As it happens, I mentioned this thread to Patrick Hays, the Daviess Co. coordinator for KyGenWeb. He related the following story to me, which i thought it interesting to pass along to the list (below). Another version of this story may have beem related to the list on a previous occasion, but I think Patrick tells it well. I have no further details. Bill William R. Vincent, Ph.D. <A HREF="http://www.rootsweb.com/~kyedmons">Edmonson Co. KyGenWeb Coordinator </A> <A HREF="mailto:[email protected]">West-Central-Ky Listowner</A> <A HREF="mailto:[email protected]">SKAGGS Listowner</A> <A HREF="http://users.aol.com/wmrvincent/genealogy/briefpedigree.html">Personal Pedigree</A> In a message dated 12/17/00, [email protected] writes: <<The 1882 History of Daviess County, does not even shed any real light on whether Bill Daviess Smothers was originally William Smither (of Fayette) or William Smither (of Woodford), but seems to imply (although not outright state) that he rather should have been William Smeathers (an orphan originally known as William somewhere on the Holsten River VA Smeathers, whose father was killed by Indians and who swore revenge for his orphanhood), and likely was not a good taxpayer, otherwise he would not have ended up thinking that Vienna (now the metropolis of Calhoun) was too populated and put up a cabin on the Ohio River at the Yellow Banks. You have to be able to find them to collect taxes from them. He was very very briefly in the more populated areas of the state (Lexington), but did not like living among so many people because they scared away the Indians he wanted so badly to kill. His main goals in life at that time period according to my reading of this seemed to be killing Indians and living in solitude or as close to it as he could get. He did not get along with other people that well later in life either. He was convicted of murder and fled to Texas after he decided that he no longer hated Indians as much as he hated the government. His defense attorney was Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, and the prosecuting attorney was his brother John Daveiss! He lead a wholely fascinating life though! P.S. John Daveiss was married to Sally Duncan, daughter of Samuel Duncan; Asa Smeathers (a nephew of Bill) was married to Mary Duncan, daughter of Benjamin Duncan; and Robert Smithers was married to Mary Duncan daughter of John Duncan; Samuel, Benjamin, John and my ancestor Rawley Duncan were all brothers. Mary Ann Smeathers a sister of Asa married Wesley Roberts (another relative of mine), who may have been a brother of Mary Roberts who married George Duncan, yet another brother of the Duncans above. Cool eh? In a message dated 12/17/00, [email protected] writes: <<Noah and Nena: Regarding the 1st census of Kentucky, 1790, could those be county names instead of middle names? Nelson, Fayette, and Woodford are all names of counties in Kentucky. Also, regarding the 1800 census of Ohio County, James was the brother of William (Bill), who went to Texas. James also had a son named John. They first settled in Ohio County near Hartford, but then moved to the Yelvington area. Ohio County was split and part of it formed Daviess County, but I don't know off hand what year they split. James and John (using the spelling of Smeathers) then lived in Daviess County. Hope this helps some. >>