Smith Family Circle

Smith Family Cemetery

The other of my Smith families in my ancestral tree were born and live in Rockingham county, Virginia in the waning days of the 1700's and up to the mid 1800's. At the time, Rockingham county was probably considered the heart of Virginia situated in the mountains in the middle of the state. But shortly after my ancestors left to go west in the 1850's, the state was divided up and now Rockingham is on the border of Virginia and West Virginia.

I know little of why the Smith family packed up and left and don't really know the exact date. John L. Smith died in 1853 and is buried in Virginia while his wife Barbara Driver Smith and children all are buried in eastern Iowa. I suspect they all left after the death of John L. Smith in 1853. Barbara, aged 63 at the time, probably needed a fresh start and I'm guessing their sons probably needed land to make a living. However, in a biography of one of her sons, William D. Smith, he is listed as having moved to the area in 1851. However, those state biographies are riddles with timeline errors as they were often written many decades later and by people whose only source of information was verbally passed down through the family. So although I don't know the exact answer, I do know they were in Iowa before 1856 when they all showed up in the Iowa Census that year.

The family moved to what has been referred to as the "New Virginia" settlement near Clinton, Iowa though I can find precious little information about this settlement. I do know there are lots of other families born in Virginia who poured into that area which later was named Orange Township all arriving in the early 1850's. Coincidentally or not, Rockingham County, Virginia is just one county away from Orange County, Virginia. What I do not know are the reasons why these families moved. If I had to guess, a lot of it was just due to a pent up demand for land as families multiplied and new lands were being opened up in the Louisiana Purchase. However, typical migration paths don't have families moving from the south towards the north. So with talks of succession over slavery going on, I've always dreamt that perhaps my Smith family were wanting to get away from the entire slavery issue and start over in a place with no slaves. Whatever the case, the ended up in eastern Iowa and took up farming.

Barbara, my 5th great grandmother, came west with five sons and two daughters in her immediate family along with probably countless other relatives. She never lived very long in her new home and died in 1856. Probably a decade ago with my oldest daughter in tow, I visited that hilltop cemetery in the rain where she is buried with three of her sons, including both sets of my 4th great grandparents, and paid homage. The farm down at the base of the hill still had a sign that says Smith Farm and I knocked on the door to see who might still farm these lands but nobody answered.

Gravestone of 5th Great Grandmother Barbara Smith and Grandson Isaac Smith

I would later learn that the Isaac Smith named on the same stone above Barbara's name is a grandson that died a few years later when a tornado went through and collapsed the walls of the family house on top of him. 

Also buried in the same cemetery are the graves of Barbara's sons (both my 4th great grandparents) William Donald Smith (Catherine Knopp) and John Victor Smith (Susan Thomas who is the second Thomas line in my family tree) and John Victor Smith's son and my 3rd great grandfather Abraham Smith and 2nd wife Amanda Jordan Smith. Abraham's first wife and my 3rd great grandmother Clementine Carr Smith is buried nearby in town. I'm not sure why she didn't end up in the Smith family cemetery when she died at age 32 in 1874. 

3rd Great Grandmother Clementine Carr Smith

So now that I've gotten thoroughly off track, I'll try to summarize the family circle within the branches of my tree that I mentioned in the previous post. John L. and Barbara Driver Smith would have a son William Donald Smith. He and wife Catherine Knopp would have a son named Abraham Smith. Abraham and wife Clementine Carr would have a son named Isaac Franklin Smith.

Backing up a few steps, John L and Barbara Driver Smith had another son named John Victor Smith, brother to William Donald Smith. John Victor Smith and wife Susan Thomas would have a daughter named Amanda Virginia Smith. She would marry Martin Luther Rice and move to the completely opposite side of the state where their daughter Annetta Jane Rice was born.

Somehow, Annetta Jane Rice met Isaac Franklin Smith, who stilled lived in eastern Iowa and were married. Thus my 2nd great grandparents were second cousins. I have lots of pictures of these lines of my family trees and perhaps more stories to share in future posts but I will end this post with a word about the above photo. For many years, it was unknown who the person was. It is just a photo in an old oval frame that sits on a old piece of furniture down at the farm. But going through research many years ago, I found the same picture in a biography about my 3rd great grandparents Abraham and Clementine Smith and thus I was able to finally put a name to the image. Persistence sometimes pays off.