wright, born in 1860, and Shadrack, born in 1862, in Princess Anne County, Virginia. Both of these sons were deceased by 1864. Jack, Mary and their children, from Hannah down to Shadrack, were all slaves on January 1, 1863.
On January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation, or Proclamation 95, a presidential proclamation and executive order was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862, during the War Between the States. The Proclamation read: “That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.” On January 1, 1863, the Proclamation changed the legal status under federal law of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free.
In June of 1863, Major Oscar Baxter was authorized to form a company of partisan rangers in Princess Anne County to harass Union forces around the county and in the Norfolk area. The partisan rangers were very successful throughout Princess Anne County, Currituck County and along the Atlantic seaboard of both states. On June 1, 1864, Baxter received orders to the Richmond area where he performed duties as a surgeon. He was a Surgeon in the 50th Virginia Infantry Regiment in Richmond, Virginia, where he was ordered to take charge of a Hospital on September 1, 1863. He seems to have been in Forsberg’s Headquarters Brigade until January 1, 1865. Baxter’s nephew, O. F. Baxter, named after his uncle, was captured while at home on furlough on August 9, 1864, at Sligo in Camden County.
On October 20, 1863, slaves and free blacks organized the Norfolk Virginia Union Baptist Association. The Union Baptist Church at Smith Corner was the third black church from Princess Anne County to join the Association. It joined in 1871. Before Union Baptist church bought land for their church, they shared space with a white congregation in Kempsville. On May 2, 1867, the church bought a half acre of land for twenty dollars from a white farmer named John Smith. The acre of land intersected the lands of John Smith and his father, William C. Smith. It was the earliest black church in Princess Anne County to buy and to own property. It served as a refuge for blacks and encouraged growth and prosperity in black communities. The Deed Trustees for the church were Noland Brinkley, Valentine Riddick, Carrasaw Eason, Henry Riddick and Miles Riddick. Union Baptist Church, or Smith Corner Church, was established in 1862.
The first entry in the Norfolk, Virginia, United States government accounting ledger for the abandoned Baxter farm #1 was December 1, 1863. Immediately supplies and equipment with which to farm were provided to the freedmen at the farms in order that they could provide shelter, food and clothing for themselves. Jack lived and worked on the deserted Baxter farm #1 until Oscar Baxter was permitted to return to his farm after the War and after swearing an oath of allegiance to the United States. Baxter was also required to work with the freed slaves on his farms.
In the Harper’s Ferry Weekly on January 23, 1864, a lithograph was shown of Colored troops, under General Wild, liberating slaves in Camden County, North Carolina. General Edward A. Wild was a one-armed Union general that marched into eastern North Carolina in 1863 with his African Brigade, burning homes and freeing thousands of slaves. General Wild was an avid abolitionist who led about 2,000 black soldiers as part of the United States Colored Troops in December, 1863, with a mission to free slaves and quash Confederate guerrilla resistance. Sometime immediately following General Wild's freeing of the slaves in Camden County, Mary and the children made their way to Princess Anne County - most likely in the company of husband and father, Jack Smith. John Smith told his son, Larnell, that John Smith’s grandfather, Jack Smith, had at one time run away from his slave owner. Whether Jack Smith ran away from Baxter’s farm during the war to a contraband camp and made his way to his family is unknown but quite possible.
In February and March of 1864, items were ordered for Baxter farm #1 by “Smith.” It is quite possible that the equipment ordered by “Smith” was in fact ordered by Jack Smith, a freedman and my great grandfather. Dr. Baxter did not return to his farm until September of 1865. For over a year and a half, as many as sixty freedmen lived on Baxter farm #1 and worked with the United States Army and the Bureau of Freedmen to gain the equipment that was needed to farm the land. With the teamwork of the Army, the Freedmen’s Bureau, grandfather Jack Smith and the many other freedmen, Jack and all the others were able to cloth and feed themselves and provide shelter for their families.
The Freedmen’s Bureau was established by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865, a little more than a month before Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union Army’s General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the War.
According to the Freedmen’s records before the War ended, Jack, Mary and their children were listed as “contraband.” They were listed as “7 months” within lines - behind Union army lines. Apparently Jack and his family had been within the Union Army’s lines since August of 1864. Jack Smith had property valued at $200.00. One can only surmise what personal property that Jack possessed. Their sons, Daniel and Elijah, were not born until Jack and Mary were behind Union lines, Daniel in 1864 and Elijah in November of 1865. Daniel appears to have been born in the last four months of 1864. By January, 1865, Jack and his son, Axiom Smith were getting provisions for their family. Jack Smith spent the first 44 years of his life in slavery, his wife 35 years, Hannah 14 years, Axiom 12 years, Margaret Ann 11 years, Miles 9 years, James 7 years and Isabel 6 years.
Baxter swore an oath of allegiance in June, 1865, and his rights to his farm were restored in September, 1865, under the conditions laid out in an official letter from the Freedmen’s Bureau.
In October of 1865, Jack and his son, Axiom Smith, were hired labor for Oscar Baxter on Baxter farm #1. Three months later on January 1, 1866, Jack and 18 other men entered a contract with Oscar Baxter. In consideration of certain work being done on Baxter’s farm, each of the 19 men was to have his own “house and lands free of all rent, taxes or cost, except that of building.”
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution became law abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude. It was proposed on January 31, 1865, and became law on December 6, 1865. In 1866, both North Carolina and Virginia legislatures required freedmen to go register their marriages in order to legalize their marriages and legitimize their children.
The Freedmen Bureau reported in February of 1868 that “There is a Building now being erected at Smith Corners two miles from Kempsville on the London Bridge Road. The building is 18 by 20 ft. covered in with rough Boards. The Freedmen are building it themselves. They bought an acre of ground of Smith for 25$.” John Smith sold the freedmen this land in May of 1867.
Sophia Smith and Uncle Stephen Smith were shown as attending school in the 1880 census and most likely attended the school at Smith Corner. I am calling Jack’s son, Stephen, Uncle Stephen, in order to separate him from “old” Stephen (Jack’s brother) and “young” Stephen (“old” Stephen’s son). Hannah Smith Lamb and Axiom Smith could not read or write. Ann Eliza Smith was able to read but signed with a mark on the 1928 land deed to Evelyn Owens. My grandparents, Miles and Mary Ella Smith, could read and write. Sophia Smith, Elijah Smith, Uncle Stephen Smith, “young” Stephen Smith and James Smith, son of “old” Stephen Smith could read and write. Undoubtedly Miles, Mary Ella, Ann Eliza, Uncle Stephen, Daniel, Sophia and “young” Stephen Smith all attended the school at Smith Corner. Margaret Ann Smith, the daughter of Jack and Mary Smith, was known as Ann Eliza or “Annie,” the remainder of her life. It appears that after the War years, she dropped the name Margaret Anne and became Ann Eliza.
By 1870, Jack and Mary Smith were living on the London Bridge post office route of Princess Anne County. Jack, Mary, and their children, Margaret Anne Eliza, Miles and James were working as farm laborers, undoubtedly living on their property that was once part of Baxter’s farm and most likely working as farm laborers for Dr. Baxter on his farm. Their children, Isabel, Daniel, Elijah and Sophia were at home, either playing or doing chores. Jack and Mary knew their neighbors, Moses and Harriet Tatum, from their days living on Baxter’s farm when the farm was considered an abandoned government farm. Moses and his son, Alex, were farm laborers as well with Harriet making a living as a “washer woman.” After this census and before Isabel Smith’s marriage to her second husband, Lemuel Cowell, in 1882, Isabel stopped using the name Isabel and became Martha or “Mattie” the remainder of her life.
Also living in the London Bridge post office route in 1870 was our grandmother, Mary Ella Ferebee, who was 12 years old and living with her parents, Alexander Ferebee and Susan Haynes Ferebee, and five of Mary Ella’s siblings. Alexander and Susan Ferebee were our great grandparents. Mary Ella’s neighbor was “old” Stephen Smith and his first wife, Penelope Ferebee, and their two children. Undoubtedly, Alexander and Penelope “Penny” Ferebee were siblings. Their mother, Lydia Ferebee, was living with Stephen and Penny Smith. One of Mary Ella’s future sisters-in-law, Hannah Smith Lamb, and her husband Monroe Lamb, lived two houses away. There is no doubt that our grandfather, Miles Smith, who was 15 years old, enjoyed visiting Mary Ella Ferebee.
Over on the Great Bridge post office route, Marina Smith lived in the Butts Road township of Norfolk County, the area we now know as Chesapeake, Virginia. Marina Smith was the mother of Virginia Smith Northern, the future second wife of “old” Stephen Smith. Marina was listed as 60 years old and her daughter Virginia “Jennie” was 30 years old. Marina Smith was born a free woman of color. As a free woman of color in Virginia, Marina had to register every three years at the St. Bride’s parish courthouse in Butts Road township. In 1828, when Marina registered, she was described as 24 years old, 5 feet 6½ inches tall, and a woman of dark complexion with no marks or scars. Marina’s ancestor, John Smith, was also a free man, born about 1690, in Currituck County. John Smith’s wife was Joaneth Smith. Marina Smith’s mother may have been Betsy Smith but no documentation has been located to confirm this. Marina appears to have lived most of her life in the St. Bride’s area of Chesapeake, Virginia, and was living as late as 1870.
On January 9, 1879, Jack Smith’s son, twenty-four year old Miles, married twenty-one year old Mary Ella Ferebee. By June of 1880, Miles and Mary Ella had a daughter that they named Ann Eliza Smith, evidently after Miles’ sister, Ann Eliza. Miles and Mary Ella lived in Kempsville. Three months earlier in March of 1880, Jack Smith’s second daughter, Margaret Anne Eliza, married John Fuller, the son of Samuel and Barbara Fuller. Margaret Ann Smith, the daughter of Jack and Mary Smith, was known as Ann Eliza or “Annie” the remainder of her life. It appears that after she married she dropped the name Margaret Anne and became Ann Eliza. Annie and John Fuller lived in Kempsville next door to Willis and Maria Nichols, and Barbara Fuller, John Fuller’s brother-in-law, sister, and mother. John and Maria Nichols had three children and a nephew, James Bly, living with them. James Bly would later marry Katie Smith Cowell, daughter of Martha Smith Cowell. Martha married Lemuel Cowell, the son of James and Lydia Cowell in March of 1882. Martha (Isabel) Smith Cowell died between the birth of her son, Axom Cowell, who was born in November of 1895 and June 9, 1900, when her husband, Lemuel Cowell, and her children were enumerated in the 1900 census. Her daughter, Katie Smith Bly, died in 1902. James and Katie Smith Bly had a daughter, Evelyn “Everlina” Bly who married Joseph Owens in 1914.
In 1880 Jack Smith’s son, Axiom, was living in Kempsville with Noe and Mary Watts and was employed as a laborer. Axiom did not live very far from his sister, Ann Eliza Smith Fuller.
Miles, Mary Ella lived very close to his father and mother and his uncle Stephen (“old” Stephen) and his aunt Penny lived next door to Jack and Mary. Jack and Mary Smith’s children, Daniel, Elijah, Sophia, Stephen and Wilson and their grandson, James Smith, and their granddaughter, Kate, lived with them. James and Kate Smith were the children of John Smith and daughter, Martha Smith. Miles’ uncle Stephen and aunt Penny lived with their five children and Penny’s mother, Lydia Ferebee. Next door to Jack and Mary Smith lived their daughter Hannah Lamb and Hannah’s husband, Monroe, and their four children.
My great grandparents, Alex and Susan Ferebee lived in Seaborne District with their six children. Alex was a farmer as were his sons, Alexander and Johnson. Susan was a stay at home mother raising her children.
My grandparents, Miles and Mary Ella, had a daughter, Emma, born in March of 1883 and a son, Benjamin, born in April of 1882. Both of these children died young and were buried where the old outdoor movie theater was located on Baxter Road behind the present golf course. The old cemetery no longer exists as it was built upon by houses and businesses.
Penny Ferebee Smith, the wife of “old” Stephen Smith, died about 1882. Stephen married as his second wife, Virginia Smith Northern, the widow of Willis Northern, in August of 1883. Virginia was the daughter of Marina Smith. Virginia brought four children to the marriage; Watson, James Edward, Laura and Roxanna Northern. Her daughter, Laura, married Uncle Stephen Smith. “Old” Stephen Smith had children; James, Matilda, Charles, Mary and Martha Smith with Penny Ferebee Smith. Virginia and “old” Stephen had children; Alice, John Stephen and Isaac Smith.
In December of 1884, my great grandfather Alex Ferebee entered an agreement with William T. Newman. Alex put up collateral in order to secure a loan of $70 from Newman. For collateral, Alex offered two horses, seventy barrels of corn, 7 shoats, 2 sows and pigs, 4 stacks of fodder and some poultry. If he had not reimbursed Newman, he would have forfeited this property. Cash money was not that easy to come by in those early days.
In 1886, Jack’s son, Elijah, married Mary Saxton, the daughter of Henry and Abi Saxton. Elijah was twenty-one years old and Mary was twenty years old. Five years later in 1891, Jack’s son, Daniel, married Margaret “Minnie” Washington, the daughter of George and Margaret Washington. Daniel was about twenty-five years old and “Minnie” was 18 years old. Only two years later in 1893, Jack’s son, Stephen, who was twenty-one years old, married Laura Northern, who was 17 years old, and the daughter of Willis and Virginia Smith Northern Smith. Laura Northern was a granddaughter of Marina Smith. Laura’s mother, Virginia Northern Smith, was the wife of “old” Stephen Smith.
Being a large family, more Smiths would be getting married. In 1895, Ann Eliza, daughter of Miles and Mary Ella Ferebee Smith, married James Moseley. James was twenty-one years old and Ann Eliza was twenty years old. Three years later in 1898, Jack’s youngest daughter, Sophia, married Cornelius James Smith, son of Richard and Louisa Smith. Sophia and Cornelius were both twenty-seven years old. This marriage appears to have been a short one as Sophia was living in Kempsville with her parents, Jack and Mary, and her brother, Axiom, in June of 1900.
Jack was 80 years old in 1900 and Mary was 71 years old. Their son, Axiom, was 47 years old and had never been married. Axiom remained a bachelor his entire life. Jack’s son, Elijah, and his daughter, Annie Fuller and their families also lived in Kempsville. Jack and Mary had fifteen children of which I know thirteen of them; Hannah, Axiom, Annie, Miles, Jim, Isabel, Wright, Shadrack, Daniel, Elijah, Sophia, Stephen and Wilson. Eight of their children were still living in 1900: Hannah, Axiom, Annie, Miles, Daniel, Elijah, Sophia and Stephen. Jack’s brother, “old” Stephen and his wife, Virginia, and their family lived not far from Elijah Smith. “Old” Stephen’s son, James, and James’ family lived next door.
In 1900, Miles and Mary Ella Smith were living in the Seaborne District with their children, Wilson, Miles Junior, Mary and baby, John Smith. Alex and Susan Ferebee lived with their children in the Seaborne District also not far from Miles and Mary Ella.
After Isabel Martha Smith Cowell’s death, her husband, Lemuel Cowell, married as his second wife, Nancy White in 1902. Lemuel was forty-four years old and Nancy was forty-two years old. Unfortunately, my great-great grandfather Jack Smith died in 1903. He was approximately eighty-three years old. Great-great grandmother Mary Smith died sometime after Jack and before the 1910 census. She would have been over seventy-four years old. I do not know if Jack and Mary were buried in the Smith Corner cemetery but many family, relatives and friends have been buried there. There are very many unmarked graves in the cemetery.
