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Posted by david klepich
on 2/6/2006, 12:17 am, in reply to "Re: Grandfather Smeathers-A Man of Courage"
207.200.116.130
I have a census record showing a widow with a son named Parris Green who lived next door to another Parris Green who was my ancestor through his youngest son, Albert Jackson Green who was born in Arkansas, not Texas as the rest of his siblings were. I am a rank amateur at this, but would be willing to share my meager information if you are interested.
--Previous Message--
: My 5X Grandfather was Edward Rawlings. Small
: world! I don't know much about him. Do you
: know if he served in the American Revolution
: and where the "Capt." came from?
: He married Rebecca VanMeter. One of their
: daughters (Ann) married Josiah Hart, an
: eventual Texas colonist in the Red River
: area. I believe Ann died in Ark. but have no
: way if knowing. I have read this story about
: your GGGG Grandfather before and found it
: interesting and amusing. Fair and square, he
: won hi freedom. Thanks for the story again.
: Diane Stefani
:
: --Previous Message--
: My 4x grandfather was Williams Smeathers. On
: the Historical Marker in front of the
: Hartford Museum, KY, it says he was A Man of
: Courage.
: In a book "Law of the Heart" by
: Dorothy Gentry of Owensboro, KY, she
: mentions
: he was a 'Just & Honorable' man &
: believed in 'Playing a bad hand well",
: pertaining to Cards. Its said his cabin on
: the Ohio banks called Yellowbanks was an
: Ordinary for the Ohio rivermen &
: travelers & gamblers.
: I believe this. Although we have a difficult
: time proving his participation in the Rev.
: War, and his whereabouts prior to 1797,
: &
: the misspelling of his name Smeathers, this
: story below at least gives a picture of this
: grandfather whose blood still flows through
: our veins four generations later with
: honour,
: justice & courage.
: Thompson, Jess M. [View Citation]
: The Jess M. Thompson Pike County history :
: as
: printed in installments in the Pike County
: Republican, Pittsfield, Illinois, 1935-1939.
: Pittsfield, Ill.: Pike County Historical
: Society, 1967, 582 pgs chapter 129-Pike Co
: ILL pg 381
: Stephen Rawlings was a carpenter as well as
: a
: public official and as such he built the
: stocks and whipping post that stood on the
: county court house plot in early
: Elizabethtown. Stephen Rawlings had a son
: Edward [later Capt Edward Rawlings] who
: qualified in 1795 as deputy sheriff of
: Hardin
: county under Sheriff Samuel Haycraft.
: Sheriff Haycraft's son Samuel Haycraft Jr
: relates the following story of Deputy
: Sheriff
: Edward Rawlings in his "History of
: Elizabethtown"
: "He [Rawlings]was a slender, tall man,
: with but little surplus flesh, nearly all
: muscle, very active, and prided himself on
: his manhood and high sense of chivalric
: honor.
: "A warrant was placed in his hands to
: arrest 'Bill Smothers', who was a rollicking
: kind of outlaw, and frequently guilty of
: personal outrages. He infested the lower end
: of the county [now Daviess country, formerly
: a part of Hardin], abt 130 miles from the
: present court house. Rawlings, by stratagem
: and some help, arrested Smothers, tied him
: on
: a horse and started with him on the long
: journey to the jail. When on the road
: between
: Hartford and Hardin's Settlement, Smothers
: addressed Rawlings something after this
: manner: "Ned, I have heard of you, and
: that you boast yourself to be much of a man.
: Is it fair if you are a better man than me
: to
: keep me tied? I promise to go with you
: untied
: if you are the better man, and I prove to be
: the better man then let me go."
: "Rawlings was too high strung and
: chivalric to stand that. He immediately
: dismounted, untied his prisoner, and at it
: they went. They were well matched, and like
: James Fitz James and Rhoderic Dhu, without a
: spectator to behold the contest. Their
: brawny
: arms encircled each other and every power of
: muscle, sinew and bone was put in
: requisition. The contest was long and
: doubtful. But Smothers, being as accustomed
: to hardships and lying in the woods as the
: wild beasts, outwinded the Deputy and came
: off the victor, and accordingly went his
: way.
: Rawlings considered that the matter had been
: settled by the code of honor, fist and skull
: and was content with the issue. His fee in
: case of success would have been three
: shillings in tobacco at a penny ha-penny per
: pound."
: [I have NO idea what this last part really
: means...LOL-but this is interesting putting
: Smeathers in KY in 1795, I am assuming its
: KY, and NOT ILL, so another clue for us
: where
: he was earlier. And it is our Smeathers we
: know for sure, even though its written
: Smothers, so often Historians did that as
: well as prior researchers]
:
:
:
:
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