Clan William: Mary Ann Munson and William Custer Smith, Part 3

Read Part 2  

Harland Smith

We left off with the death of Mary Ann Munson in 1888. She was a mere 51 years old. Many of the children had married by the time of her death, but some were still at home.

William Custer Smith found a second wife. At this time, I need to address "family lore." Within my family tree was a lovely lady who was the granddaughter of William & Mary Ann's son Harland - the guy who lived on the family farm with his wife and raced horses. She wrote an extensive letter full of her "memories," many of which were factually not true. You can read a bit about her reminisces here.

Her primary assertion was the woman W.C. married was previously married and had children. It was alluded the new wife was greedy and vengeful, casting out Harland and Fannie from the family farm. We'll get back to this lore as the story continues.

W.C.'s new wife was found in the family tree of his wife. His new wife was an unmarried "spinster" woman of 30 who was his wife's cousin. Specifically, she was the granddaughter of Mary Ann's sister Henrietta Munson Vaughn. Daughter of Sarah Jane Vaughn Simmons. The Vaughn/Simmons families had settled in Fayette County in NE Iowa. Just a few hours' buggy ride from the Smith farm in Fremont Township.

W.C. and Alice Simmons hopped on a train from Plainfield to Charles City and married March 20, 1893. They returned to the Smith farm and their lives went on. 

In the meantime, the rest of the kids grew up and married.

Edwin Smith married Kate Smull on 11 Jun 1890. The couple would fairly soon settle in Plainfield. Edwin was a laborer. They had 12 children. Wife Kate was known throughout the area for her expertise in wallpapering. 

Parker Smith, a struggling Baptist preacher, married Estella Irene "Stella" Pierson on 20 Nov 1896. After the turn of the century, they would spend the rest of their lives moving from church to church and into various leadership positions within the Baptist faith.  They would adopt one of Stella's nieces.

Young Mirt Smith

Mirt Smith married Emma Haehlen Schafstall on 22 Jun 1898 in Mower, Minnesota. Mirt was a barber. The couple would have three children. Mirt was known in the region for his award-winning chickens.  They lived in Waterloo for most of their marriage.

Mr & Mrs W. C. Smith did not have a long marriage. A massive stroke took W.C. on 16 Nov 1895 while going between the house and barn. According to the obituary, the turnout to say goodbye was a large one.

According to "family lore" as described by Harland's granddaughter, the widow stole the farm after W.C.'s death so she could leave it to her children. As I mentioned, not true. In fact I was able to find the documents that were with the courthouse and the current owner of the property. Alice, within a week of the death, sold the farm to the children for $2,040 on 22 Nov 1895. Each child owned an equal share. Son Parker managed the farm during this period at the behest of the family; my guess is Harland's departure had been caused by a similar family decision. 

Alice returned to her family and married a single Englishman named Arthur Sinderson 16 Aug 1898. She never had any children during her lifetime.

On 08 Mar 1897, Eva Smith Bryce sold her share to her siblings for $600. Finally, on 08 Dec 1898, the farm was sold to the Diedrich Dieke family for $5,040. 

This would be the end of the direct William Custer Smith-Mary Ann Munson story, but they would live on through the stories of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren's and great-great grandchildren's lives.

Click these links for more stories about William and Mary's families.

Clan William: Mary Ann Munson and William Custer Smith, Part 2

See Part 1 here.

William and Mary Ann Munson Smith set up house in Fennimore, Grant County, Wisconsin. The couple farmed during their time in Wisconsin. On 19 Sep 1854, they had their first child, Walter Clarence Smith. The next surviving child was Mary Madora "Dora" Smith, born in Hazel Green, Grant County on 23 Jul 1850. The third, was Harland Smith, born 02 Nov 1861 in Grant County. Finally, the fourth Wisconsin baby, Eva Elvira Smith was born on 05 Apr 1864 in Fennimore.

Butler County, Iowa Fremont Township Plat Map, 1895

In 1866, the Smith family packed up and moved to Fremont Township, Butler County, Iowa. On 16 Sep 1866, their fifth child, Ella Mae Smith was born in Fremont Township. The Smith's then purchased a farm one mile west of the town of Plainfield, in Butler County, from the widow of former Horton postmaster Amos Head. Head had cleared the land and made it livable. The Smith's purchased 140 acres of prime farm land for $800.00 on 01 Nov 1866. The farm was right on the county line between Butler and Bremer county. The couple worked together to build their house and barn. They had a large family to house and more were on the way.

In addition to the children, the couple also housed William's mother "Cathy"  and his mentally disabled brother, Isaac, and spinster sister, Sara. Along came sons Edwin (06 Jun 1869), Parker (01 Sep 1872), Mirt (09 Sep 1875), and baby John, born 09 Jun 1879 and died 28 Sep 1881. This would complete their family.

The house is the one William & Mary Ann Munson Smith
built. The people are the next family who lived there.

The couple completed their house and barn and as the older ones grew, they married off.  

The original farm and farm today. The house is long gone. The Dieke family have owned
the property for over 100 years and the farm is recognized as a Centennial Farm.

By 1880, William's mentally disabled brother, Isaac, was living in Wisconsin again, with another Smith brother, John. Mother Cathy is believed to have died in Fremont Township before 1880 and was probably the reason Isaac was sent to the oldest brother. Sister Sarah Jane was finally married off to a widower with a disastrous marriage record and history of alcohol abuse and violence, Francis "Frank" Doole, on 27 May 1887 in Floyd County. She did not get a happy ending.

Oldest son Walter had married Isabell Monteith in 1876 in Plainfield. Isabell was one of three Monteith sisters who married into the greater Smith family. The Monteith's hailed from Scotland and settled in Wisconsin.

Daughter Dora married a young businessman originally from Somerset, Pennsylvania, but had moved to Waterloo, Iowa on 21 Jun 1878 in Janesville, Iowa. His family made an indelible impression on the City of Waterloo through the next several decades. The couple would reside in Waterloo and husband Claude Lichty would build a manufacturing company which ran successfully during his lifetime.

Son Harland and Fannie had been married in a double ceremony with Harland's next younger sister, Eva Elvira on 21 Aug 1881. Son Harland and William loved to race horses and built a horse racing track on the property at it's southern side. They traveled the state racing horses and held races on their property. Harlan and his wife Fannie Magoon lived on the farm with the Smith's after their marriage in 1881. Fannie fed the chickens and worked the farm. She did the laundry in a vat on the lawn. Harland, reportedly, was far from industrious and just wanted to race his horses.  

Eva Elvira, who married farm laborer Arthur Marion Bryce on 21 Aug 1881 in a double ceremony with her brother Harland and his wife Fannie. The Bryce's moved on to Fort Dodge and then returned to Plainfield, where Arthur died young in 1886 and Eva did not remarry.

Daughter Ella Mae married farmhand and later railroad man Howard Cunningham on 30 Aug 1885 in Bremer County. They moved to Moberly, Missouri, one of the hubs of the Wabash Railroad.

Plainfield, Bremer County, IA sometime between 1874-1880

William and Mary Ann seemed to have a lot of friends in both Nashua and Plainfield, though Plainfield was where they went most often. Their mail was delivered to the Plainfield post office and that's also where they saw the doctor and did their shopping. Plainfield and Nashua were both thriving farm towns, with just about everything a family could need in those days in the 1880s.  

In 1888, Mary Ann took sick. She was expected to recover and though she was sick, no one expected her to die. She died on 24 Sep 1888. She was 51 and her youngest child, Mirt, was 13 years old. 

Life would change for the Smith family after Mary Ann's death. Family lore would prove false after a long research road.

Part 3 - After Mary Ann Munson Smith

Click these links for more stories about William and Mary's families.

Clan William: Mary Ann Munson and William Custer Smith, Part 1

Photo by Mark Miller and can be
purchased through Fine Art America

As I have researched over the past many years, my posts focus on a piece or part of a story as I find it. I wanted to put to pen, or rather, to blog, the thus far semi-complete story of my 2nd great grandparents, pioneers William Custer Smith and his wife, Mary Ann Munson, daughter of Amos Munson of Clan William.

Mary Ann Munson was born to Amos Munson and Mary Ann Kearney on 08 Jun 1837* in Trumbull County, Ohio. Samuel (2nd) Munson, Freeman's father, and Amos' father Freeman Munson had pioneered into Trumbull County beginning in about 1802 and were some of its earliest settlers. Mary Ann was the third child of the couple's eight known children. 

In 1850, her family moved from Trumbull County to Grant County, Wisconsin. Grant County is in what is called the "Driftless Area." That is the stunningly beautiful formerly mountainous area that was missed by ice sheets shifting down from Canada that flattened the plains starting about 100,000 years ago. Only a small part of SE Minnesota, NE Iowa, and a larger part of Wisconsin were missed.  Over time, the mountains wore down to beautiful green hills. 

The area was also full of mining production. Zinc, Lead, and Iron were mined in this area. Many Cornish miners flocked to the area to work in the mines. The Munsons, I believe, joined thousands of others who found the beauty of the area irresistible. 

Some time between 1852 and 1853, Mary Ann met her future husband, William Custer Smith. They married 30 Jun 1853 in Grant County. 

William Custer Smith's middle name was not derived from General George Armstrong Custer, but from Custer's father, Emanuel Custer. William's father, Jacob Smith and his wife Mary Catherine "Cathy" farmed in the same community as the Custers in eastern Ohio.  It's believed that James Smith, Jacob's father, came from New Jersey to Ohio. William Custer Smith was born on 04 Oct 1831 in Harrison County, Ohio. He was the middle of seven known children. 

Mary Catherine, according to family lore, had the last name Randolph. DNA, however, indicates she is the child of John Lodawick Schmidt and Mary Kinter. We don't know what her connection was to the Randolph family (and for which I have yet to find any link). So, for now, I will refer to her as Mary Catherine "Cathy" Schmidt Smith.

In 1846, Jacob's oldest son James and his wife had their third child, John Richard, in Grant County; their previous child, Alexander, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio in 1845. So, we can presume, since they all went together, that they arrived in Wisconsin in late 1845 or earlly 1846. Jacob and children are all reflected in the 1850 census in Grant County.

Oddly enough, there was another Jacob Smith in Grant County during this time, who died in 1850. Many trees in Ancestry reflect this being "my" Jacob Smith. It's not. A review of the deceased Jacob Smith's will shows it wasn't him at all - different wife, different children.  

In the end, we are put in a place that the best we can narrow down my Jacob Smith's death date to between the census of 1850 and 1860. 

We may never know what happened to Jacob, but there is a high likelihood he did not ever come to Iowa with several other members of the family, but died in Grant County. We do know what became of the rest of the Munson and Smith Clans. 

Part 2 will cover the marriage years of William Custer Smith and Mary Ann Munson.

Click these links for more stories about William and Mary's families.

*-I have yet to prove this date personally, but I'm going with it for now.

Jacob Smith: Setting the Record Straight

Old Fennimore: Sixty years after the Jacob Smith Family Arrived

This is my response to Ancestry Family Trees that have Jacob Smith dying in May of 1858 in
Fennimore, Grant County, Wisconsin. It is my belief that this is wrong.

Click to enlarge

Jacob Smith is my 3GG. It is believed he was born in 1798 in New Jersey or New York (no confirming documents have been discovered) and also that his father was James Smith (reportedly of New Jersey), who later moved to Ohio. There are available records of the existence of both James and Jacob in Ohio. 

Jacob married Mary Catherine "Cathie" Randolph at an unknown location and date. In 1820, Jacob was living in Richland, Belmont, Ohio and in 1840 he was in Smithfield, Jefferson, Ohio. Birth records of his children also detail that the Smith's lived in Guernsey, Ohio (1822) and Harrison County (1826 until at least 1831) before ending up in Jefferson County.

In 1846, Jacob's oldest son James and his wife had their third child, John Richard, in Grant County, Wisconsin; their previous child, Alexander, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio in 1845. So, we can presume, since they all went together, that they arrived in Wisconsin in late 1845 or early 1846. Jacob and children are all reflected in the 1850 census in Grant County.

Oddly enough, there was a second Jacob Smith living in the Fennimore area at the same time my Jacob Smith lived there. It is his death date that is attributed in error to our Jacob Smith. 

This was easily disproved through two documents: The obituary of the "other" Jacob Smith and the probate documents of the same "other" Jacob Smith.

First, the obituary: 

"Mr. SMITH was born in Wayne county, Penn., March 19, 1829, son of Jacob and Sophia (WHEELER) SMITH. His father was born east of the Green Mountains, in Vermont, in 1802, and his grandfather was a clergyman of the Methodist Church, and lived in New England al his life. Jacob SMITH was the youngest son in a family of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, all of whom were given Bible names, as was the fashion of the times. The sons were called Simeon, Reuben, Daniel, Abram, Isaac and Jacob. The names of the daughters cannot now be obtained, as that generation has passed from earth. In 1824 Jacob SMITH married Sophia WHEELER, who was born in Massachusetts, her birth occurring the same year as her husband's. She as a daughter of Simeon and Polly (NOBLE) WHEELER. Her mother was a daughter of Capt. Charles NOBLE, a Revolutionary soldier, who died before the close of the Revolution, from disease contracted in the service. Melford Pratt SMITH therefore is a great-grandson of a Revolutionary soldier. The NOBLE family was long prominent in Massachusetts. Four brothers came from England in early Colonial times, and from them are descended the greater part of the NOBLES in the United States.

In 1826 Jacob SMITH, with his wife and only child, removed to Wayne county, Penn., and in 1853 the parents, with their family, then consisting of six children, came to Grant county, Wis., and settled on a farm in the town of Fennimore. Within six years after their arrival five of the family had passed away. The parents and three of their children, Algernon and Celestial and Cecilia (twins), had succumbed to sickness, and gone on "to join the great majority," The children reached maturity before they died. The mother's death occurred in 1857, and the father's the following year. There are now living of this family, Esther (the wife of O.N. SMITH, of Eau Claire, Wis.), Melford P., and Alfica (of Iowa)."

Click to enlarge

Last Will & Testament of the "Other" Jacob Smith

Click to enlarge

In the end, we are put in a place that the best we can narrow down my Jacob Smith's death date to between the census of 1850 to the census of 1860, where in 1860 his wife is found living with his mentally disabled son and spinster daughter in the home of their son William Custer Smith in Fremont Township, Butler County, Iowa. 

We may never know what exactly became of Jacob, but there is a high likelihood he did not ever come to Iowa with several other members of the family, but died in Grant County.

 

Jacob Smith: Bits and Pieces for Discussion Including the Custer Connection

JAMES SMITH > JACOB SMITH m Mary Catherine Randolph

Rumley Township is at the top in Harrison County
Click to enlarge

I've been incredibly frustrated by my inability to move my SMITH line beyond 3GG Jacob Smith and
his purported father, James Smith. Anectdotally, James is Jacob's father and they were originally from the Monmouth, New Jersey area before moving to Ohio somewhere before 1830.

1830 Rumley Township Census
Click to enlarge

Also, little is known about Mary Catherine Randolph, Jacob's wife, who went by "Cathy" from what I've learned. Jacob's son, John R. Smith married Susan Randolph, who I will guess is a relative of Cathy, but again, I have nothing. I've got a couple lines of inquiry I'm pursuing, but records are spotty in the wilderness during this time and without birth or death records, it's going to be non-definitive, even if I feel I've solved it.

One thing of the family legends I was able to confirm is that my 2GG, William Custer Smith, did indeed most likely get his middle name from George Armstrong Custer's father, Emanuel Custer. The legend had it that the Custer's were great friends of the Smith in Rumley Township, Harrison County and sure enough, I find them both living there in 1830.  Emanuel and Jacob were contemporaries.

Jacob's father, James, may be living in Cadiz Township at this time. In 1820, the James Smith family was located in Belmont County, which is adjacent to Harrison County. In 1820, James and family lived in Belmont County.

A Little About EMANUEL CUSTER

I believe that either Henry Custer or Nevin Custer is the man on the far left 3rd step,
James Calhoun is seated, 2nd from left.
It is probably Thomas Custer next to Calhoun and G. A. Custer is on the top
step, center, his wife Elizabeth Bacon seated to his right. The man below Elizabeth and below Emanuel
I've not identified. Emanuel is in the top right on top step sitting in a chair.
Photo shared on Ancestry by Connie Fullmer

Emanuel Custer was born and raised in Allegany County, Maryland. He was born 10 Dec 1806. His

Emanual and Mary
Image Courtesy 1881 Courthouse
Museum, Custer SD

first wife was Matilda Viers, whom he married in Maryland in 1828. They had three children, two of whom died young. Upon Matilda's death in 1835 in Harrison County, he married Mary Ward Kirkpatrick in 1836. The couple had at least seven children and widow Mary brought a daughter to the marriage. The two oldest, James and Samuel, died before their first birthdays. The arrival of George Armstrong Custer, later youthful West Point grad and Civil War Army General; and later yet, failed battle strategist at Little Big Horn, was the oldest of Mary's surviving children.

Emanuel and Mary were settled in Harrison County by 1830. After serving in the US Civil War himself at a quite advanced age in his 60s, he and his wife moved to Monroe County, Michigan, where they both died. The Smith's moved on to Grant County, Wisconsin in the mid-1840s.

In between, though, the Custer Family rallied at the time of the Civil War and beyond as part of the Cavalry. Four members of the Custer's immediate family died at the Battle of Little Big Horn:  Brevet Maj Gen (Lt Col) G. A. Custer, his brother Boston Custer, brother Capt Thomas Ward Custer (two-time Medal of  Honor winner), and brother-in-law, Lt James Calhoun, husband of Margaret Custer, along with nephew Harry Armstrong "Autie" Reed (a non-military member of the group) and other Custer friends. The historical perspective of G. A. Custer has been tipped on its head in the past decades as the "heroic" nature of their deaths at the hands of Chief Sitting Bull and his army of Native Americans, but it was surely a profound loss to Emanuel and Mary Custer which ranks up there with the tragic loss of the five Sullivan Brothers of Waterloo, IA during WWII in terms of family service tragedy.

Mapping it Out

I do better with visuals. I tried to map out the immigrant path - still a lot of incomplete information even after all these years of work. Here is how it went down with my four sets of great-great grandparents on my dad's side.

Includes Cappoens, Meserol, Fontaine, Leroy, Miller, Linsey lines
antecedents of my paternal grandfather, Leo Linsey
(Click to enlarge)

Abraham Owens and Zachariah Holler. This family joined with the Miller family with the marriage
of David Owens and Sarah Holler. This is the paternal side of my grandfather Leo Linsey's family.

UNK Smull immigrant who was father to Brush Valley, PA's Brothers Smull. The Quaker Cooper's of Pennsylvania and the Quaker Beams family of Whitley County, Kentucky joined  with the marriage of William Lloyd
Cooper and Elizabeth Beams. This family  joined the Smull family with  the marriage
of Johnathan Smull and Mary Jane Cooper, maternal 2GG of my grandmother Verlie Smith Michaelsen Linsey.

James Smith is the earliest located Smith originally believed to be from Monmouth, NJ
The Munson family goes back to Munson immigrant who arrive in Connecticut in 1637. Grant County, Wisconsin
was the site of the joining of the Munson and Smith families when William Custer Smith
married Mary Ann Munson. This is my maternal grandmother Verlie Smith Michaelsen Linsey's paternal grandparents.

Mystery Muddle: Ancestry DNA and Me

I just had to. So, for Christmas this year, we all got DNA tests done. Mine had some surprising results
that I haven't quite figured out since my research has not indicated much of it to be true. The Scandinavian results was 61% and Iberian Peninsula was my next big group at 11%. Based on my work with the family tree, I expected a lot more English and German and I have no idea where the Iberian Peninsula thing came from. So, it will be fun figuring it all out.

One of the features of Ancestry DNA is the matching they do between you and others who share some DNA. Some are closer relatives, but most are distant - 4th to 6th cousins or more. The results of this was not surprising for the most part. People I'd been in contact with over the past few years are confirmed as actually being DNA-connected as well. If there were ever any doubt, my dad can be assured that he is in fact the child of his known parents!

What was a big surprise was this close cousin (1st/2nd) that popped up that I'd never heard of before. I couldn't figure out from what I could learn, how we were related. I contacted her and she told me her tale. Her mother had been adopted. She had traced her birthmother's family (Simmons) and a likely birthmother but had no clue on the birthfather.

The process of research on the detective trail is the fun part for me. First, I needed to establish that I was not related to her on "Sue's" mom's birthmother's side. That was borne out rather quickly. That meant that I might find the key to solving the puzzle.

Then, I took the shared DNA connections and used them to exclude possibilities based on the year of birth of the mother and age of the birthmother - two estimated things we knew.

The solution was found in the Smith-Smull line. The only Smith-Smull crossovers were with Jennie Elnora Smull and Kate Smull, who both married Smith men from our line. Jennie's boys were ruled out as were two of Kate's boys. Then, that left one Smith boy. I feel fairly confident that we have located the birthfather of her mother.

I absolutely live to work on puzzles like this. And, I got a new close cousin out of the deal. Pretty cool.

The Gossip Mill

JACOB SMITH > WILLIAM CUSTER SMITH > PARKER SMITH m Estella Irene "Stella" Pierson

Parker Smith was the youngest of William Custer Smith and Mary Ann Munson's brood.  Parker went from managing the family farm after his father's death to becoming a long-time Baptist fire-and-brimstone revivalist and pastor in Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa over the course of his career.

The subject of today's story is not really about Parker and his wife, but rather the Press and an unusual article that was published in the Waverly Democrat on January 15, 1903. It discussed the moral rot that had set into a group of Waverly area "cattlemen" and a gossipy article that related the story that was received by the paper from a correspondent. It's not the kind of article one runs across generally, even in small-town Iowa. The purpose of the entire article, which named names, whether true or not for what appears primarily to be a scolding of the correspondent rather than news. Must have been  horribly upsetting to the folks involved, after 10 years since the original events.

Stella's father was C.A. Pierson, who was born in 1846 in Sweden. In 1868, he married  Eliza Jane Rickel, daughter of Joseph Rickel. The couple had seven children, five of whom survived past the death of their mother. Among those was Stella. The couple would end up divorcing, which was still not so common, but apparently in this case, very necessary.

The article is published here:

After they divorced, C.A. Pierson married Nancy "Anna" Phillis in 1894. After the marriage, they moved to Ravenna, Nebraska and lived near Stella. Eliza's obit never refers to the divorce.

C. A. Pierson died 29 Apr 1933 in Ravenna, Nebraska just hours after his wife, Anna, died suddenly the same day at age 84. They had been prominent farmers, stock raisers, and feeders prior to their retirement.

Clan William: Smith/Munson Family: Minor Discoveries

I've spent the last bit pouring over the newspapers now available through various small libraries here in Iowa. It's been exciting and illuminating. Solved mysteries. Added to the knowledge base I've accumulated in my new genealogy brain, and basically, allowed me to continue working without leaving my house!

So little is known about my 2nd great grandmother, Mary Ann Munson. She died quite young, at 51, but nowhere had I found any information about what happened. I had suspected cancer, but it could have been anything. I finally found this short item about her death in the Waverly newspaper:

One of the biggest mysteries thus far was the identity and relationship of William Custer Smith's second wife. After a fruitless search at courthouses in several counties, I discovered a small news item that said they had taken the train to yet another county to marry.Subsequent news items confirmed that she was the Alice Simmons I had suspected and is Mary Ann Munson's cousin through aunt Henrietta Munson Vaughn's side of the family.

W. C. seemed to be a popular guy, based on my notes from various items placed in the paper. In 1890, he had quite the birthday party.

The people of Plainfield and vicinity gathered at the home of Wm Smith last week Wednesday evening and gave him a surprise, it being his birthday. A fine hanging lamp and center table was presented to him, besides other presents.
Waverly Democrat, Waverly Iowa
Thursday, October 23, 1890

I had no idea that two of the Smith children had a double wedding! Eva and Harland married their respective spouses, Arthur Bryce and Fannie Magoon on August 21, 1881. The information was available, I just hadn't noticed until I saw the article! Eva only had Arthur five years before he died, but Harland and Fannie had 52 years together.

I watch "Who Do You Think You Are" pretty religiously and I think the celebrities that discover their family are always so stunned by how attached they become to these people they never met. I have the same feeling every day that I do this. Maybe that's why it's important.

The Munson Clans and a Post About Aeneas Munson

Munson Clan Tree

My 2nd great grandmother on my paternal grandmother's side of the family was Mary Ann Munson. She certainly didn't make any big splashes and was quite like most pioneer Americans, working hard for a better life, being a reliable and steadfast helpmeet to her husband, William Custer Smith, and raising her family. Her ultimate destination was Fremont Township, Butler County, Iowa, but the Smith family's lives revolved around the neighboring Bremer County community of  Plainfield.

The Munsons can trace their roots back to the immigrant Munson, Captain Thomas Munson. According to the Munson Family Foundation website:

"The first appearance of Thomas Munson (1612-1685) in America is recorded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1637 as a member of the militia unit engaged in the Pequot Indian War. He signed the Fundamental Agreement at New Haven Colony (dated 1639) prior to April 1640 and established his permanent home. His life and actions are well documented in The Munson Record, Volume I and the Connecticut colony records.The evidence is persuasive that the Thomas Munson who was recorded as being baptized in St. Nicholas Church in Rattlesden, County Suffolk, England on September 13, 1612, was the same man who later distinguished himself in the public affairs of colonial New Haven."

ThomasMunson.org

To trace this now huge lineage, some wise person broke it all down into clans. So, each of us from the Munson lineage was attached to the great grandson of the original immigrant. In my case, I'm a descendant of Thomas' great grandson William, and belong to Clan William. There were originally 17 clans, but this did not include all the descendants of Thomas (excluding the female lines), so in 2008, the Foundation agreed to consider activating a total of 43 additional lines to ensure full inclusion. Only a handful of these have been researched and activated. This involves literally millions of descendants.

My new cousin, whom I've not met, but religiously read her always informative blog, today talks about another distant cousin from Clan Theophilus, Dr. Aeneas Munson, Revolutionary War Surgeon. 

Dr. Aeneas Munson, Jr.

Smith Family Stories

This is sorted by the children of Jacob Smith and Mary Catherine "Cathie" Randolph

Jacob Smith Line: Mary Catherine Randolph, Sarah Jane Smith Doole, and Isaac Smith

JAMES SMITH

JACOB SMITH
Jacob Smith: Setting the Record Straight
Personal Interviews: When an Interview Flops
The Edge of Madness: Unraveling the Mystery of Bertha McKinney, Part 1
The Edge of Madness: Unraveling the Mystery of Bertha McKinney, Part 2
Robert Smith & Flora Hinmon 
Bit and Pieces and the Custer Connection
ALEXANDER SMITH
Little House on the Prairie: Saskatchewan Edition
JOHN RICHARD SMITH
  Alfred Smith
  Raid at Cabanatuan: Japanese Prisoner of War Spencer Clinto Goodbla, WWII
  The Double Tragedy of the Alfred Smith Family of South Dakota
  Harriet Smith
  Losing the Trail: Harriet Smith
  Ollie Smith
  The Other Newcombs of South Dakota  
  Florence Newcomb & L Arthur Larson: The Perfect Match
  Nancy Smith
  Bad, Bad Henry Burton
WILLIAM LAWRENCE SMITH
Pioneering Nebraska & the Twister of 1933: Agnes Smith Callander
Jesse James, Buffalo Bill Cody, and The Keeley Cure: Agnes Watson Smith Bowers
Sundance, Wyoming & the Bowers Family

JOHN R SMITH

The Other John R Smith

ISAAC SMITH

Jacob Smith Line: Mary Catherine Randolph, Sarah Jane Smith Doole, and Isaac Smith

WILLIAM CUSTER SMITH

Clan William: Mary Ann Munson & William Custer Smith, Pt 1

Clan William: Mary Ann Munson & William Custer Smith, Pt 2

Clan William: Mary Ann Munson & William Custer Smith, Pt 3

The Family Farm of William Custer Smith and Mary Ann Munson
Connecting the Story: More on the William Custer Smith Farm
Mystery Muddle: Who is Alice Simmons?
Smith/Munson Side: Minor Discoveries 
The Gossip Mill - Coming 10/14/17

WALTER SMITH
Smith Family: Capt (Ret) Grant Joseph Walker

William Custer Smith Family: Walter Smith
Capt Grant & Mrs Mary Jane Scoles Walker
How My Dog Got Her Name: Frankie Smith 

MARY MADORA "DORA" SMITH
B F Lichty & Sons, Waterloo

HARLAND SMITH
William Custer Smith: Harland Smith
Going Beyond the Details: The Nashua Reporter
Walter Kermit Spurgeon Gets Robbed
William Lowell Smith
The Magoons: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

EVA ELVIRA SMITH
William Custer Smith Family: Eva Elvira Smith

ELLA MAE SMITH
All Aboard! The Railroad Men of the Wabash Railroad
The Long Road to Moberly, Missouri
A Sad Turn in the Tale of the Cunningham Family
Trail Blazing Women: Gertrude Bouque Nichols

A. Dorsey Bouque Moves to Indiana

It Must Have Been in the Blood: Cunningham Railroad Men 

EDWIN SMITH
Edwin Smith Family

Mystery Muddle: The Many Marriages of Marie/Mary Adaline Smith
Johnathan Smull Family: Katie Smull
The Cappoens/LeRoy Line: Leo Linsey
Edwin Smith Family: Vivian Catherine Smith
Edwin Smith Family: Evelyn Joyce Smith
WWII  Brought Home: Harry F Bradshaw, USN
Zola Bebee, Grandma's Best Friend 
Remembering Janis Michaelsen Pedersen Ladnier
Dixie Lee Michaelsen Pedersen Pedersen 
Remembering Harold James Ripley
Leland Barr and World War II
Madge Smith Scoles

REV PARKER SMITH
William Custer Smith Family: Rev Parker Smith
The Gossip Mill 

MIRT SMITH
William Custer Smith Family: Mirt Smith

JOHN SMITH - He died at age 2.

CATHERINE SMITH 

Eureka! A Big Find

ELIZABETH SMITH - Believed to have died young. No mention is made of her in sister Sarah's obit.

SARAH JANE SMITH
Jacob Smith Line: Mary Catherine Randolph, Sarah Jane Smith Doole, and Isaac Smith
Hang Down Your Head, Frank Doole

The Monteith's married three ways into the Smith family early on. They are pretty interesting!

THE MONTEITH FAMILY STORIES

Andrew Monteith Family of Wigtownshire, Scotland
William Boyd Monteith
Beloved Mary Welch Monteith Meets a Tragic End
The Great Chicago Fire & the Alexander McCullochs
Edward Boyd Monteith: Father of the Smith Wives
George Monteith of North Dakota
Jane Monteith, Nurse & Her Husbands
Race to the Finish: Fred C Monteith & Martin Rector
Sideroad: The Preston Family
Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Quackery

THE LICHTY FAMILY STORIES

The Lichty Family of Somerset County, Pennsylvania had many of its members pioneer in Black Hawk County. Most of them became exemplary citizens, leaders, captains of industry, lawyers, doctors, and highly successful farmers. Many held crucial roles in the development of the city of Waterloo.

Sideroad: Gabriel Bickley Lichty, MD, Abortionist  

Sideroad: Lewis Lichty, Servant of the People  

Clan William: Connecting the Story: More on the William Custer Smith Farm

Capt Thomas Munson > Samuel Munson > Samuel James Munson > William Munson > Samuel II Munson > Freeman Munson > Amos Munson > Mary Ann Munson m William Custer Smith

and...

Jacob Smith > William Custer Smith m Mary Ann Munson

You can read about my earlier discoveries about the farm of William Custer Smith, who settled at the edge of Butler/Bremer Counties, Iowa with wife Mary Ann Munson here and about his second, younger wife, Alice, here.

Kenn Deike

To summarize, WC Smith had 120 acres in Butler County just a mile west of Plainfield, Bremer County, where he farmed and resided starting in Oct 1866 when he bought the property from New Hampshire pioneer Amos Head, who was postmaster in Horton, Iowa in the late 1850s. Smith paid $800.00. I don't know if he built the family home or not. Amos may well have been the one to break prairie and improve the property for farming, but that will require more research.

In 1870, WC Smith lived in his home with his wife, mother Cathie, mentally handicapped older brother, Isaac, spinster sister Sarah Jane, and his eight kids.

Now let me tell you what I did yesterday. I found out who owned the property now, drove up to their house to get their permission to take photos, and instead got

The original deed with the signatures
of WC Smith's Children, including
notarized statement from daughter
Ella Smith Cunningham, who
lived in Moberly, Missouri
at the time of the sale

invited in (with no notice and not knowing who the heck I was), and spent a lovely morning looking through documents and photos.

Kenn and Mary Deike currently own the property that WC Smith farmed and live on a neighboring property. In December 1898, Kenn's great grandfather, Diedrich Deike, who came from Germany at 17, bought the Smith farm and it's remained in the Deike family for 119 years. One of his family members lives in the house currently on the site. The old farm house is long gone.

He just happened to have all the property documents on the table and we pulled them out and looked through them all. There, the story unfolded. Mary rounded up the family history/recipe book and shared the photos.

After Diedrich bought the house, they built a large barn. The remnants of that barn are still there. I believe there was a previous barn there when the Smith's lived there.

Kenn's grandfather Hugo farmed after his father. The farm photo below is probably very much like it looked when the Smith's were there. I would guess this photo was taken around 1910.

Hugo is third from left. The Diedrich & Minnie Deike family.

I learned a lot during my visit. Including the fact, that while WC Smith could fully support his large, extended family on the bounty of 120 acres, it would take thousands of acres to do the same today. The race track, which I mentioned in this post about son Harland Smith, was located about 3/4 of the way down the 120-acre track of land. The remnants of that are long gone.

What cannot be overstated is that even now, almost four years into my return to Iowa, I am constantly amazed by the generosity and kindness of Iowans.

The farm in early days and today

Wilhemina "Minnie" Deike and her Columbian Wyandottes

The land to the left is the former WC Smith acreage
The race track was down yonder

B&W photos courtesy of Kenn & Mary Deike
Color photos are mine

Recently discovered photo courtesy of Betty Smith Hahn Kelleher that may be the Smith home place original barn. I believe the two adults pictured are Walter Smith and his wife Isabelle Monteith, others unidentified.

Jacob Smith Line: Mary Catherine Randolph, Sarah Jane Smith Doole and Isaac Smith

JACOB SMITH > ISAAC SMITH
JACOB SMITH > SARAH JANE SMITH m Frances Doole

My 2nd great grandfather, William Custer Smith (married Mary Ann Munson), came from a family

of seven children: James, John R., Isaac, William Custer, Catherine, Elizabeth, and Sarah. Elizabeth, born about 1836, is presumed to have died young. Their parents, Jacob Smith and Mary Catherine "Catherine" Randolph, moved from Ohio to Fennimore, Grant County, Wisconsin, where they settled in 1846. Jacob is believed to have died prior to 1860, but the Jacob Smith many people have listed on Ancestry.com is not our Jacob (more on that another time--view the probate records for that "other" Jacob, frequently confused with ours, here).

Isaac, born about 1827 in Ohio, was classified as an "idiot," who did not read and write. He was listed as living with his parents 1850 and with his mother "Cathie"  and sister Sarah in 1860 in Fennimore.

Sarah was born 03 Jul 1842 in Jefferson County, Ohio.

Fennimore, Wisconsin

In 1870, Cathie, Isaac and Sarah were living with William Custer Smith and his wife Mary Ann Munson in Butler County, Iowa. Cathie is not seen after 1870. I need another trip to the courthouse to see if there's a death record.

Isaac was living with brother John back in Fennimore in 1880, but by 1885, was back in Butler County with William. Sarah was with William in 1870 and 1885, but not with him in 1880.

No trace of Isaac is seen after 1885.

Sarah, on the other hand, finally married for the first time at age 45 to Frances Doole. They were married 27 May 1887 in Floyd County. Francis "Frank" Doole  was born in about 1812 in Ireland. He had two previous wives and was 75 years old when he married Sarah.  The name Doole in reference to Sarah is spelled alternatively, Duell, Dewell, Deull, and Dual; none of which is correct. Frank appears to have been an entrepreneur:

"A "Blind Pig" which has been successfully operated for the past two years at Floyd by Frances Doole was raided and a large quantity of beer and whisky seized. Doole is in jail at Charles City."

Atlantic Daily Telegraph December 26, 1888

A "blind pig" is an after-hours illegal drinking establishment. Clearly he was a sparkling citizen.

Sarah divorced.

She lived in the Bremer County Poor Farm and Asylum from at least 1895 until her death of old age in 1924. She was not buried in the Poor Farm cemetery as many paupers were, so someone in the family ponied up for a burial, but there is not stone that I can find. She was buried in Willow Lawn Cemetery in Plainfield, where William and Mary Ann and many of their children are buried.