The beginning of a genealogical endeavor is often benign. A small family gathering or missive, which in ours begins with "Dear Ones." The music has started. Simple steps but before you can say do-si-do, a behemoth project is underway - what I refer to as a labor of love. And from what I gleaned, that's how the wonderful book "Baywood and Beyond - Ancestors and Descendants of Samuel Harrell Smith, Sr. and Lillie Mae Pennington" got its start. First, the family gathered. Then, the project commenced. As luck would have it, Sylvia Kelly Smith, wife of prominent local CPA Phillip Smith, was charged with the compiling and writing. Mr. Phillip, with his accounting background, evolved into proofreader and, as a numbers guy, the date checker. Keith Peevy was the fact checker.
It all began nearly twenty years ago during a family "get-together" at the home of Jim and Carmen Peevy Wingate. I'm reluctant to name names for fear of leaving someone out, but I would be remiss if I didn't. I'll try, in earnest, to list everyone who played a role in the publication of this Smith family treatise.
In addition to the Wingates who provided valuable information from Carmen's mother Evelyn Smith Peevy, others (in no particular order) who played a critical role were Ogie Bankston Smith, Bobbye Smith Tucker, Juanita Lytle Smith, JoAnn Smith Williams, John Williams, Martha Peevy Newell, Pauline Parish, Kaye Smith Couvillion, Bob Smith, Dennis Peevy, Keith Peevy, Bobbie Shilling Thibodeaux, Cecil Harrison, Betty Miller Kean, Sylvia Kelly Smith, and Phillip Smith. Old writings of Sam Smith, Jr., and Lillie Mae Smith were also key components.
From that initial meeting in 2003, delays and diversions, in the form of other worthwhile projects and publications, occurred. As I soon learned, this book on the ancestry of Samuel Harrell Smith, Sr., and Lillie Mae Pennington is not Sylvia Smith's first. This publication is just the tip of the iceberg, one of a long list of vital works she has industriously authored and compiled over the years. But the Smith book is her most recent and, owed to the pandemic keeping her tied to home, the silver lining. With industrious Sylvia, who has a penchant for genealogy - it is her province: Looking for something to occupy her time during the long, solitary year of 2020, husband Phillip suggested, "You could finish that book about my family." And he didn't have to ask twice. Sylvia's mission was underway.
Space won't allow me to give a family, by the name of Smith, its due. Suffice to say, the Smiths were prolific. Before we focus on the local Smith family descendants, it is important to note their lineage, on the Smith side, which traces back to Ephraim Smith, Sr. (1776-1836), who was born in 1776 in Abbeville, South Carolina. From there, he came to St. Helena Parish, Louisiana, where he died in 1836. Before that, he was married to Winifred "Winny" Watson Smith, first, who born in 1780 and died in 1832, and to Hansey Velia Bush, second, marrying her in 1833.
One of the several children born to Ephraim and Winny Smith was Ephraim Smith, Jr., born around 1810. In 1835 Ephraim, Jr., who was a planter, married Nancy Blount, who had been born in Louisiana in 1818. The offspring of Ephraim and Nancy Blount Smith included inter alia one Seaborn Scot Smith (1851-1904), in the direct line of descent. Born in 1851, Seaborn Scot married Georgiana Pauline Harrell (1854-1920), the daughter of Samuel Harrell and Elizabeth Roberts Harrell, in November of 1874. By 1900, according to the Census, Seaborn Scot and Pauline Smith had six children in their household. Pauline noted that she had given birth to a total of ten children, eight of whom were still living. This series of columns has as its focus the descendants of one of these offspring - Samuel Harrell Smith, Sr. (1879-1920), who was born to Seaborn Scot and Pauline Harrell Smith on July 22, 1879, in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.
Having been the first son in the family, he was the namesake of his mother's father, Samuel Harrell. It is worth noting that the Harrell name has carried through, and been honored by, generations of Smith descendants. It is also significant that Samuel Harrell, Sr., and his twin brother Levi both fought in the War of 1812. They are honored on the monument at the Washington Parish Courthouse, where descendant and namesake Phillip Harrell Smith and wife Sylvia found their names. At the age of thirty, Levi died from the war, with his date of death noted as January 8, 1815 in Chalmette, Louisiana.
•Stay tuned for the next column in this series, which will focus on Samuel Harrell Smith, Sr., with wife Lillie Mae Pennington, and their family and descendants. It also will establish how Mr. Smith (Samuel "Sam" Harrell Smith, Jr.) goes to Franklinton.
