Biographies S
William H. Smith
The story of William H. Smith's journey to Nebraska in 1873 as told by his daughter Mary Elizabeth Humphrey.
The US Congress had passed a Homestead Act in May 1862 which basically gave a citizen 160 acres of land if they fulfilled certain requirements, such as building a home on the land, residing there five years, and cultivating the claim. An amended Act of 1872 was geared towards helping Union veterans. It is estimated that between 400,000 and 600,000 families were provided farms as a result of the original act and the later amendment. It was as a result of this that the W.H. Smith family of Paradise, KY, headed toward Nebraska Territory.
William H. Smith served in the Union Army. He mustered in 09 December 1861 and was discharged 14 December 1864 at Bowling Green, KY. He entered service as a Sergeant in Company I, 11th Kentucky Infantry, and was promoted to First Lieutenant on 17 June 1864. Part of his time was spent recruiting in Kentucky. He was wounded at Pittsburg Landing (Shiloh Field) on 07 April 1862. On 10 June 1918, at the age of 77, he was granted a pension of $40 per month.
Already in Nebraska was Mitchell Mason the brother-in-law of William H. Smith. Mitchell was a Civil War veteran also serving in the Union Army. Mitchell had been 13 when he joined the amy. Too young to fight, he was first a drummer boy and then a government driver around Nashville Fort. He was in the Battle of Perrysville under General Don Carlos Buell. Here he was wounded.
Following his three years of service he went to Missouri then on to Loup City, Nebraska, where he became a wagon trail driver for the freight company Wells Fargo. Mitchell's claim consisted of 152 acres and was located in the southwest quarter, Section 25, township 17, north of Range 16 in Valley County, Nebraska. From present-day maps, this would be near Arcadia, Nebraska, and the Middle Loup River. (The US to Mitchell Mason, Homestead Certificate 3278, Application 5197. Recorded Vol. 7, p. 184. Filed for record 28 October 1881. Deed Book 1, p. 598. Deed Record, Valley County, NE, Deed Book 2, p. 19, 20 October 1881, Mason to Young)
Information on Mitchell Mason's claim was discovered by descendant Lennie Dennis in 1992. From this valuable information we can probably conclude that it was to this general area also that the Smiths traveled. The following is an account of their saga as told by Grandmother Mollie (Mary Elizabeth {Smith} Humphrey) to Allie (Heck) Long.
“In Paradise, Muhlenberg County, in the fall of 1873, after the crops were harvested, Granddad (William H. Smith) and Great Granddad (Leonard Smith) started building a ‘covered’ wagon. They had decided to go to ‘Nebraska Territory’ where Mitchell Mason was located. They too wanted to homestead!
At last the wagon was completed - a converted log wagon with round hoops, canvas, etc. It was drawn by four big mules. The wagon was filled with food supplies, cooking utensils, plows, hoes, and other things to be used in farming, because Uncle Mitchell had told them that implements were hard to come by in Nebraska.
The group leaving included Granddad W.H. Smith; Great Granddad Leonard Smith; Rumsey and Moses Smith (brothers to Leonard); Ras Schull; Ben Casebier; Henry Vaught; Big Mat Yontz (brother to Old Gran'ma) [error]; Dan Kimmel; and maybe a Dobbs. Also included was Thomas Smith, a black man who had been one of the Smith slaves before the war, but who had never left. He was called ‘Uncle Tom.’
Great grandparents Leonard and Betsy were living in Paradise at this time, and Granddad took Isadora, his wife, and their children, Mollie, Leonard, Erasmus and Annie Isadora to live with Grandmother Betsy until plans could be made to get them to Nebraska.
On New Year's Day, January 1, 1874, they left for Nebraska Territory by way of St. Louis, Missouri. By the time they reached St. Louis some were so tired they turned back for home. Ben Casebier and Mat Yontz joined a wagon train for Texas. The rest arrived in Omaha, Nebraska, the first of March.
The first thing they did was to file for a homestead. Everyone did, and quickly began to try to get ready to farm. They soon found that no plow brought with them could turn Nebraska sod! A blacksmith had to rework their plows. They seemed to have one trouble after another. There was all kinds of bad weather; the wind never stopped blowing; the grass was waist high - all bad beginnings.
In the meantime, back in Paradise, both grandmothers were getting ready to go to Nebraska. They and the children left Paradise by boat for Evansville, IN, sometime around the first of April 1874. From Evansville they went to Cairo, IL, where they had to wait overnight for a boat to St. Louis. They were met in St. Louis by both grandfathers. There they boarded a train for Omaha. Upon arrival they had to live at a boarding house for two or three weeks before any sort of house could be secured. It was too cold for a tent or a camp, and the two grandfathers had to return to the work of trying to get a crop planted.
No one seemed to be upset. The children soon lost their fear of Indians. There were lots of children to play with, blacks, whites, Indians. However, the two grandmothers never lost their fear of Indians: everywhere they looked there were blanket-clad Indians.
At last a sort of house was found located on or near the River Platte. It had one big room with two shed rooms behind. In the big front room a loft, or balcony, ran across one end. There they set up housekeeping. It was near enough to where the men worked that they came home often.
The children were satisfied and happy, but the women were not; they were homesick for Kentucky hills. In Nebraska everything was flat; water was scarce; and there was no garden; no rain; no nothing!
One weekend the women were fixing a big meal as the men were to come in that day. Grandmother Isadora asked Erasmus to come in and play with Annie Isadora while she finished her work. He first told her to let Mollie do it, but Mollie was busy also. Erasmus did not want to leave the boys, but finally did. Usually he was ready to take care of his baby sister because he was crazy about her. When she was cross he could do more with her than anyone. He came in mad and said, ‘I don't want to play with her. She can't even talk. All she says is “gool, gool, gool!”’ From that time on he was called Gool, which he liked better than Ras, for someone was always teasing him about his name.
As long as Gool lived, he and Annie Isadora were very close, especially in their growing years. He even nicknamed her ‘Daisy’ when the song ‘Daisies Won't tell’ was popular. She would never tell on the boys when they did things they shouldn't.
After a very long, dry summer in Nebraska, they woke one morning to a funny buzzing. The sky was full of locusts, which soon devoured all that was left of the Smiths' hard work. It did not take long to decide what they were going to do. They sold what they could, turned the rest over to Uncle Mitchell and were soon on their way back to Kentucky. Thompson Smith Vaught brought the wagon back with things they wanted to keep. The rest rode their horses or sold them and came by train and boat.
Thus ends their journey to homestead in Nebraska - ‘the West.’ Daisy cut her first tooth in Omaha and gained a nickname; Gool also gained a nickname. They carried those nicknames with them the rest of their lives. Daisy's first tooth has been kept through all the years and is still in he possession of Daisy's daughter Allie.
It is noted that Leonard Smith was 61 and Betsy 63 when they went to Nebraska, which might indicate that they were both rather hardy people. The information on the journey was based on notes going back to 1912 and preserved through the years by Allie Long. She was a history buff and so was Grandfather Billy Smith and daughter Mollie (Smith) Humphrey. Allie indicated that the above was copied from an old bunch of notes done after Mollie Humphrey had told it to her and from what she had heard through the years from Grandfather Billy Smith. The one thing Mollie remembered most was her fear of Indians and how she was afraid to sleep in the loft. Great grandfather Leonard built her a trundle bed and thereafter she slept under Old Gran'ma's bed!
Mollie remembered a few incidents about the trip to or from Nebraska. She recalled a storm on the river where the boat was tied up for a night and fog horns screaming one day because the pilot could not see. The river played a great role in the life of Mollie Humphrey. Her husband and her two sons made their livelihood on the river. She never completely lost her fear of water.”
The river mentioned in the story was the Platte River. There are few other details that might give us a clue about their location. Because of what has been discovered about the location of Mitchell Mason's homestead on the Loup River, it might be assumed that the Smiths homesteaded nearby. The Loup River is a tributary of the Platte, flowing west, then northwest from present-day Columbus, Nebraska. Because the Smiths did not complete their requirement to claim their land, there may not be records of their attempt. The fact that the homestead story has been preserved in the family history, even though lacking the specifics we might like, we are grateful.
Contributed by Dorann O'Neal Lam
Updated July 3, 2018