This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Smith, Schmitt, Yeaman, Baxter, Sargent, Russler, Savage, Willey Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/plB.2ACI/1584.2.1.1.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: If anyone can help on this, I'd appreciate it. This is from an old letter I received a copy of. The dates and information are pretty much correct, but I haven't been able to find anything on "Murphy" Smith. I've only found records of the four brothers. "I received your letter addressed to me dated Nov. 26, 1940, which to me was very interesting. Soon after the picture which you saw in the San Angelo paper was made, my wife and I had a long talk with Uncle Will, who was the oldest son of Grandpa Phillip Smith’s so as, he being the first white child born in Lampasas County. In this conversation with Uncle Will, he gave to us the following information in regard to Grandpa Smith’s family. At this time Uncle Will gave us this information he was very feeble and his thoughts were disconnected, however, the following is the statement which he gave us. “Jacob Smith, who was the father of Phillip, Louis, Jacob, John, and Murphy, left Germany to escape militarism sometime along in 1830. They came to New York and the sons born to Jacob were as follows: Jacob, John, Phillip, Louis, and Murphy. They first settled down near Matagorda, Texas, at the Matagorda Bay in 1833. At this time Grandpa Phillip Smith was 11 years of age. Along about 1854 they had extensive holdings in livestock etc. and the flood at that time washed away all their stock. Phillip (my grandfather) and Jacob (Grandpa Phillip Smith’s brother) started to Brown County but stopped to locate in the county of Lampasas in February 1855. Ed Williams (no connection of the family) gave to Grandpa Smith and Jacob Smith each 50 acres to settle on and each bought 50 acres of land. They then returned to Matagorda to arrange and come back and live in Lampasas County along about May or September 1850 and when they arrived in Lampasas County at this time they b! uilt a fire where the Indians had camped the night before. Due to the fact that this country at that time was too wild, Uncle Jacob Smith, (Grandpa Phillip Smith’s brother) did not like the country and returned to Matagorda. (At Matagorda, Uncle Jacob Smith reared a large family and his descendants are scattered all over that country, in and around Bay City, Texas, and Matagorda, Texas. However I am not personally acquainted with any of them). The only statement that Uncle Will gave in regard to Louis who was your father and Murphy was that they went to Abilene, Texas where they were in the saddle business and later went to California. My wife questioned Uncle Will in regard to them but he did not seem to be able to know any more about them or as to where they located in California. Grandpa Phillip Smith died in 1907 and I am enclosing herein a picture of the old rock house which he built sometime along about 1865 as shown in this picture same clearly shows how it looked. According to the old family Bible of Grandpa Phillip Smith, there were 11 children born, 5 of whom you saw in the picture in the newspaper. However, since the picture was taken, Uncle Joe and Uncle Will have died and the only three children left living now are my father, Andrew M. Smith, whose address is Star Rt., Lampasas, Texas, and who is the youngest child; Uncle Wesley Smith, whose address is Adamsville, Texas, (Lampasas County) and Uncle Dutch Smith whose address is the same as Uncle Wesley’s. My father was born Nov. 7, he is now 67 years of age. Uncle Wesley is 71 and Uncle Dutch is 82. Walter Smith is the son of Uncle Will Smith and who is now employed in the Post Office in Lampasas, Texas, talked to Uncle Will a great deal before his death and I am sure that he might give you much information than I have given you herein and I am sure that my father could also give you more information in regard to the family history than I. During the Civil War, Grandpa Phillip Smith was a ranger in Capt. Pace’s company in order to protect the women and children from the Indians in Lampasas Co. In 1879 Grandpa Phillip Smith and his six boys drove all the way from Lampasas Co. in a wagon and drove a mule team. According to the family Bible, Grandpa Phillip Smith married Caroline Louisa Rustler who was PA. Dutch. There seems to be no record of Grandma Smith’s brothers and sisters except her brother, Col. Andrew Neal, who was from Scotland, and during the Mexican War in 1835 he fought in Texas at the time same freed and during this war he was captured by the Mexicans but finally escaped. Some of the above information was obtained from the old family Bible of Grandpa Smith’s, and other are related in the Texas History as used today in Texas. I am enclosing herein a picture of my wife, myself, my father and mother and my little girl, who is now nine years of age and of the old rock house Grandpa Smith built in 1870. This probably now belongs to Uncle Dutch Smith. I would appreciate you writing my father and giving him information in regard to your family, because as I understand correctly, there are no records or any thing in any of the families, in regard to your Louis and his children. I am now 39 years of age, but I remember Grandpa Phillip Smith very distinctly prior to his death due to the fact that when I was a small child and going to his house he kept his sugar cubes in an old tureen which he would give to the grandkids when they would go to see him. He was a great old man and respected and known by practically everybody in Lampasas Co. In fact the people I have met since reaching my majority in a different part of this state and who knew him respected and honored him. I should be glad to hear from you at any time. I am Very Respectfully yours B. W. Smith ‘copy’ (By Ethel Treadwell, and her mother, Myrtle, who is the daughter of Louis (Lewis) Smith.) (Ethel gave the Bible to her son Don’s son.)