Izard Co., AR - Biographies - E. F. Smith

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E. F. Smith, farmer and miller, Melbourne, Ark. All his life Mr. Smith has
followed, with substantial success, the occupation to which he was reared and
in which he is now engaged, farming, but in connection has also been largely
interested in the milling business. He was born in Massachusetts, in 1833, and
is the son of Roswell and Jane E. Smith, who were also natives of
Massachusetts. Roswell Smith was a farmer by occupation, and was a man of only
limited education. He was drafted in the War of 1812, but was not in any
engagements. He was married about 1807 and became the father of fourteen
children, twelve of whom lived to be grown, E. F. Smith being the only one
residing in the South. At the age of seventeen the latter came to this part of
the United States, located first in Tennessee, and later, or in 1859, in
Arkansas. He was employed on the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad, and after that
was finished he settled in Jacksonport, where he followed the carpenter's
trade. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army under Gen. Hindman, and served on
the west side of the Mississippi River, participating in the following battles:
Pea Ridge and Pleasant Hill, and was in the quartermaster's department. He
surrendered at Marshall, Tex., in 1865, returned home and located at Evening
Shade, where he engaged in merchandising, and which he continued for two years.
He then resumed the carpenter's trade, which he followed until 1880, when he
commenced farming. He bought his present property, consisting of a merchant
mill and cotton-gin combined, with a nice residence. He owns, besides this
property, two farms in the county, with about eighty acres under cultivation,
all the result of his own labor since the war, for at the close of that
eventful period he had but $2. He was married on the 18th of October, 1866, to
Miss Melissa J. Wasson, and they are the parents of two children: Ella G., at
home, and Leander G., also at home. Mrs. Smith is the daughter of Lee and Jane
(Mathews) Wasson, natives of Tennessee. Mr. Smith votes the Democratic ticket,
is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and he and wife are members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South.