Nesmith Family History & Genealogy

As with most likely the entire Nesmith clan in the U.S., this Nesmith family has its roots in Scotland. The American patriarch, John, sailed from Leith Harbor in Edinburg on the ship, 'Exchange' and arrived in New Jersey in 1683. His granson, Isaac, was born in 1761 and married Nancy Ann Johnson. Her father, Benjamin Johnson, was a colonel during the Revolutionary War and defended the magazine at Frederick, MD.

Isaac and Ann's son, Thomas Johnson Nesmith was a veteran of the War of 1812 as a member of Capt. M. Murray's Maryland Militia. He made his living as a combmaker. His three sons, William, John and James fought for the Union during the Civil War. William died in a hospital in Alexandria, VA in 1862. James served in Company F, 14th PA, Staunton Light Cavalry, 159th Regiment and took part in 45 engagements. He 'was with Sheridan at Winchester'. He was discharged at Alexandria in 1865.

After the war, James and John, along with their parents and sister Mary Bosley and her family, moved West. Mary settled in Putnam County, IL (and her parents), and James and John moved on to Iowa.

James Hopwood Nesmith, my great-great-grandfather, lived in Oxford, Iowa. He was a shoemaker by trade, and the father of 11 children (Ida, Nancy, Sarah, Mollie, James, William, Ada Catherine (Kate), Drusilla Helen, Thomas A. Edith A. and Elizabeth (Libby), eight of whom lived to adulthood. He was a member of the schoolboard and served as town constable and marshall. He was a member of the Methodist Prostestant denomination and a 'stand-pat' Republican. 'Pap', as he was called, was a well-respected member of the community, and proud of his GAR membership all his life. His tombstone in the Oxford Cemetery denoted his Civil War service.

Sarrah Ida Parker-Nesmith, recieved Baptism of the Holy Ghost November 27th,1927.
Her father William Franklin Parker, recieved Baptism of the Holy Ghost September 11th, 1927

The Mill Village, as it was named because most of the people living in this area of Gadsden, Alabama at the time. Came to work in the cotton mill. My uncle Bura Keener, who was married to my aunt sis as everyone called her, actually her name was Rosetta.
They lived on Sandusky Lane, and had one daughter. Judy which was odd for the rest of the cousins, because the Nesmiths all seemed to have 6 or 7 kids running around. Which wasn't all that strange for the 40's and 50's. Everybody seemed to have big families to me anyway. One thing about being an only child is. You get to pick your friends, and if you don't like them, you send them home. Relatives you have to kill.
Anyway Judy can remember many times walking the railroad tracks from her house on Sandusky Lane, to grandmas house on Wilkerson. I can remember many hours sitting on grandmas front porch swing. My mom and dad, Arlene and Ray Nesmith would visit every night. Many nights so would some of the other children of Nesbit and Ida Nesmith. You could always pick out a Mill Village house, because they were all pretty much the same. They all had a coal shed out back, but by this time there was little need for coal. The fireplaces had been replaced by the ever so modern,(blow up in your face if you don't know what your doing) gas space heaters. Leaving the coal sheds as ideal places for a playhouse, for anybody who had girls. The boys had Club House. With, NO GRILS ALOUD signs.
I can remember so many times visiting with Brenda and Delores Vaughn, daughters of my cousin Reba and her husband Wallace. I called Reba and Wallace, aunt and uncle. It wasn't until much later I would learn that Reba was my first cousin. The daughter of my aunt Clara Caudle, and half sister to my cousin Gary Caudle. Aunt Clara lived on East Wilkerson. Just a few blocks from my grandma. Anyway,I was always amazed at how Brenda and Delores hair was always fixed so perfect. My hair was just, well, HAIR. All I could ever do was grow it. Brenda said, spit curls was how she did it. Apparently it worked for her, but for me. It would have just been, spit and hair.
Gary, Clara's son and I were very close in age. I can remember many times on Saturday we would walk from grandma's house on Wilkerson Avenue to Wall Street,to the Ritz Theater. In those days you could watch the same movies over and over. They didn't run you out of the theater. I can't tell you how many times we saw, "The 13 Ghost" but to us it was a great way to spend a Saturday. In the summer we would go to the Municiple Pool. Next to Convention Hall. I can remember uncle Kirby sitting outside the fence while we swam. Grandma's house was what kept the family connected and I loved going there. I can still remember how her kitchen always had a scent of over ripe bananas. She was a very devout christian woman, Holiness. I always thought that was why she never had junk food in her house. The closest thing to junk food was Hershey bars, Pepsi cola and Gingersnaps. Not much Hershey bars and Pepsi, but she always had those Gingersnaps. If you have ever eaten a Gingersnap you know they aren't exactly the best tasting cookies you could pick to eat.
At that time we lived in Rainbow City, Alabama on Sutton Bridge Rd. The house we lived in was big and had a fireplace, which in those days most houses did. I remember one winter, we were having some type of family gathering, and for some unknown reason, to me or anybody else. I threw Judy's sweater in the fireplace. Unfortunatley for me it was a time when it was still legal to whip your kids. I don't think I ever knew why I did that, but in those days a kid rarely got whipped for doing the same thing twice.Unless he was some kind if special stupid.
I spent alot of time at my aunt Ruby's and uncle Bunk. Their daughter Jimmie Dean and I were very close in age. So we were more like sisters. Her real sisters were Barbara Ann and Bonnie Faye. They were quite a few years older. I loved going to their house. They moved alot so it was interesting to go and visit all the different places. They would move back and forth from Arab, Joppa and back to Gadsden. They finally all settled in and around Arab.
As did my uncle Howard and aunt Liddy Bea. I was probably around them the least of any of my dads brothers and sisters. My cousins Nellie Ruth and James were more like my mom and dads age. So we really, at that time didn't have much in common except being cousins. I have, since my dad died been around Nellie Ruth more in the last few years than I ever have, and it made me realize I really missed something , because she is a wonderful person.
What I remember most about my Uncle Bunk and aunt Ruby was I would have lived with them if I could have. Like I said before. Jimmie Dean and I were very close in age, more like sisters than cousins. Bunk was known for his like of alcohol, but I remember him and my aunt Ruby, both. As two of the hardest working people I have ever known. They were like parents to me. I stayed with them alot. I don't ever remember a time when I wasn't welcomed with open arms to their home. Of course they lived in Arab mostly. So my visits were limited to holidays and summers. I think my uncle bunk worked at the cotton mill or republic steel for a while. Then I remember him being in charge of 4 or 5 chicken houses, in Baileyton, Alabama. All I know is he always worked somewhere. My aunt Ruby worked hard too at home. Her house was always spotless. I can remember many times getting up for breakfast and having fried chicken. I mean real fried chicken, and cooked on a wood stove, even in summer. Jimmie Dean and I would play for hours, she always had so many toys and dolls. I remember one house they lived in, on Sutton Bridge road was two story. It's where the cow patty golf course is now. I loved that house I can remember playing jacks and hoola hooping for hours. There also was a place we played on cold sunny days, with our dolls in real tall grass. There was a huge sunken in place. Beside the house out of the wind we would play there for hours. One day we went out to play there, and the sunken in place had totally caved in. It was an old well. We were a little more careful after that, where we played.I was in 3rd grade at John S. Jones Elementary school. The old school on Rainbow Dr. Where the recreation center is now. When my grandpa Nesmith Died. Growing up in the 50's on A.B. Hames farm holds a lot of memories. Like the time Possum and I. Talked Kenneth into jumping up and down on one of Mr. Hames bee hives, and discovered barbed wire works for cows, but not bees. Another time we built Kenneth some wings so he could fly off the barn. Its a good thing we were so proud of our project. Possum and I ran to get momma so she could witness it. Not having time to faint. She started yelling, because he was already in the final stage of launch. She asked him if he flew up there, and of course he didn't, and she said "well you can't fly down either"!
Too bad, if he would have just let us nail them to his back like we wanted to. Then it might have worked. We'll never know. I just know that we were into so much meaness. Its hard to imagine that any of us would live to die of NATURAL causes.
Our neighbors at the time was an old couple. We called mamaw and papaw Cox. They were as close too grandparents to us as our real ones were and we loved them dearly. Mamaw Cox always went to church on Sunday and alot of times she would cook her Sunday dinner before she left. Oh, I forgot to mention, mamaw had a bunch of cats. About a dozen or so. Anyway back to Sunday dinner. This particular Sunday Mamaw had done just that, and when she got home from church. Kenneth and Possum had rounded up all her cats and locked them in her house. So much for Sunday dinner. I can't even begin to describe the whoopin they got, but it wasn't pretty. Well, not to anybody but me and mamaw Cox. Another time, Momma came out the back door of the house because she kept hearing possum,(who was I guess about 4yrs. old), saying little son-of-a-b******,momma said, "Larry Neil!!! which is what she called him. He wasn't a possum at this time in his life, and momma used our whole name ALOT, but only when we were doing something we shouldn't."What are you saying," he said,"I'm talking to these little son-of-a-b******". He thought that's what ants were. Momma ask Kenneth if he told him that, he said,"no maam I sure did not." "I told him they was bastards".
Sometime in the mid-fifties was when they finally paved Sutton Bridge Road, and they also dug the canal that is on the corner of Sutton Bridge Road and Steel Station Rd. to help eleviate the flooding of just about all of A.B. Hames farm, and putting Sutton Bridge Rd. under water when we had heavy rains.This canal worked for everybody except the local drunk, we could hear him crash into the canal. If we were playing outside, and after the first time he did it. We would just say, Mr. so and so ran in the canal again. We would all run over and watch them pull him out and to see if he was hurt. Everytime somebody would always say, "well, if he hadn't been so drunk it woulda killed him."Well, excuse me but even as a kid I can remember thinking. If he hadn't been so drunk he just might have seen that big gapping hole in the earth and missed it.It took him three times to finally get so he could drive passed it on the weekends.

People mentioned in this story are.
Nesbit Nesmith
Ida Nesmith
Judy Keener-Yearty
Rosetta Keener
Delores Vaughn
Brenda Vaughn-Duncan
Reba Vaughn
Wallace Vaughn
Ray Nesmith
Arlene Nesmith
Bura Keener
Howard Nesmith
Liddie Bea Nesmith
Nellie Ruth Nesmith-Cornett
James Ray Nesmith
Bunk Nesmith
Ruby Nesmith
Jimmie Dean Nesmith-Smith
Bonnie Faye Nesmith
Barbara Ann Nesmith-Johnson
Clara Caudle
Kirby Caudle
Gary Caudle
Possum Nesmith
Kenneth Nesmith

Story was written by Sam Nesmith- Gritman,daughter of Ray and Arlene Nesmith and sister to Possum and Kenneth Nesmith.

William Nesbit Nesmith, born June 24 1890 died March,25 1960-----Alabama, City,Alabama
Sarrah Ida Parker Nesmith born Jan.3 1894
----Alabama City,Alabama-- Gracie Nesmith, born Oct. 9 1920 died May,17 1922----Blount,Co. Alabama
G. B. Nesmith, born Jan. 27,1923 died July,4 1924----Blount,Co. Alabama
Mildred Maudiline Nesmith-Birdwell born July,27 1915 died Dec.30 1979---Fairview Rd. Gadsden,Alabama
Orvillyle Birdwell died ?----Fairview, Rd. Gadsden, Alabama
Clara Annie Mae Nesmith-Johnson-Caudle born Feb.24,1913 died ?----Attalla, Alabama
Kirby Caudle died June,28 1964---Alabama City, Alabama
Albert Ray Nesmith, born May,14 1926 died Jan.21 2001----Rainbow City, Alabama
Ella Arlene Moon-Watwood-Nesmith born Feb.2 1922 died April,15 2000----Rainbow City, Alabama
William Franklin(Bunk)Nesmith,born Feb.28 1918 died,1988----Arab, Alabama
Ruby Malone-Nesmith born ? died 1976---Arab, Alabama
Mary Rosetta Nesmith-Keener born April,28 1928 died Jan.1,2006---Bremen, Georgia
Bura C. Keener born ?died March,24 1968--Carrolton, Georgia
Luther Howard Nesmith, born Jan.30 1911, died,1985---Arab, Alabama
Liddie B. Wilson-Nesmith, born Jan.11 1912, died June 1990---Arab,Alabama
Kenneth Lavon Nesmith, died September 1996----Rainbow City, Alabama
Francis Birdwell-? born? died?

Marriages:
William Nesbit Nesmith to Sarrah Ida Parker Jan.5, 1910.They had 8 children.
Clara Annie Mae Nesmith to Ervin Johnson Feb.18, 1928. They had 2 children Carl D.Johnson and Reba Johnson.Clara later married Kirby Caudle, and together they had 1 son, Gary Caudle.
Luther Howard Nesmith married, Liddie B. Wilson Feb. 22 1930.They had 2 children.
Mildred Nesmith married Orvillyle Birdwell June 25, 1932.They had 7 children.
William Franklin(Bunk)Nesmith married Ruby Malone April,24 1941.They had 4 children.
Mary Rosetta Nesmith married Bura Cebourn Keener Dec. 8 1945.They had 1 child.
Albert Ray Nesmith married Betty Jean Stephens Sept.26 1947. they had no children.They divorced after about 1 year.
Albert Ray Nesmith married Ella Arlene Moon Watwood Feb.17,1951.They had 3children. Arlene had 4 children from a previous marriage,her husband had died at the age of 29, and she had 1 son that drowned at the age of 2 he was the oldest of the 4 she had,at the time that she married Ray she only had 3,together they raised 6 children.

William Nesbit Nesmith was married to Sarrah Ida Parker Jan.5,1910. They had 8 children, daughters were Gracie Nesmith born Oct.9,1920 and died May 17, 1922, Mildred, Rosetta, Clara, sons were G. B. Nesmith, born Jan. 27,1923 and died July 4, 1924, Howard, Albert Ray, and William {Bunk).Mildred had 7 children,daughters were, Vera, Mary, Lila, and Francis sons were, Marvin, David, Charles Birdwell.
Rosetta had 1 daughter Judy Keener-Yearty
Clara had 3 children Carl,Reba,and Gary.
Howard had 2 children, daughter Nellie and son James.
Ray had 3 children daughter Linda Raye (Sam),sons Kenneth Lavon and Larry Neil (possum).
William(Bunk) had 4 daughters the oldest died when she was 2yrs old.
Bonnie Faye, Barbara Ann, and Jimmie Dean. William Nesbit, died at the age of 69. He had two brothers, Fate Nesmith, lived in Summit, Alabama. B.F. Nesmith, lived in Belview, Florida. His two sisters were Mrs.Ada Nesmith-Griffin and Mrs.Ida Nesmith-Barnett, both lived in Ocala, Florida. Nesbit worked at the Cone Mills 14 yrs. he lived at 14 W. Wilkerson, in the Mill Village. He was buried at Hopewell a church near Summitt and Arab.
We have alot of relatives from the Blount and Cullman county area, mostly around Arab, Alabama.We also have relatives in Florida and Georgia, but Nesbit and Ida moved to Gadsden,Alabama in the late 1930's or early 1940's from Blount, County. Ray Nesmith
was a Housemover in the Etowah County, area from the early sixties until his death in January, 2001.

GEORGE THOMAS DROVE A SUPPLY WAGON FOR THE CONFEDERATE ARMY WHEN HE WAS ONLY TWELVE YEARS OLD. HE WOULD DRIVE SO FAR AND THEN RETURN WITH AN EMPTY WAGON FOR ANOTHER LOAD. HE WAS NOT IN THE ARMY.

Nora Frances Nessmith was married to BJ O'Neal for a short time. He died from an accidental gunshot wound.
Mitch and Nora were third cousins. Elander and Nancy Nessmith were the first great grandparents of both. Mitch and Nora eloped when both sides of the family opposed their marriage. Their first child, Homer, was five years old when the Titanic sank on 14 April 1912. He loved the song and would often ask his mother to sing about "when that great ship went down." The family moved often to be near the sawmills and farms which provided their income. Even though they moved often, they stayed within Thomas County, GA. While sitting around the fireplace at night during family gatherings such as Birthdays, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, the grandchildren were often entranced by ghost stories or remembrances of hardships suffered during the great depression years. Nora and the children would farm the fields and split firewood for their own use and for sale. No dated years were mentioned. The only time frame was "when we lived at the crossroads" or "when so and so was born."
In their later years, Mitch served as the "Night Watchman" for the town of Ochlocknee, GA. Nora and Mitch enjoyed going fishing and they did a lot of it in and around Southwest GA.
After Mitch died, Nora continued to keep house , but she spent her last years first with daughter, Itasca then with her other daughter, Ella Jane. Nora was living with Ella when she died.

In doing my family research, I have found something very interesting. I have TWO great grandfathers that are brothers.

I thought at first that it was a hoax. But to my surprise, I found that it wasn't. You see, George Mitchell NeSmith and Isaac Melton NeSmith are brothers. That being the one surprise, I also figured out that my mom and dad were third cousins also. They too eloped.

I have had a lot of fun doing my research on the NeSmith's. My family tree branches two times with this family.

While my Granny Vera, who was married to Isaac, was my mom's and her siblings aunt, she became my granny. I never got to meet either George or Isaac, but did get to meet Nora and Vera.