JENNIE BELL SMITH PERSON ____________________________________________________________ This information graciously contributed by Joe George: jgeorge@northcoast.com You can return to the main table of contents for this Person family document by going to the books section of the Ark. USGW archives. You can also get a full copy of the document by contacting Joe. USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation. ____________________________________________________________ A4 JENNIE BELL SMITH PERSON was a native of Illinois and reared in Indiana near The Wabash river. She was the daughter of John Speed and Julia Ann Lipps Smith. She was born January 17, l864. Around the age of 16 (1880) she moved with her family to Arkansas and settled in the old Neely community near Dardanelle, Arkansas in Yell County. Soon after the Smith family settled in Arkansas Jennie met and started dating a stranger, Edward Person, from Capron, Virginia. He arrived by boat that was travelling upstream on the Arkansas river at old Neely. He had left his home to seek a better life after his parents died, in 1887. He played a banjo for dances in the old Neely community, mostly at the Gilly home (where the Junior McClure home stands in 1968). He sat on a barrel in a long hallway and played his banjo while the people danced in four large rooms, two rooms on each side of the hallway. Jennie and Edward eloped on January 28, 1882 because her father would not consent to her marriage. They lived first at Stubbs community before moving to Texas and then moved back to old Neely by 1884. They then lived in Carden Bottom before moving to White Oak Mountain in Van Buren County in 1888. They homesteaded 160 acres of land an White Oak Mountain and lived and reared their children there. Jennie died in the home 45 years later. Two of her sisters lived there at one time. Martha lived there from 1888 to 1901 and Minnie from 1888 to 1900. A brother, Ballard, and his family lived there a short time around 1892. Wash Phillips and Edward Person (brothers-in-law) worked together in raising and selling apples. They were very close friends for several years but due later to some misunderstanding they never spoke again. Their wives, who were sisters, Jennie and Martha, were not bitter toward one another but due to their husbands not getting along and Edward being so bitter toward Wash and Martha, the sisters did not see or write to each other after the Phillips left the mountain in 1901. They kept in touch with each other through their sister Minnie Smith Hanks. About 1930, Jennie visited her sisters, especially Martha "Tude" Phillips whom she had not seen in nearly 30 years. She traveled by train to Floydada, Texas to visit Minnie and the Hanks in their Floydada Hotel. After a visit there, the Hanks accompanied her to Ada, Oklahoma to visit in the home of Martha and Wash Phillips. That was the last time the three sisters were together. Jennie returned home via Carden Bottom and visited her children there before returning to her home on White Oak. Upon her arrival at home she told Edward of her visit with her sisters and he did not utter disapproval. Jennie Bell Person died at her home on White Oak mountain on April 12, 1933 of kidney trouble and vericose veins. Her son, Dr. Rueben Person was her physician. She was 69 years age and the mother of 10 children of which 5 survived her. She lived a beautiful Christian life and was a true wife and devoted mother. Her funeral was held on April 14, 1933 at New Hope cemetery in Pope County, Arkansas, by Rev. John Rorex of Atkins. Interment is near three of her children, Hattie, James and Eathel Person McPherson. Masters Funeral Home in Dardanelle was in charge of the burial. January 28, 1932, Edward and Jennie Smith Person celebrated their golden wedding anniversary at their home on White Oak mountain. Their children were present for the occasion: Rueben Person and wife Ruby, John Person and wife Bertha and daughter Johnie, Adelaide Person Hignight and husband Morris, Herbert Person and wife Ethel and daughter Hazel, Joe Person and wife Kelly.