It begins as a hobby...a pastime that you look at every now and then. Soon, you find yourself in the library or pouring over maps every weekend. After 18 years, it has consumed me, in a most delightful way. I know my search for the Smiths and Glaspies of Delta County will never end; but that’s just fine by me.
I wouldn’t wish a Smith on any researcher - especially a Ben Smith, which is who I’m looking for. As near as I can tell, Ben was born in Tennessee in 1841 and died in Tennessee in his early 40s. He didn’t leave much of a paper trail. Ben is mentioned only on the 1860 Bledsoe County Tennessee census and on his daughter’s death certificate in 1944. Family stories say that he was wounded during the Civil War, those wounds being the cause of his death in the mid 1860s. Ben’s wife Annie (maiden name unknown) moved her three daughters, Sarah, Mildred and Martha to Jackson County Alabama shortly after 1870. There Annie married William T. Kirkpatrick in 1879 and within only months was widowed again. In 1880 Annie’s youngest daughter, Martha Ann, married James M. Glaspie in Jackson County. Jim was a farmer and the son of a farmer. Soon after his marriage to Martha, he moved his family to Lamar County Texas, taking with him his father, Civil War veteran Patrick Gillaspie/Glaspie, and his mother-in-law, Annie E. Smith Kirkpatrick. Jim farmed near Petty for about 2 years. It was there that Jim and Martha’s first daughter, Eva Lee Glaspie, was born. By 1884 Jim had moved his family to Lawrence County Arkansas to ve near other family members who had also moved from Alabama. Patrick’s brother William Glaspie appeared on the census in nearby Faulkner and Yell Counties beginning in 1880.
While in Yell County Arkansas, Patrick Glaspie, many years a widower, met and married a very young Jane Mize. Patrick was old and in poor health, but he was receiving a pension for his service during the Civil War. This was quite a prize for a single woman of those times. In fact, the young Mrs. Glaspie didn’t waste any time in applying for a widow’s pension when Patrick died in 1904.
Following Patrick’s death, Jim once again moved his family to Texas, this time to Delta County. By now his family had grown to include Willie Francis, Claude Lawrence, Ella Mae, Zettie Elora, Mellie Alma, and Burl Glaspie. Jim and his sons farmed land at Doctor’s Creek. In 1910 his eldest daughter, Eva Lee, was married to Albert Ross Lancaster.
In 1914, Annie E. Smith Kirkpatrick died and was buried in the Friendship Cemetery at Klondike. At this time in Texas history, death certificates were not mandatory and newspaper coverage was scant; therefore, no recording of her death has been found. Born in 1841 in Tennessee, she had survived a war, two husbands, two daughters and an 800 mile trip across rugged land by wagon.
The Glaspie family remained in Delta County beyond Jim’s death in 1927 and Martha’s death in 1944, beyond four wars, until today. Descendants of Jim and Martha (Smith) Glaspie still reside in Delta County. Among their surnames are Lancaster, Gibbs, Oyler, West, Moore, Longfellow, Nivens, Woodall, Hennen, Shaw, Shaffer, Sweatman, Hall, Waters and Brooks. I would be happy to exchange information with anyone researching these names.
