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Biography of Elder Woody K. Smith of Spearsville, Union Parish Louisiana

Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by Lyle Smith, 1/2005


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                  BIOGRAPHY OF ELDER John Lee SMITH, 
              PASTOR OF NEW HOPE PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CHURCH 
                  IN SPEARSVILLE, LOUISIANA 

Researched and written by his son, Lyle Smith, 2005
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ELDER JOHN LEE SMITH

The subject of this biography is my father John Lee Smith. This will be one of the 
hardest I have ever tried to write.

John Lee Smith was born March 27, 1901 at his parents’ home four miles northwest 
of Spearsville,  in Union Parish, Louisiana, the son of  Elder Woody K. Smith and 
Mary Rebecca Barron.. He was the middle child of Woody K. and Mary, and the last 
son of his father, who was married 3 times. He was named for his father’s older 
brother, Dr. John Lee Smith. Mary Rebecca was the third wife of Elder Woody K. Smith.

His maternal grandparents were Henry Callaway Barron and Amanda Elizabeth Giles. 
His paternal grandparents were Hansford Willis Smith and Martha Ann Davis.

John Lee was the eighth and youngest son of Woody K. Smith. He had six half brothers 
and two half sisters, one older full brother and one younger full sister.

The eleven children of Woody K. Smith from his three marriages were born from 1877 
to 1904, with one set of twins in the group.

Woody K. Smith married Martha Jane Poole, age 20, of Oakland, Louisiana, February 8, 
1877. She was born June 28, 1856, in Union County, Arkansas.

Children of Woody K. Smith and Martha J. Poole were:

1- James Hardy Smith (Jim), born April 20, 1878, at Lapile, Union County, Arkansas.
2- Sarah Elizabeth Smith (Lizzie), born December 13, 1879, at Lapile, Union County, 
   Arkansas.

Martha Jane Poole Smith died May 22, 1880, after only three years and two months 
of marriage.

Three months later Woody K. Smith, age 24 years, married Mahalia Elizabeth Head age 
27, on September 2, 1880. She was born August 5, 1853 in Alabama.  Her parents were 
Thomas Jackson Head, born in Alabama, and Frances Johnson, born in Alabama.

Children of Woody K. Smith and Mahalia Elizabeth Head were:

3- Thomas Jackson Smith (Tom), born October 5, 1881, at Lapile, Union County.
4- William Hansford Smith (Bill), born June 2, 1883, at Lapile, Union County.
5- Nancy Jane Smith, born June 12, 1885, at Lapile, Union County Arkansas.
6- Harmon Smith (twin), born July 5, 1887, at Lapile, Union County, Arkansas.
7- Armon Smith (twin), born July 5, 1887, at Lapile, Union County, Arkansas.
8- Woody Columbus Smith (Woody), born July 9, 1890, at Lapile, Union County.

Mahalia Elizabeth Head Smith died March 20, 1895.

Four months later Woody K. Smith married Mary Rebecca Barron on July 18, 1895 in 
Union Parish, Louisiana. 

Children of Woody K. Smith and Mary Rebecca Barron were:

9-  Henry Archer Smith, born January 31, 1897, at Blanchard Springs, Arkansas.
10- John Lee Smith born, March 27, 1901, 4 miles northwest of Spearsville, Union 
    Parish, Louisiana. 
11- Mary Irene Smith, born January 2, 1904, 4 miles north west of Spearsville, 
    Union Parish, Louisiana.

During John Lee’s younger years, he did basically like the other country boys, with 
one exception. His mother, Mary, thought he was too pretty to have to work. She said, 
“I just had him to look at.” And that was the way she felt about him the rest of her 
life. He was blonde and fair skinned and they thought he did not need to be out in 
the sun. Even in her later years, Grandma tried to keep Dad’s two oldest sons from 
playing with him on the floor, when he was resting after lunch.  She treated Dad as 
her baby all his life. Dad had a job on a dredge boat in La Porte, Texas, and then a 
very good job with the Post Office in Shreveport, but Grandma told him she missed 
him and called him home. And he came back to Spearsville, where he lived almost all 
his life.

Some of John Lee’s earliest memories were of riding to Spearsville with his older 
brother, Harmon, in a mule drawn cotton wagon. It was extremely cold, and Harmon 
dug a hole in the cotton and John Lee burrowed into the hole and was warm for the 
entire trip to town. John Lee also recalled seeing his brothers Harmon and Woody 
play baseball.

John Lee, Woody K.’s youngest son, also spoke of the start of a typical day on the 
Smith farm when the fields were being plowed. This description was when John Lee 
was 17 years old and Woody K. was 61 years old..  

The family arose at 3:30 A.M. Mary Rebecca started preparing breakfast while the 
men tended the animals. The mules were fed and then watered before departing for 
the fields. After the family had breakfast, the mules were harnessed and led to 
the fields to where the plowing ended the day before. The mules were then hooked 
to the plows and Grandpa Woody K. smoked a last pipe of tobacco, and John Lee lay 
on the soft warm earth while awaiting daylight and enough light to begin plowing.

One of his worst whippings came from his older sister, Nannie, when at an early age 
he was doing research on wasps. He wondered if they could sting when dead, if one 
applied a finger to their tail... He secured an assistant to help him, and soon 
discovered that a dead red wasp could sting his little sister, Irene. He never made 
that mistake again.

When John Lee was about 8 years old, he received a new pair of shoes. That night he 
refused to remove his new shoes before going to bed. After he went to sleep, his 
mother took off one shoe and was untying the other one, when he woke up. He threw 
such a fit that she had to replace the other shoe and let him sleep in them all night.

John Lee excelled at sailing pine bark. He could throw pieces of bark long distances 
and usually hit what he threw at. When Minor Ogden came to get John Lee’s older sister 
Nannie, to marry her, the little lad sailed pine bark at him all the way down the hill.

John Lee cut up his new hat because Uncle Minor Ogden fussed at him for asking so many 
questions as they rode in the wagon. Every time Minor answered John Lee, the mules pulled 
up.

John Lee liked to swim all day, but that habit did not carry over to his own children. 
He told them they could enjoy an hour just as well as all day. From the time he was in 
his teens on up to manhood, John Lee was a walker. They did not have an automobile, and 
he walked almost everywhere he went in the community. He walked to his friend’s houses 
and to the mail box and even to town and back.

John Lee went to about the 8th grade in school. In 1909 at age 8, he was attending 
school at his father’s church, New Hope Primitive Baptist Church. In the one room 
Church he attended school along with his little sister and his older brothers, Henry, 
Harmon and Woody. Harmon was 22 years old, and Woody was 19 years old at the time. 
John Lee also attended various singing school held around the community. He sang in 
church since way before I was born. After John Lee was grown he attended Tyler Junior 
College in Tyler, Texas, until his mother told him she wanted to see him, and he came 
home and did not go back. Our parents received their GED in 1962 at Spearsville.

My father had many good childhood friends; among them, Minor Taylor, William Ogden, 
Monroe Ogden, and Odell Smith, his nephew who was the same age as him. Odell was the 
oldest son of John Lee’s older brother, Jim Smith. Another of his special friends 
was Cisco Barron, his first cousin who married his niece, Ruby Smith. They courted 
girls together and double dated. Cisco had a surrey with fringe on the top, pulled 
by a high stepping mare.

The first car my father rode in was borrowed by William Ogden, who had little 
experience with cars.  The car got away from William on a muddy road and started 
up a clay bank. William hollered WHOOOA, and pulled on the steering wheel, pulling 
it off the column. They came to a stop against a tree.

John Lee related to me about the first airplane he ever saw up close. He and William 
Ogden were in Junction City at the state line to see an airplane whose pilot was 
named Muse. Muse was to fly into Junction City and land in a pasture. Muse was from 
Junction City and was coming home to show off his plane.

The interested citizens had heard that Muse was going to land in a certain pasture 
on the edge of town. They gathered there, standing around talking, awaiting the 
arrival of that metal thing that could fly. When Muse arrived overhead, and saw all 
the people on his proposed landing field, he did the only thing he could do to clear 
the field; he buzzed it and the people scattered like flies. William was a large 
young man and as he turned to run, he ran into a very large old black woman, and 
knocked her over. She fell like a bale of cotton and her dress split like a sack of 
feed. Needless to say, William and John Lee could hardly run for laughing.  John Lee 
was about 18 at the time.

At the South Ouachita Primitive Baptist Association in 1930, my grandfather, Elder 
Woody K. Smith, baptized a 16 year old girl from Amity, Clark County, Arkansas, 
in a stock pond south of Camden. Later he introduced her to his son, John Lee, and 
history was made.

John Lee Smith, of Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana, age 31years, married Delma 
Wall, age 18 years, October 16, 1932, in Amity, Clark County, Arkansas. They were 
married by R.H. Lash, Justice of the Peace. Her parents were Abner D. Wall and Mary 
Ann (May) Josey.  

Woody K. Smith died June 26, 1933, in his home northwest of Spearsville, Union Parish, 
Louisiana. He was buried in Spearsville Cemetery.  

Children of John Lee and Delma are:

1- John Winford Smith, born November 13, 1934, in Bernice, Union Parish, Louisiana, 
   with Dr. Colvin attending. Winford married Terry Hanako Taira March 23, 1956, in 
   Honolulu, Hawaii. They were married by F.H. Wickham, LCDR. ChC, USN, in the Chapel 
   at Pearl Harbor. This was three years before Hawaii became a state.

   Children of Winford Smith and Terry Taira are:
      a- Gene Winford Smith, born August 26, 1957, in San Diego, California.
      b- David Walter Smith, born November 3, 1960, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

2- Vernon Durand Smith, born September 6, 1937, in the Castleberry house west of 
   Spearsville, with Dr. Dudley attending.  He married Emma Jean (Jeannie) Hammons 
   December 12, 1959 in Crossett, Ashley County, Arkansas. They were married by the 
   father of the groom, Elder John Lee Smith.

   Children of Vernon Smith and Jeannie Hammons are:
       a- Jeffrey Durand Smith, born September 9, 1965, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

3- Lyle M. Smith, born March 28, 1942, in Minor and Nannie Ogden’s house northwest of 
   Spearsville, with Dr. Tanner and Lucille Barron attending. He married Charlene 
   Melissa Asberry September 12, 1961, in Junction City, Union County, Arkansas. They 
   were married by the father of the groom, Elder John Lee Smith.

   Children of Lyle Smith and Charlene Asberry are:
       a- Lyle Randall Smith, born December 30, 1963, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
       b- Peggy Lynne Smith, born April 25, 1966, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

4- Carl Alston Smith, born February 24, 1944 in Minor and Nannie Ogden’s house north 
   of Spearsville, Union Parish, Louisiana, with Dr. Dudley attending. He married Mary 
   Ann Carroll June 8, 1965, in Bernice, Union Parish, Louisiana. They were married by 
   the father of the groom, Elder John Lee Smith.

   Children of Carl Smith and Mary Ann Carroll are:
       a- Vikki Ellen Smith, born October 10, 1968, in El Dorado, Union County, Arkansas.
       b- Sondra Ann Smith, born January 27, 1971, in El Dorado, Union County, Arkansas.


   Carl Smith married Dolores Marie Morris (Dee) April 12, 1979, in St. Louis, Missouri.

   Children of Carl Smith and Dee Morris are:
       a- Bryan Andrew Smith, born March 2, 1981, in St. Louis, Missouri.
       b- Kari Marie Smith, born January 23, 1983, in St. Louis, Missouri.



John Lee Smith joined New Hope Primitive Baptist Church July 6, 1940. He would visit 
with his sister Irene and her husband Clyde Risinger for dinner. After eating John Lee 
and Clyde would sit at the table and discuss religion. They would talk on and on. One 
day Aunt Irene related to her daughter, Madge, “Well, John Lee may not preach, but he 
sure is preaching at our dining table.”

John Lee Smith started preaching November 2, 1941. His first sermon was at Union Church 
near Linville, Union Parish, Louisiana. He was ordained by New Hope Church on April 4, 1943.

The Certificate is duly recorded in Misc. Book “B”, page 151, at the Union County, 
Arkansas Courthouse. The certificate reads as follows:

          Lillie, Louisiana
          April 4, 1943


          TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

          This is to certify that John Lee Smith (a minister of the Primitive Church 
          of Christ, and a member of New Hope Church of Union Parish, Louisiana, being 
          before proved and recommended by said Church) was set apart on April 4, 1943, 
          by prayer and laying on of hands of the undersigned Elders and Deacons, who 
          were called a presbytery for that purpose: whereby the said Elder John Lee 
          Smith, is ordained a Minister of the Gospel and entitled to the administration 
          of all ordinances thereof.

          We commend Elder John Lee Smith to the Primitive Baptist, as being sound in 
          the Bible doctrine of Predestination, total depravity, unconditional election, 
          limited atonement, Efficacious Grace, Perseverance of Saints, and Final 
          Resurrection of the bodies. He is humble, and meek and worthy of their love 
          and Fellowship.

          MAY GOD’S RICH GRACE enable Elder Smith to continue steadfastly in the Apostles 
          Doctrine.

          Witness our hands on this 4th day of April A.D. 1943

The certificate of ordination is signed by Elders J.T. Everett, E.J. Lambert, 
R.W. Rhodes, and W.W. Taylor. Deacons signing were S.J. Slaughter, J.W. Hudson, 
Marion Smith, G.A. Muckley, T.P. Wilson and J.W.B. Robertson.

My father believed strongly in the doctrine of his church, but he was not one to argue 
or debate. He would talk his beliefs all day, but would not be led to argue... My first 
cousin, Madge Risinger Chandler told me not long ago that Uncle John Lee was a teacher 
and would be missed in the church and the community. If someone attempted to hem him 
up, he could strongly and skillfully defend his position, but never looked to argue 
with anyone.

My father preached in Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana & Alabama from the time 
he was ordained in 1943 until just before he died in 1990. In his later years he and 
mother, along with his sister Irene, and niece Mary Davis made several trips up the 
eastern seaboard of the United States and on into Canada. His appointments were already 
scheduled and he preached in houses, in a gym, in churches and out of doors in many 
places. He was very well received, and he enjoyed these trips.

On one of these trips he almost got into trouble. Mother kept up with the schedules 
and where they would spend the night. It was getting late one night and Dad walked 
around the Church looking for Mother. He had always been very careful about talking 
to ladies, but he almost blew it that night. He had a habit of walking up behind 
mother, and since he was quite a bit taller than her, he would sit his chin on top 
of her head and talk to her. He saw her and started to put his chin on her head, put 
his arms around her and ask her where they were going to sleep that night. The female 
turned around just before he got to her, and he had never to his knowledge seen her 
before. He backed away and really went to looking for mother. 

When Dad was about 75 years old, when my family visited them at Spearsville, he and 
my wife, Charlene would always go for walks down to the Spearsville Cemetery, where 
his parents were buried. He could really walk and so could she, but she was taking 3 
steps to his one. On the way home one day, Charlene told me that Dad seemed like her 
version of an old Southern gentleman. They really liked each other.

My father was a gentleman and a gentle man. He certainly loved his parents and his 
brothers and sisters. He was very close to each of them. When his own children came 
along he was gentle. I only remember him spanking me 3 times in my life, but I 
definitely remembered those. And I am certain I probably deserved many more.

Dad could plow a pretty row with a mule drawn plow, if someone set up his plow for 
him. He did not have much patience with himself and his tools sometimes. He could 
hoe a row in the garden with ease and it always looked so good when he finished with 
it.

My father married many couples, several of them his own nieces and nephews. He married 
many young couples, both white and black who came to our house for the ceremony. He was 
strong in the fact that he preached several kinfolks funerals of   brothers, nieces, 
nephews and brother-in-laws. I asked him how he did it and he replied that he had to 
depend upon the Lord to see him through.

In 1966 my oldest brother, Winford, and his family moved to Hawaii. In 1967 they sent 
tickets for my parents to fly over and visit them. Mother was ready, but Dad was 
terribly undecided. He believed that a man was not to go below “tater” digging or 
above fodder pulling. He was afraid of heights and had never flown or wanted to fly. 
I wrote him a letter and told him that all my life he had told me about an all powerful 
God, one that I believed could care for him in his rocking chair on the porch, or in 
an airplane. He wrote me back and said I was right, that he was going, but was still 
not too happy about it. Dr. George Risinger, his nephew, gave him pills to help him 
relax and also for air sickness, and he made the trip ok but he never flew again.

When Dad and mother first got married, times were tight, and there was not a lot of 
money to buy clothes. Dad had always worn long sleeved shirts all his life, even in 
the summer. He was long armed, and his elbows would punch holes in the shirts, and 
they would be discarded. One year mother cut the sleeves off and hemmed them and 
showed him. He had plenty of shirts, but they were of the short sleeve variety, and 
he said he could not wear those, that he would surely blister, and he really believed 
that. She started him out in them in early spring and he never blistered, and the 
next year he was looking for short sleeve shirts in early spring. Old habits are hard 
to break.

My father worked at farming jobs and selling products on a rural route during his 
lifetime.

My father had one of the best memories I have ever encountered. He remembered 
birthdays, wedding, deaths, and anniversaries of many people. When I was with him 
he would tell me that Uncle Bill died 43 years ago today, Aunt Sally got married 49 
years ago today, and Uncle Tom died on this date in 1966. And he would be right. 
This went on for years and years. My only regret is I waited until after his death 
to start a family history. There are so many things I want to ask him now.

The most vivid thing about his memory was that he would remember a long grocery 
list mother gave him in the morning, without writing it down. Only when he got older 
would he have to call home to get mother to remind him of an item or two that he 
knew was on the list but couldn’t remember. Most of us can’t remember a small five 
item grocery list.

My brother, Carl, gave Dad and mother a color TV. He liked the wildlife and nature 
shows in color, but when Walter Cronkite came on with the news, it showed him to 
have a green tint, and Dad figured that anything that made Walter turn green was not 
too much good.
  
When Dad was about 85 he had to go in the nursing home at Farmerville, the Parish 
seat of Union Parish. He was glad to see us when we visited, and I would take our 
German Shepherd dog down. She was obedience trained, and would sit by his wheel 
chair with her head in his lap and he would pet her over and over. He loved to pet 
dogs.

After about three years in the nursing home, Dad’s old body started to give out, 
and he sank lower and lower. He told me that his time on this old earth was about 
done, and he was ready to go to a better place.

Shortly before his death my wife and daughter, Peggy Lynne visited Dad in the 
nursing home. He did not feel well at all, and Peggy was wiping his face with a 
cool cloth. She tried to talk to him, but he responded very little. Finally, 
Peggy picked up his large print Bible, turned to the front, and began to read to 
him. It appeared that he was not hearing her.  With tears in her eyes, she read 
about the creation. She said, “God worked 6 days, grand daddy, what did he do on 
the 7th day?” There was a long silence; then in a voice barely audible, Dad 
replied. “He rested, honey.” We feel good knowing Dad is now at rest with his 
Heavenly Father, and free from suffering.

About a week before Dad died at age 89, my brother Carl was visiting him. The 
last words Carl ever heard him say were, “Mother, I love you.”

My father, Elder John Lee Smith, died September 1, 1990, in Farmerville, Louisiana. 
The funeral services were held in his beloved New Hope Primitive Baptist Church 
which he served so long. The service was conducted by Elder Graydon R. Smith, 
nephew of John Lee. Dad was buried in Spearsville Cemetery, between his beloved 
father’s plot and those of his sister, Irene, and her husband, Clyde Risinger.

For the family I say, “John Lee Smith, Man, Father, Husband, Father-in-law, 
Grandfather, Southern Gentleman, Minister; Be at Rest.” 

                                            Lyle M. Smith                           
                                            January 23, 2005

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