Seth Smith, Sr.

SMITH, LEACH

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 3/20/2007 at 23:36:05

Source: History of Monona County-1982

Family of Seth Smith

In the spring of 1853, the family of Seth Smith, Sr. Came to Grant township, Monona County, Iowa, and were the first settlers in that area. The family consisted of Seth, Sr. his wife, Sophia, and their eight children, Levi, Lois, Andrew J, Frances M., Emily, Ellen, Seth, Jr. and Chloe S. They had come west from Ohio with the Mormon migrations although they were not of that faith. The Smiths lived in Ohio from 1833 until 1852 and it was there in Lorain county that most of their children were born.
Seth, Sr was born 25 July 1804 in Bradford, Merrimack County, New Hampshire, the son Abrah and Sezia (Stiles) Smith. The family of Abram (1755-1845) Smith moved to the Genessee Valley in New York while Seth was quite young and it was there that he married Sophia the daughter of Henry and Nancy (Stephens) Leach. Sophia was born 22 June 1811 in Vermont and died three years after their settlement in Monona County, 24 July 1856.
On 8 December 1860 Seth Sr., married Hannah (Shields) Bayliss, a widow. The children of this marriage were Frederick, Fanny A., (Polly) May, Emma and Jesse.
In April 1861 Seth was chosen the captain of the Monona Union Guards, having previously been in service during the Mexican War. The sons of Seth each received 40 acres by the Mexican War grant.
Between 1858 and 1862 Seth worked as a government blacksmith on the Omaha Reservation of the Omaha Indians. He was listed on the Nebraska territorial census for the area in 1860, his daughter Ellen teaching on the reservation also and his son Seth aiding him in his work. Seth, Sr. was also a gunsmith and had a natural aptitude for mechanics.
Seth Smith Sr. died on his farm on Section 7, Kennebec township where he had moved in 1856 on 6 November 1876 and was buried in Wiley Cemetery until road work forced the removal of his stone to Center Cemetery.
Of the children of Seth and Sophia this is known: Levi served in the Monona Union Guards with his father as a third sergeant and was elected a county surveyor in 1861: Lois married Mat Jones: Andrew J. (1837 Ohio-1875 Monona County, Iowa) was married to Sarah Porter and had seven children among them, (Mary) Ellen, Albert C., Carrie A, Andrew J.J. Estella, Ross and Anna: Francis “Frank” (1838 Oh-1857 IA), unmarried: Emily married Henry Hall: Ellen married Socrates Smith (listed elsewhere in this volume): Seth, Jr. (1844 Oh-1930 IA) assisted his father on the Omaha Reservation until the Civil War, enlisting Company H, 17th Iowa Infantry and fighting in the battle of Corinth, Mississippi and being honorably discharged because of ill health (he never married) Chloe married William R. Harris, going west to Nebraska and then Idaho)
Descendants of Seth Smith still live in Monona County and Evan Davies, his grandson, resides on the land homesteaded in Kennebec township by him.