Margaret Elizabeth Baker Smith

After having found Simeon/Semyen Perry "Perry" Smith and Margaret Elizabeth Baker’s marriage record online at Sevier County, Tennessee Genealogy and History:

Smith, Simeon P.-Baker, Margaret E.-1869 Sep 25-1869 Sep 29-Maples, P. W. - MG

I decided to try to track her down again.  I’d been hamstrung by not having a definitive 1870 census for her and Perry.  This was my best guess:

Page No. 16
The 3rd District, County of Sevier, State of Tennessee
15th August 1870 by N.M. Baker
P.O. Fair Garden
[near Andrew and Jane Dickey Smith - could this be Simeon P. Smith mis-enumerated?]
line 39, 110/110 SMITH James P 21 MW Farm laborer /350 Tennessee
Margaret E 16 FW Keeping house Tennessee

But as Perry’s family was from Jefferson County, TN I hadn’t really been convinced.  I did all my looking for Margaret there.  This marriage record in Sevier Co., TN really opened things up.  I found two possibles in 1860 for her and very quickly one became my favorite:

1860 Sevier Co., TN Census, pg. 120

S034-26
BAKER -Dist 3, PO Fair Garden, Sevier Co., Tenn., June 28, 1860- 217/ 217
 N. M.         40    M     W     Farmer            300   Tn
 Dicey         34    F     W                             Tn
 Martha        11    F     W                             Tn S
 Nancy         10    F     W                             Tn S
 Margaret      9     F     W                             Tn S
 William       4     M     W                             Tn
 Melville      2     M     W                             Tn

 S034-33
MAPLES -Dist 3, PO Fair Garden, Sevier Co., Tenn., June 28, 1860- 218/ 218
 Preston       40    M     W     Farmer      3000  1300  Tn
 Cirena        25    F     W                             Tn I
 William       20    M     W     Farm Laborer   Tn S
 James         16    M     W                             Tn S
 Gilbert       14    M     W                             Tn S
 Martin        7     M     W                             Tn S
 Rachel        5     F     W                             Tn
 Preston BUCKHANNON 3M     W             Tn
 Albert G. W.BUCKHANNON 1M W        Tn

As you can see this Margaret Baker is enumerated next door to the man who performed my Margaret’s marriage.

So I began doing research on this Baker family and finally found this:

Bruce Baker, James Baker VA d bef 1742, desc TN, OH
“Nathaniel kept a family Bible where he recorded his
marriage and the birth of his children and the deaths of those
who preceeded him in death. Bobby Kirk Hamonson of Oddessa,
Texas had the Bible in November 1992 when I made photo copies
of the information from the Bible.”
170 iii. Margaret Elizabeth Baker was born in Sevier Co.,,
TN 6 APR 1851. Margaret died 1 JAN 1873 at 21
years of age. She married Smith.

Found her.  And proof that my guess about which children were hers and which children belonged to Perry’s second wife was correct.  This was crucial for me as my ancestor ended up being the first child of the second marriage.  And I am now confident that the 1870 enumeration for James P. and Margaret Smith are actually Simeon Perry and Margaret Baker Smith: notice that they, like Margaret’s family, are enumerated in “Fair Garden”.  But one really weird problem.  Do my eyes deceive me?  Or was it Margaret's dad who enumerated the 1870 census?!

Lucy [Maiden name unknown] Atchley Smith

Maiden name known!  Or at least a most probable guess...

This was a fun one to track down.

It was serendipitous as usual.  I haven't done genealogy for a while, so when I noticed an ancestor missing a marriage record for (probably) Sevier County, Tennessee around 1870 I thought I'd see if anything new was available.  And yes:

Sevier County, Tennessee Genealogy and History has a lot of great information and some very usable databases, including marriages.  I quickly found what I was looking for:

Smith, Simeon P.-Baker, Margaret E.-1869 Sep 25-1869 Sep 29-Maples, P. W. - MG

This is the first marriage of my ancestor Simeon/Semyen Perry "Perry" Smith.

While I was looking around, I checked the immediate family for some of my other undocumented marriages without much luck.  Most of this Smith family did its marrying and living in Jefferson County, Tennessee, including Perry's father Gilbert C. Smith:

1850 Jefferson Co., TN Census
The 13th District
26th October 1850 by James Baker
line 18, 1013/1050 Gilbert SMITH 25 "[M] Laborer " [Tenn]
Eliza 27 F " [Tenn]
Andrew 3 M " [Tenn]
Simeon 2 "[M] " [Tenn]
line 22, L. THOMAS 51 "[M] Laborer " [Tenn]
Nancy 17 F " [Tenn]
James 15 M " [Tenn]
George 13 "[M] " [Tenn]
William 11 "[M] " [Tenn]
Catharine 9 F " [Tenn]< John 7 M " [Tenn]

Here he is 50 years later still in Jefferson County, TN in 1900 with a second wife:

17 Cival District, S.D. 2, E.D. 55, Sheet No. 1B, 1st + 2nd June 1900 by Andrew J. Bush, [next door to his former son-in-law Martin Acton],
line 71, 14/14 SMITH Gilbert C Head WM July 1924 75 M 3 Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Farmer Owns Farm Free of mortgage,
Lucy Wife WF Mar 1849 51 M 3 3/1 Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee,
ATCHLY Daniel B Stepson WM WM Dec 1888? 14? S Tennessee Tennessee Tennessee Farm Laborer

But when I got digging for this second marriage undocumented marriage for Gilbert and Lucy, I found this:

 Atchley, Isaac T. / Maples, Burlenda  1867 Apr 27  1867 Apr 28  Atchley, William D. - JP 

Atchley, I. T. / Hodge, Lucy  1883 May 30 blank blank

Nothing definitive there.  The marriage is about the right time, Lucy having had a son Daniel B. Atchley in 1886.

But when I looked up this Isaac I found him married to Malinda Maples and among his children were Benjamin Ambrose and James P. Atchley.  And in 1910 I had noted that Daniel had moved to Young County, Texas and was living near these two men and their families.

Still nothing definitive, and those blanks on the marriage bond mean no marriage was reported from the bond, so possibly the marriage never happened.  But there's many a slip, and I know of one man who refused to turn in his marriage license to the court house after the minister had signed it because he "had paid 7 dollars for it" and he meant to keep it...

But for me, the coincidences have piled up way too high.  I believe this is my Lucy Hodges Atchley Smith.

Still more work to do, but here is her 1880 census record:

1880 United States Census, www.familysearch.org
Calvin M. HODGES  Self  W  Male  W  62  TN  Farmer  TN  TN
 Lucy HODGES  Dau  S  Female  W  31  TN  Keeping House  TN  TN
 Lina HODGES  Dau  S  Female  W  29  TN  Keeping House  TN  TN