John T. Smith

As printed in 1883

JOHN T. SMITH.

The subject of this sketch was born May 23d, 1797, in Franklin county, Georgia, and is the son of John and Elizabeth (Morgan) Smith. He was educated at Willington college. South Carolina, from which institution he graduated. It was his fortune while attending college to have been many times examined by that prince of statesmen John C. Calhoun. He was a schoolmate of Gen. McDuffie, who afterward became the colleague of Calhoun in the Senate of the United States. Mr. Smith was a soldier of the war of 1812, serving about six months. Soon after that war closed his parents emigrated to that part of Mississippi territory, which subsequently became the State of Alabama, and located near Huntsville. In 1818, Mr. Smith was elected magistrate and served eight years. His father gave him a tract of land and seven negroes, and he farmer until 1832, by which time he had made fifty thousand dollars. In 1833 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and ran a large brewing establishment for three years, and then went into the wholesale grocery business, which he followed until 1841, and in it, also, he made about fifty thousand dollars. He then went to Virginia and bought sixty-five slaves, and took them to Henry county, Tennessee, where he carried on a mule farm of three thousand acres, until 1852. He then spent two years in different States buying up land warrants, and in 1855 came to Springfield, Missouri. He

HISTORY or GREENE COUNTY.

was married Dec. loth, 1816, to Elizabeth Shotwell, by whom he had seven children, four boys and three girls, of whom two girls are now living. His first wife died in 1852, and in July, 1867, he married Willea Dantyrell. He joined the Methodist church in Alabama, in 1815. In early times he was a member of the Whig and Know Nothing parties. His father came to the'United States as a British soldier, and was twice wounded, and taken prisoner in Virginia. He was the first clerk of Madison county, Georgia, and served for twenty-seven years. He died in 1818, and his wife in 1816.

As printed in History of Greene county, Missouri, ... including a history of its township, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri ... biographical sketches and portraits of prominent cit (1883). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.