In the book's own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1835, Bourbon county
From History of Boone County, Missouri (1882)
WILLIAM ENOCH SMITH.
le subject of this sketch is the son of Benjamin F. and Polly A. Wilson) Smith, and was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, ember 6th, 1835. He lived in Kentucky until he was twenty-two J old, when he removed to Boone county, Missouri, in 1857. He )d at Providence on the Missouri river, April 16th, and remained at vicinity for two years, when he moved north of Columbia, near leon, ten miles south of Sturgeon, where he remained for eight I. L#having that neighborhood, he removed to a place six miles west of Columbia, where he remained for thirteen or fourteen. His next move was to Sturgeon. His occupation, up to this had been farming, shipping of stock and trading. Coming to;eon, he bought the Commercial hotel, opening house October 1880. Mr. Smith was educated in Kentucky, partly at common Is and partly by private tutors. He took no part in the war. as never married. Is a member of the Christian church, but gs to none of 'the lodges. He never held an office and has no cal aspirations whatever. His paternal grandfather was a native rgiuia, but one among the first to emigrate to Kentucky. He A surveyor. He settled where Mt. Sterling now stands, but 9 there was a white settler within sixty miles of his place. At ime he donated one hundred acres of land to a preacher as an ment to the minister to settle in his locality and preach for the
610 HISTORY OF BOONE COUinT.
settlement. He had previously located one thousand acres for himBe for in those days, according to a special law of Virginia, the surreji was monarch of all he surveyed" — almost. Kentucky was thei portion of the Old Dominion, and to induce surveyors to go tot wilderness and run off the lauds, large grants were allowed them, wi the privilege of locating their lands wherever they liked best. Tl law induced a large number of young men to learn surveying, and practical knowledge of the art enabled many of them to lay the fou dation of a princely fortune in the wilds of Kentucky.
As printed in History of Boone County, Missouri (1882). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
The printed record stops around 1882. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.