George Burntface Smith Clan in America

George immigrated to Virginia on June 15, 1709, aboard the ship ‘Providence.’ He is our 5th-great-grandfather.

He married Anne Bailey in 1716 in Goochland County Virginia. The Baileys too had been here for some time and the Bailey surname would be used in later Smith generations as a middle name.

He was listed as a tithable for the Huguenot’s King William Parish as early as 1714, five years after he arrived in Virginia, which may indicate his service period. He remained in the parish until his death.

Their first child, Thomas, was born on December 29, 1719 followed by James in 1720.

Colonial Map of Goochland and Henrico Counties in Virginia

George was granted 367 1/2 acres of land on a branch of Jones Creek known by the name of Chastain’s Branch for 40 shillings on September 5, 1723. This land was in the Manakin Town area and near Sabot’s Island.

George and Anne would have:

• Another son named William born in 1727
• A daughter named Ann born in 1728
• And a final son named George born in 1736

By the time he died in either 1740 or 1744, he had accumulated considerable land and substance.

Thomas Smith was able to leave each of his six children a fine farm and a considerable number of slaves. He and his family were originally members of the Church of England, but when Methodism was introduced into Virginia in 1772, they were among the first members of the new sect.

Two of his sons, however, became Baptist preachers while the third was a minister without a parish, a traveling minister. It is stated that Mr. Smith’s home was the home of the early preachers and that it was here that the conference of 1780 was held. This conference was held at the Huguenot settlement of Manakin Town. Hence it appears probable that the Smith homestead was held there.

He was married three times, and by each marriage had one son and one daughter. His first wife, Mary Ann Martin Rapine, bore him a son named George Rapine Smith born in 1747, known in the family as “Millpond George.” And a daughter named Judith Smith, who afterward married Pierre Guerrant, a son by a former marriage of the lady who became Mr. Smith’s third wife. From George Rapine Smith was descended, General George Rappeen Smith born in 1804 in Kentucky. The General would later move to Missouri and found the City of Sedalia, where he died in about 1879.

The second wife of Thomas Smith was Frances Stovall, who became the mother of George Stovall Stokes Smith born in 1750, and Elizabeth Smith born in 1752.

Thomas Smith’s third marriage was with Magdalene Guerrant, a widow, (her maiden name Margaret Trabue); of Huguenot descent, whose son Major Pierre was with General Washington at Valley Forge. The children of this marriage were James Smith born in 1757, and Martha Smith born in 1759.

As you can see the Rapine, Guerrant, and Trabue families were all French Huguenot refugees. And as mentioned earlier, George “Burntface” Smith was listed as a tithable for the Huguenot’s King William Parish and must have joined with his first marriage. As was common during those times, many women died during childbirth. Their widowers would quickly remarry someone within their religious community, in this case, the Huguenots. As was also common, the children from the previous marriage often needed a spouse from within the community. In Thomas’ and Magdalene’s case, they both had an unmarried son and an unmarried daughter. Boom, “Bob’s your uncle” and four kids are married off in two weddings and no DNA issues later. A win-win.

As already mentioned, all three of Thomas Smith’s sons were preachers or ministers. They had all inherited slaves from their father but were fervent “Emancipation” ministers.

Reverend James Trabue Smith was a man of extreme conscientious scruples, and fervent piety. He became hotly opposed to the system of slavery, and convinced that the evils resulting from that institution threatened the safety of his state and the nation, and for many years prior to his removal from Virginia, seems to have been intent upon removing to a country where slavery did not exist.

From a book on the Goode ancestry.

“His experience of life in the wilderness, however, seemed only to stimulate his desire to escape with his family from the evil associations, as he deemed them, which were engendered by slavery. Immediately on his return from the last of these trips, he purchased a tract of land of about 2000 acres, lying on the Little Miami, at the mouth of Caesar’s Creek, and but a few miles distant from the land soon after to become the home of Philip Goode, and his brethren. He settled his affairs in Virginia, emancipated all his slaves, and in 1798, he and his family bade a final adieu to their old home, and in company with the family of their kinsman Gatch, started for the territory north-west of the Ohio River.”

Reverend George Millpond Smith was a Baptist Preacher and suffered many hardships because of his religious principles. He was jailed many times. Several for long periods of time. All because of his, what at the time were considered, “radical” views.

He was a well educated and wealthy man for the time, as wealth was counted in those days (hint, slavery). George Millpond Smith exerted some influence in Virginia.

In 1798, he emancipated his 9 slaves. George was married 3 times (having lost his wives to early deaths) and father 3 daughters and one son. The son, described later was George Rappeen Smith. He would eventually move to Missouri founding the town of Sedalia and be commissioned a General.

Reverend George Stoval Stokes Smith, like his brothers, became a Baptist minister who traveled and eventually settled in the small town of Keene Kentucky.

From the website of the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in Nicholasville, KY.

In 1801, with 100 members, a group soon bought a lot and built their church building near the home of the first pastor, George Stoval Smith, a distinguished citizen who had helped frame the first Constitution of Kentucky.

From an obituary for George Stoval Stokes Smith.

“George S. Smith was a man of great respectability as a citizen, and was much of a doctrinal preacher. Simplicity and plainness attended his whole course. His preaching operated but sparingly on the passions of his hearers; for though his voice, was strong and sonorous, it lacked softness and melody. As a Gibbeonite in the house of God, he was better calculated to hew wood than to draw water.”

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As mentioned above, Reverend George Millpond Smith had one son named George Rappeen Smith. After moving his family to Missouri, he was named a General for the militia and fought with the Mormons in Missouri, which numbered 4,000. He was very anti-slavery, feeling it was in opposition to God’s designs.

He founded the town of Sedalia, named for one of his daughters, and played a significant role in getting the railroad moved to go through the town. Geroge later held a Federal position in the US Government and ran for Congress several times, though never winning. When the Civil War started, he was made the Adjutant General for the Missouri militias for the early months. Though he was considered too old to lead troops into battle, he continued to support the war effort for its duration.

In a book written about him by his daughters, they stated:

“Our Eden was nursing the serpent slavery, which was whispering a siren song into the ears of pride and luxury, but which at no distant day was to fill our country with the blackness of despair. Our young men had nothing to do and our young women had no aim in life except marriage, and it was considered almost a disgrace to be an old maid. Twenty-five years of maidenhood constituted an old maid; and thirty years cut her off from hope, happiness, and respectability. Slavery was conducive to indolence and immorality. God has so arranged this life that if we are bread-eaters, we must be bread-winners; each individual for himself, must earn his bread “by the sweat of his brow.” If he does not have to make his money, he can sweat a little over its expenditure,—a no less arduous task, if properly and conscientiously done, than the making of it. ”

General George R. Smith said this at the Missouri Convention on whether Missouri should secede from the Nation.

“The South has needed a whipping, to my certain knowledge, for thirty years; and I pray God for her treason she may get a good one!” “Furthermore, if every man, woman, and child in the State should vote for going out, I would vote for staying in; and if every State in the Union should go except Massachusetts, I would go to Massachusetts, if I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get there!”

The George R. Smith College, which opened in 1888 when his daughters gave land to the Freedman’s Aid and Southern Education Society of the Methodist Church for a school “devoted to the moral and intellectual culture of the colored people of the West.”

The main building was completed in January 1894, and classes began with 57 students. It received a state charter in 1903. Ragtime pianist Scott Joplin attended the school.

The school offered courses of study leading to a Bachelor of Arts degree. The eight courses of study were classical, philosophical, scientific, normal, commercial, English, musical and industrial. There was also a college preparatory course for students who had completed the sixth grade.

The four-story red brick building contained 62 rooms. Among these were the chapel, dormitory rooms for 75 students, apartments for teachers, the presidential suite, kitchen and dining hall, labs and library. The campus also included a football field, a baseball diamond and a running track.

The construction superintendent for the building was a former slave.

On April 26, 1925, a fire destroyed the school. The Methodists could not provide the money to rebuild, so George R. Smith College closed. During its years of operation, it had graduated 3,000 students.

James Washington Smith information and link

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