Looking for information regarding William Jefferson HART or his realtions. William Jefferson HART b. May 7, 1818 place unknown m. abt. 1835 - 8 possibly in Alabama d. February 26, 1854 buried in the Snow Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in Collin County, Tx. + Mary SMITH b. May 3, 1818 in KY d. August 18, 1902 in Blue Ridge, Texas ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________ William Jefferson Hart and Mary Smith had 7 children. W. J. Hart (female) b. abt. 1838 in Alabama (1850 Texas Census report) W. J. Hart is not listed in the 1860 census with her Mother, Mary, who is listed with her new husband J. J. Smith. I think this possibly could be Martha Jane Hart who, according to Jeanette Bickley Bland and Rita Bickley Roose, married Daniel C. Wright who was born in 1835, in Burlington, Iowa. He died in 1862 in Little Rock, Arkansas, of measles while serving with the confederate Army. There is a Martha J. Wright 24f, Al is listed in the 1860 census in the household of Daniel C. Wright 24m, Ia (Farmer) with a personal estate worth $200. The household number 1292-1348. Children listed are Ruben J. Wright 4m, Tx and Henry H Wright 1m, Tx. This would make Martha Jane born in 1836. Elizabeth Hart b. abt. 1840 in Alabama (1850 Texas Census report) Elizabeth Hart is not listed in the 1860 census with her Mother, Mary, who is listed with her new husband J. J. Smith. I think this could possibly be the Lerva Elizabeth Hart who, according to Jeanette Bickley Bland and Rita Bickley Roose, married John Marion Wright. He was born in 1834 (?) in Illinois and died in Clay County Texas. The household of John M Wright is listed in the 1860 census as #1291-1347, next to Daniel C. Wright. John M Wright 26m, Il (Farmer) with a personal estate worth $400. His wife Lew E Wright 23 f, Tx. If this is accurate it would mean that she was born in 1837. Children listed in 1860 with John M. Wright and Lew E Wright are Mary M Wright 5f, TX and James M Wright 2m, TX. Nancy Hart b. abt 1842 in Mo. (1850 Texas Census report) Nancy Hart is not listed in the 1860 census with her Mother, Mary, who is listed with her new husband J. J. Smith. There are a couple of possible marriages listed in the Collin County Marriage records include: Wylie Langham in 1855 in Collin County Texas ( Vol. 00001 pg 00302) and/or Robert W. Uselton in 1869 in Collin County Texas (Vol. 00003-0224). Nancy may be listed in the Collin County Texas 1860 Census as: "(house hold #) 1257-1313, Willie Langham, Teamster (personal estate worth) 500, 22 m (birthplace) Unknown; Nancy Langham 21 f (birthplace) Unk, I (possibly meaning illiterate); William Langham 2 m Tx: Lafayette Langham 7/12 m Tx." This information would make her birthdate in 1839. This would mean that William J. Hart would be listed in the Missouri Census of 1840 instead of the Alabama Census. Susan Hart b. abt 1843 in Texas (1850 Texas Census report) A possible marriage to Jas. A. Nunly 1864 as listed in vol. 00002 pg. 00254 of the Collin County Marriage Records. She may be listed as Mary S. Hart in the 1860 census records in the J.J. Smith household. George W. Hart b. abt. 1847 in Texas (1850 Texas Census report) May be listed as George R. Hart in the 1860 census records in the J. J. Smith household. John T. Hart b. abt. 1849 according to the 1950 census or he may have been born around 1851 according to the 1860 census records as he is listed in the J. J. Smith household. William Jefferson Hart, Jr. b. July 29, 1853 in Blue Ridge Texas m. Ellen Smith possibly Ella, Ellie or Elvira Smith d. March 29, 1927 in Sabinal, TxHe is listed in the house of J.J. Smith in the 1860 census records. Notes on William Jefferson Hart, Sr. - By looking at the locations of his children’s births we can guess that he was living in Alabama between 1838 and 1840. In 1840 he was in Missouri. By 1843, he was in Texas. If we assume that the first two daughters married the Wright brothers as mentioned above, then that would place William Jefferson Hart Sr. In Alabama between 1836 and 1837. In Missouri in 1839. In Texas Peter Colony before July 1, 1844 and in Collin County (Blue Ridge area) by 1850. Brian Hart..." was able to obtain a copy of George Washington Smith’s (William Jefferson Hart’s father in law) records in the Texas War of Independence and later in the Mexican American War. Of his ranger records, little has be found, though it is believed that he was quite active. As a curiosity his corporal (Smith was a sergeant) in Mexican American War was a Hart. They were both mustered out together for illness. " William and Mary Hart may have been moving with Mary’s sister Jerusha Hanson and her third husband James P. Hanson. Both couples where in Alabama and then to Missouri on the way to Texas. The Hanson’s were still in Missouri in 1845 where as the Harts had already moved on to Texas before July 1844, probably 1843. According to the records of the Peter’s Colony, "William J. Hart entered the (Peter’s) Colony prior to July 1, 1844, as a family man and settled in the Cross Timbers in old Fannin County. Evidently he left the colony before receiving a land certificate." "In August, 1841, President Lamar, of the Republic of Texas, entered into a contract with W. S. Peters and others of Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, to settle at least 600 families on vacant lands in north Texas. This company, called the Texas Emigration and Land Company, secured a great section of territory covering several north Texas counties as they now exist, along Red River and south to Ellis County, west to Wise and including all of present Collin." "The company promised each settler a cabin, musket and ball, and each married person could take up 640 acres, a single person, 320. By the end of 1845 Peters Colony had brought in 341 families. Peter’s contract was ended in 1848, but he was responsible for the rapid settlement of the east and south part of the county. Most of the early settlers of Collin County came from the states of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, and all of them, of course had to come overland for at least part of the way in wagons and on horseback, for there were no railroads in this part of the nation at that time." According to Collin County, Texas, Families, Family Story submitted by Gladys Alexander, pg. 316: Sometime after 1845 William J. Hart, Mary and their young children joined her father George Washington Smith, her mother Elizabeth Briggs Smith, and two of the Smiths other daughters with husbands and small children. "They all moved from the Red River valley where Smith had a tract of land from a land grant #456 to a tract of land which Smith had bought at the head of Bois d’Arc Creek in the part of the Red River County called Fannin County with Bonham as the county seat. …By 1852, Smith had sold his land certificate #456 to Richard Hopkins and collected his money. Then the whole family moved to Collin County to the south of Bonham to the East Prong of the Trinity River. The Harts lived nearby in a cabin." (Note that William J. Hart died in 1854, two years after the move, according to the dates listed above. He is listed in the 1850 U. S. Census: Texas, Fannin County : (pg. 673) "#126 Wm. J. Hart 34 m unknown Mary 34 f Ky W. J. 12 f Ala Elizabeth 10 f Ala Nancy 8 f Mo Susan 7 f Tex Geo. W. 4 m Tex Jno. 1 m Tex" Note that the previous household "#125" is Mary’s father, George Washington Smith. Blue Ridge Texas was not in existence as a town until well after William Hart Sr.’s death. It is interesting to note that in the information regarding Isaac Dotson and Mary Jane Hanson, Mary’s niece, it says that their farm was near her Grandfather’s, George Washington Smith. And that the Dotson’s first farm was where the Blue Ridge high school stands now. From the information on George Washington Smith and the census records we know that the Hart’s lived on land next to the Smiths. Therefore the Hart farm should be near the town of Blue Ridge. William Jefferson Hart is buried in the Snow Hill Cemetery next to the Snow Hill Baptist Church which lies about 2 miles south of Blue Ridge, Texas off State Highway 78. His gravestone has been replaced with a newer stone and states the dates a s 1920 - 1860. Snow Hill, Texas was once a part of Farmersville, Texas. I don’t know if William Hart Sr. was originally buried in Snow Hill or in Blue Ridge. Several of the family graves, including George Washington Smith’s, were moved at some point in order to put in the highway that goes through town. Hart may have been moved at that time. Need to check the names of the surrounding graves in Snow Hill and see if he was moved with family or if an original marker was just replaced. Notes on Mary Smith- Is listed in the 1850 census (see above). She was known as a renowned pioneer of Blue Ridge Texas. She was known as Aunt "Pop". She remarried after William Jefferson Hart’s death in 1854, to Jack J. Smith.