James Allen Smith was born on 19. Feb. 1858 at Arringington Twp., Wayne County, Illinois. He was the son of
William P. Smith and
Catherine Campbell. James Allen Smith married
Augusta Bell Schwarberg, daughter of
William F. Schwarberg and
Elizabeth Higbee, on 20. Feb. 1879 at Wayne County, Illinois. James Allen Smith died on 2. Jan. 1947 at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, at age 88. BIOGRAPHY: 1880:
According to the 1880 census, James Allen and Augusta were next door to the household of William Schwarburg in Arrington CO, IL. This census was taken on June 22, 1880.
In early July of 1880, Augusta wrote a letter (in the possession of William J Yankee)to her folks about the death of their infant son, William. He had been listed on the census at 5 months of age. The family letter stated that they had crops that had come in with more to yet be harvested. According to a family notation, from an unknown source, William died in 1881. So, taking this listing of William's death and the very fact that James and Gus could not have gotten crops up and harvested in less than a week, William must, indeed, have died in 1881 at the age of about 18 months. That means that Augusta was distraught or simply forgot what year it was when she dated the letter. I, William J. Yankee, could find no record of the death of William in either Johnson or Nemaha counties of Nebraska, where they lived at the time of his death.
I also could not find any record of land purchases for them in either county in Nebraska. They must have lived with some other people and worked on thier land. In the letter, Gus notes that a Charles Pasco had come over to plow corn. This Charles Pasco is listed in the 1880 census in Nemaha County. The Smith's and the Pasco's were inseperable, apparently, ever since the early years of Spencer Smith in Ohio. They had always had neighbors named Pasco. The William Pasco mentioned in the letter lived just down the road from William Schwarburg in Arrington CO, Illinois. Spencer Smith also had a Pasco living just near him in Ohio. After James Allen Smith moved to Oklahoma in the early 1890's, I found no Pasco's nearby. This could be due to not enough searching, or to the fact that the Pasco's stayed in Nebraska.
In the 1880 census, Nemaha County, Nebraska, I found a Cynthia Pasco age 50 and a Charles, age 22. Just next door I found a F.M. Smith. Could F.M. bea relative and could James and Gus have lived there with F.M.?
BIOGRAPHY: 1882:
Maude Smith was the first of the five Smith girls to be born. She was born in Johnson County Nebraska, near Tecumseh, on January 29, 1882.
BIOGRAPHY: 1883:
On January 17, 1883 James and Gus purchased a quarter acre farm in Rupublic, Kansas. It was the North West quarter of section 26, township 1 (Rose Creek), Range 2. In and atlas of the county from 1884, James is shown as the owner of the quarter. The property just north of theirs: South West Quarter of section 23, Township 1, Range 2 was owned by the Pasco family since patented from the United States in 1877. By August of 1883, the Pasco's had sold all of their portions of the quarter section.
BIOGRAPHY: 1884:
Louise Ethelade was born during their stay in Kansas. She was born on September 4, 1884. The attending physician was Dr. Edward Stone. The nearest town was Munden, which was 1 1/2 miles south and 1 mile west of their farm. The land is situated at the head of a small drainage, with the lowest portion being on the NW corner. The SW corner is the highest. On the NE is a more or less level area and if I were a betting man would guess the homestead was there.
BIOGRAPHY: While living there in Republic County they gave birth to Bess Eleanor on April 4, 1886.
BIOGRAPHY: James and Gus sold all of their quarter section in September of 1889 and moved on down the road.
BIOGRAPHY: 1890:
Since there was no 1890 census in the states where James and Gus lived, there is no proof of their whereabouts, but they probably moved directly to Indian Territory, as Gus' father William Schwarburg participated in one of the land runs into Indian Territory.
BIOGRAPHY: 1892:
By 1892 James and family were living in Kingfisher, Indian Territory. From land records at the Kingfisher CO, it is evident that they bought and sold a lot of land and city lots during their stay there. The earliest purchases that I have found, interestingly, are city lots in Kingfisher, I.T. In 1897 the purchased a quarter section of land in the county. Grace Vivian was born in Kingfisher on October 25, 1892.Here is a partial list of what they owned:
(1) Lots # 13 & 14 in Block 51 of Kingfisher, I.T., purchased Jan 25, 1900.
(2) Lots # 15 & 16 in Block 51 of Kingfisher, I.T., purchased Jan 11, 1893.
(3) Lots # 9,10,11,12 in Block 13 of Kingfisher, I.T., purchased July 4, 1892, sold Feb 2, 1893.
(4) NW quarter of section 11, TWP 16, RNG 6 of Kingfisher CO, I.T., purchased July 1, 1897.
BIOGRAPHY: 1895:
On March 6, 1895 the last of the children of James and Augusta was born in Kingfisher, Indian Territory, namely Hazel.
BIOGRAPHY: 1900:
The 1900 census shows James and his entire family living in Kingfisher, I.T.
BIOGRAPHY: 1909:
On November 24, 1909, Louise E. Smith married Dr. Elvin D. Bradley. He was born in Albany NY. He was 55 years old and she was 25. It was a religious ceremony done by pastor A.M.Virhlen and witnessed by Howard Holder and her father, James Allen. The preacher represented the M.E. Church. From the Civil War Pension Index, there was an Elvin D. Bradley who served in company "D" of the 10th N.Y. Infantry during the Civil War. This Bradley used the alias name of John Kelly when enlisting and while serving. If this is the same E. D. Bradley that married Louise Smith, then he would have had to use an alias to enlist as he would have slightly under-age at the beginning of the war. Perhaps he did not have parental consent or something else. The pension was filed for in the state of Kansas on Dec 17, 1891. More research will need to be done in order to proove this is the husband of Louise.
BIOGRAPHY: 1910:
The 1900 census shows Louise and Dr. Bradley living on 5th Street in Hennessey, OK.
The 1900 census shows James living with the remainder of his family living on 4th Street in Kingfisher, OK.
BIOGRAPHY: 1918:
Doctor Bradley met an untimely death on December 14, 1918. He was hit in a buggy-train accident at a RR crossing. Actually, he was hit on December 13 and died on the 14th at 10:00 in the morning. He was hit by train #36 of the C.N._?XPress. He was 72 years, 5 months, 15 days old when he died. Here is a list of the properties that Louise sold fter his death:
(1) 11 63/100 acres in the W 1/2 of SW quarter of section 24, TWP 19 RNG 7.
(2) Lots # 2,3,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 of Block 5 of Cherokee Addition to Hennessey, OK.
(3) Lots # 1,2,3, in Block 44 of the town of Hennessey, OK.
(4) Lots #1,2,3, in Block 45 of Thompson Addition to the Town of Hennessey, OK.
(5) Lot # 8 in Block 24 in Shade's Addition to the Town of Hennessey, OK (in 1906 a Grace L Bradley purchased this particular property. Related?)
BIOGRAPHY: 1920:
In the 1920 census, James and Gus were living at 611 E 8th Street, Oklahoma City. Louise was back home at this time due to the death of her first husband, Dr. Elvin D. Bradley. Also, sister Bess was married to Guy Rolando Brown and they were living at the Smith home as well.
Sister Hazel was also married to Henry Victor Owen and they lived on their own.
BIOGRAPHY: 1930:
In the 1930 census James and Gus were living in their final home on this earth: 1321 N. Shartel, Oklahoma City, OK. Louise had since remarried a Louis Jolls Baker and they lived on their own. Bess was still married to Guy and they remained in the household of James and Augusta until their deaths-after the deaths of James and Gus.