William B. Smith
My 4th Greatgrandfather
( Sherry Diane Hess 1 , Evelyn Mae Swalander 2 , Maude Mabel Smith 3 , William Joseph Smith 4 ,
Samuel Martin Smith 5 , Jackson Smith 6 , William B. Smith 7 )

This page may be freely linked to but no part of it may be reproduced in any way without my permission.

William B. SMITH was born 15 May 1793 supposedly somewhere in Kentucky. I have some information given to me that his parents were John SMITH and Jane McCARTY but I have been unable to confirm this. By 1812 William was living in Rockingham Co, Virginia where he married Christina SITES on 29 December. In the war of 1812 William volunteered at Harrisonburg, Virginia on 7 July 1813 for a 6 month term and was a private in the Fourth regiment of the Virginia Militia. He was honorably discharged at Norfolk, Virginia on 10 January 1814 and as a consequence of his service he was awarded bounty land in Illinois.

On 9 August 1850 William deeded 202 acres of land near Brooks Gap to his sons David, Jackson, Josiah and William. His son John was deceased by this time. In the 1850 census for Rockingham County, Virginia, William has two of the three orphaned children of John living with him, John William and Woodford SMITH. William signed a guardian bond becoming their legal guardian, as well as their brother Charles, on 20 December 1852. Also on the 1850 census William has a Mary OLLINGER and her daughter Priscilla living with him. His wife, Christina, and their daughter Juliette Ann, are living with their oldest son David. It is unknown at this time whether Christina and William were divorced but it is assumed that she died soon after 1850 as she did not follow the Smith family to Illinois. In 1853 William, his surviving children with their families, his 3 orphaned grandsons and Mary OLLINGER and her daughter, all packed up and moved to Warren Co, Illinois. They came overland by covered wagon to Wheeling, West Virginia, then by boat down the Ohio river to where it empties into the Mississippi and up the Mississippi River to Oquawka, Illinois. They then traveled overland again to Lenox township.

William married Mary OLLINGER in Monmouth, Warren Co, Illinois on 30 July 1855. It was to be a short marriage however as he died on 1 February 1856. The Monmouth Review carried the story. It told that William, living near Berwick, in company with his son-in-law (not named) and a small boy (not named) had started in a two horse wagon to come to Monmouth on business. He soon became benumbed by the severe cold and getting out of the wagon, told the son-in-law to drive as fast as possible to save the boy from freezing, and added that he would walk. Overcome by the wind and storm, he sank exhausted on the ground, and some time later his body was found, snowcovered. He was described as a man of considerable wealth and was said to have owned some fine lands in the vicinity of Berwick. Mary relinquished to William's children all her rights to his estate for the sum of $3,500. Priscilla OLLINGER later tried to claim part of the estate but it was "stricken from the file, claimant being a minor". William was buried in the Lenox Union Cemetery.

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This page developed by Sherry Hess Jones / Okanogan, WA
Email: shjones@usroots.com
URL: http://www.oocities.org/Heartland/Plains/3264/swmb.html