Smyth County, Virginia, Biographies: Jacob A. Smothers Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: June Millwood ==================================================================== Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm ==================================================================== Updated December 22, 2006 June M. Millwood BIOGRAPHY OF JACOB A. SMOTHERS file: C/Genealogy Ancestors-Smothers-Synopsis Jacob4 Jacob A. Smothers is descended from the Smithers Clan of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. He is the third of four sons born to Thomas Smithers/Smothers and a lady named Lydia, whose surname and ancestral lines have been and still are very elusive. Jacob has seven known siblings. His father, Thomas, is the son of Jacob Smithers and Rebecca Huff and the grandson of William Smithers and Maria Catharina Jeakey. Jacob's pedigree has been fully documented to William Smithers who died in 1760 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. The ancestry of William and Maria are still a mystery. Shortly after August 1827, Jacob's father, Thomas, moved from Pennsylvania to Greene County, Tennessee, bringing with him his family of two children, a wife and an elderly couple, who are believed to be the parents of his wife, Lydia. Leaving a legacy of land in Pennsylvania that was granted to him by his father, Jacob, Thomas apparently chose to follow in the footsteps of his probable first cousin Philip Smithers/Smothers by relocating to Greene County, Tennessee. Jacob A. was born on 22 June 1830 in Greene County, Tennessee. He is one of six children who were born to Thomas and Lydia while they were in Greene County. It is believed that his family may have resided on Grassy Creek in Clary's Corner, as evidenced by a property sale that Thomas made in 1845. Even though Jacob lived fifteen to twenty years in the Greene County area, nothing has been learned of his family's activities or of his childhood while residing there. It is as if the presence of that family in Greene County was non-existent. Sometime between September 1845 and the October date of the 1850 census, Jacob moved with his family to Smyth County, Virginia. His father's choice of that location is surprising since there is no evidence of any related Smothers families in that area. Jacob's parental family endured much personal hardship and tragedy while living in Smyth County. After several years his father and his married brother, Henry, moved their families to Morgan County, Kentucky, finally settling in Fleming County, Kentucky. Jacob had married for the first time by then and chose to remain in Smyth County, Virginia. As a matter of fact, Jacob was married three times between the period 1853 and 1884. He fathered at least twelve documented children; plus two children from his first marriage who are not believed to be his biological children. Before commenting on Jacob's three marriages, I feel it is appropriate at this time to iterate on his service with the Confederacy. Jacob enlisted in the civil war in Independence, Grayson County, Virginia on 8- 12-1861 which was probably his county of residence at the time. He was assigned to Company A, 8th Virginia Cavalry as a teamster. It should be noted at this point that Jacob's name was not only recorded as Jacob A. Smithers but some related documents list him as Smethers, Smythers and Smathers. Jacob was injured in Giles County, Virginia on or about 15 June 1862 when a horse fell on him during the Regiment's march to Lewisburg, Virginia on the narrows of New River. The fall cut and crushed his left leg below the knee and dislocated his left hip. He was confined to a military hospital in Greenbrier County, Virginia and medically discharged for disability on 1 July 1863. He returned to his first wife and family in Grayson County, Virginia. In August of 1866 he took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States. His military documents describe him with fair complexion, blue eyes and fair hair. His youngest daughter and child described him as a kind, gentle natured man of slender and tall statue. However, some descendants from his previous marriages do not speak too highly of him and say that he wore a size seventeen shoe. Jacob lived in Smyth County, Virginia from 1850 to sometime in 1861; from 1861 to about 1876 he resided in Grayson County, Virginia and he returned to Smyth County, Virginia for the period 1877 to 1885. Shortly after 1885, Jacob relocated to Carter and Sullivan Counties, Tennessee. He remained in Sullivan County, Tennessee until his death in August 1906. Jacob first began the procedure of filing for a soldier's pension on 28 July 1893 while he was living in Kunsburg Township, Carter County Tennessee. The application stated that he had been a resident of Tennessee for eight years; thus indicating that he relocated there from Virginia in 1885/86. Jacob finally submitted his application for pension through Sullivan County, Tennessee Courts on 2 August 1893. His documents are not clear as to when his application was officially approved, but it appears to have been finalized by the Record and Pension Office, Washington DC and approved 18 January 1904. After Jacob's death, his third wife, Evaline, initially signed an application for a military widow's pension in August 1908 under the name of Smythers. Her application for pension was finally filed in Sullivan County, Tennessee on 14 August 1911 as a Widow's Indigent Pension. Approval of the application was still pending as late as 11 March 1919. Though final approval papers have never been discovered, family knowledge indicates that it was finally approved in the amount of $3.00 a month, but that Evaline only received a few payments prior to her death in 1921. It appears that the problem in approving pensions for both Jacob and Evaline lies in the spelling of their surname. The multitudes of papers involved in Jacob's enlistment papers as well as the pension procedures continually reflect a different spelling of his name. None of the documents bear their correct name which was Smothers --- which brings to mind: Jacob's ancestors have been successfully documented and traced to William Smithers and Maria Catharine Jeakey of Berks Co, PA. However, Smithers' researchers continually have met with extreme difficulty in regard to the interpretation of the surname and the variances in which it appears in earlier records and censuses. Even today some of the descendants of this Jacob are known as Smithers, Smethers, Smothers, Smathers, Smythers and Smuthers. Jacob is buried in Weaver's Cemetery in Bristol, Sullivan County, Tennessee. Rosa Belle his daughter said his grave could be located because he was buried at the foot of an Englishman's grave and that the headstone on that grave was etched with the words "I came as a stranger and they took me in". What was expected to be a difficult task proved to be quite easy. His granddaughter, Martha said that Jacob's August 1908 death date shown on Evaline's pension application was incorrect; that Jacob died one year before she was born on 15 August 1907. As a result, when the Veterans' Administration was requested to place a marker on Jacob's gravesite, Rosa Belle's children requested that August 1906 be shown as his date of death. Considering so many inconsistencies in dates and events included in Evaline's application for her widow's pension, it is believed that Jacob actually died in August 1906 and not in August 1908. ….family knowledge is that Jacob suffered greatly from the war injury to his leg and hip and that the wound on the leg was always infected and kept bandaged. This makes one sincerely believe that Jacob was, in fact, a diabetic which was the reason the wound never healed. While that condition did not manifest itself with his daughter, Rosa Belle, it did, indeed, appear in both of Rosa Belle's daughters and at least three of her grandchildren. It has been recently learned that this condition also appears in some of the descendants of his previous marriages. Jacob had three marriages during his lifetime. He first married Malinda Cormany in Smyth Co, VA on 9-21-1853 and they are shown with seven children. He married second Nancy A. Quillen in Smyth Co, VA on 9-9-1877 and they had five children. His last and final marriage was to widow Minerva Evaline Hartley Bogle in Grayson Co, VA on 10-10-1884 and they had two children. Brief information on these marriages is listed below: FIRST MARRIAGE: Jacob's first marriage was to Malinda Cormany in September 1853 in Smyth County, Virginia. Malinda is the daughter of Michael Cormany, Jr. and Barbara Reusch. There are seven children associated with the marriage of Jacob and Malinda. However, it is strongly believed that Jacob is not the biological father of the two oldest females, even though they are shown as daughters in various records that have been found. If Malinda's age was sixty years at the time of her death by suicide in May 1877, then she was thirteen years older than Jacob. This is more the reason to assume that. the oldest child, Susan F, who is listed as age ten on the 1860 census and is shown as a child of Jacob is, in fact, Malinda's child by a former marriage; especially since Jacob and Malinda did not marry until 1853. The other daughter in question is Mary Jane who was born in Smyth Co, VA in December 1853, approximately three and a half months after their marriage. Though Mary Jane married as a Smothers, her obituary makes it clear that her maiden name was Cormany and lists Bill Smothers (William James) as her half-brother. Jacob and Malinda's seven children are Lidia R., Susan F., and C. A. C. all of whom have not been located, Mary Jane who married William A. Suit, William James who married Fanny Adams, Lucretia Emaline (Crecy) who married John T. McCloud and Rachel who married Rufus White. SECOND MARRIAGE: Jacob took as his second wife, Nancy Quillen. They were married in Smyth County, Virginia in September 1877, three and a half months after the death of his first wife, Malinda. Nancy is the daughter of Elijah Quillen and Sally Sheets. Jacob and Nancy had five children: Steven E. and Elizabeth L. for whom no further records have been found, John Jasper who married Lula Stroupe and moved to Bluefield , West Virginia , Ezekiel Lafayette who married Mary J. Ross and remained in Smyth Co, VA and Joseph who only lived eight months. From all indications, Jacob and his second family were destitute and were housed in the Smyth County poorhouse in the early 1880s. No documentation has been found to substantiate that status except the Stewart of the poorhouse reported the October 1884 death of their son, Joseph. Their son, Steven E., cannot be accounted for after the date of the 1880 Smyth County, Virginia census; nor has anything further been discovered concerning Jacob's wife, Nancy. Considering the time frame, it appears that Nancy must have died between February and October of 1884. Further, Ezekiel does not appear on the 1880 Smyth Co, VA Census with Jacob and Nancy, so it is assumed that he must have been residing in another household. At the time of her marriage to Jacob, Nancy Quillen had a daughter, Alpha F. Quillen. This child was born June 1864 in Grayson County, Virginia and she married William J. L. Halsey in Grayson County, Virginia in February 1881. William was the son of Ahart Halsey of Bride Creek Township. Alpha and William had at least three children, all of whom died in 1881, 1884 and 1886. Unfortunately, Alpha died of consumption in July 1885 in Smyth County, Virginia. On 18 October 1888, her husband, William, married a woman by the name of Bonham. Smyth County, Virginia court documents indicate that John Jasper and Elizabeth L. were evidently placed in an orphanage at the time that Jacob moved to Tennessee as they become wards of the Smyth County Court and were assigned guardians. THIRD MARRIAGE: Jacob was married to Minerva Evaline Hartley Bogle in October 1884 at Chapel Hill in Grayson County, Virginia. This marriage occurred only a few days after the death of his son, Joseph, who died at age eight months. The marriage bond dated October 1884 lists his name as "Jacob Smythers" age 54, place of birth and residence Smyth County, Virginia with an occupation of farming. It reflects Evaline's age as 45, place of birth North Carolina and place of residence Grayson County, Virginia. Her surname is recorded as Bogal rather than "Bogle". Smyth County, Virginia birth records reveal that a son, Calvin, was born to Jacob and Evaline on in April 1885 and he died of hives in September 1885. The Stewart of the poorhouse reported his death. This was a surprising discovery because Rosa Belle, daughter of Jacob and Evaline, had thought that she was the only child of their marriage. The birth of this first born child was not discovered until after Rosa Belle's death in 1969. It appears that both Jacob and Evaline, with their previous spouses, had been occupants of the county poor house at the same time. Evaline had eight children by her previous marriage, some of whom died at an early age. The fate of Evaline's first husband is not known and the fate of only two surviving children has been traced. One of these children went with Evaline and Jacob to Tennessee and the second child was reared by a Smyth Co, VA family and died in the 1960s in Fairfax, VA. Evaline's remaining children elected to remain in Smyth County with other families and it is believed that some of them may have relocated to Texas. In all likelihood Jacob and Evaline moved to Tennessee sometime in late 1885 or early 1886 and therefore were in Carter County, Tennessee prior to the birth of their daughter, Rosa Belle in March 1890. They moved to Sullivan County, Tennessee by 1900. Jacob died in August 1906 and is buried in Weaver Cemetery near Bristol, Tennessee. The grave is located in the old section of the cemetery to the immediate left of the old bricked entrance. Their daughter, Rosa Belle, relocated her three children and her mother to Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee by late 1920. Less than a year after her arrival in Memphis, Tennessee, Evaline died on 17 March 1921 of bronco pneumonia. She is buried in the Memphis historic Elmwood Cemetery. Family lore is that Evaline was never happy in Memphis and that she grieved for her native mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Jacob and Evaline had only two known children. Rosa Bell related many stories about her childhood in the mountains and of her love and devotion to her father, Jacob. That was many years before this researcher became interested in genealogy. Of course, "from whence I came" was not an important subject to the me at that time - but one thing remained in my memory -- she told me that Jacob was a good friend of Wilburn Waters, the famous hunter and trapper of White Top Mountain; that they hunted game and gathered herbs together and Wilburn Waters had visited their home many times. That was interesting, so I purchased a book entitled "The Life and Adventures of Wilburn Waters". It does not mention great grandfather, Jacob A. Smothers, but so what; it's great reading! Just the known facts of some of the hardships and tragedies that confronted Jacob and his families during that era are horrific. Who knows what our reactions and decisions would have been had we been faced with the same ordeals, hardships and decisions that surely and readily confronted Jacob and his families. It must have been heart rendering and difficult for a family to be at the mercy of a poorhouse! At this day and age, one cannot even begin to imagine such hardships. Yet, survival prevails -- and Jacob and his many descendants are a true testimony to that old adage -"where there's a will there's a way". Regardless of your good, bad or difficult decisions, Jacob,. I wish I had known you!!