The James Thomas Smith Family - Part 10

Ellis James Smith

Born January 5, 1887 – Died 20 Feb 1982

 and wife,

Jeanetta “Nettie” Drake

Born 26 July, 1891 – Died 21 Nov 1908 

         Ellis James Smith was the second son of his parents, James Thomas and Sarah (Sanders) Smith, born in 1887 on a cold winter day in Ohio County, Kentucky.  When he was 21, he married Jeanetta Drake, 17, daughter of James Drake and Eliza Shields.  They had three children:  Edith Lorene, Gladys Pauline, and Glenn James.

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Tape recording March 10, 1977:  We asked grandmother to tell us something funny about Uncle Ellis: 

           GM:  “I remember one time three of us was on the horse behind Ellis, and we all fell off.  I believe it was Ella was on the hind in.  Just Della and Ella fell off.  But I held on to Ellis.  We were going up a steep hill…all four of us.  Boy, if our Daddy had known that!  I think they called the horse Old Babe…an old grey horse.  Gentle, but we all played on that old horse.”

          Then somebody asked about Uncle Ellis getting spider bit. 

           Grandmother:  “Em-hm.  On his arm, but he tells that story different to me.  I don’t think I am going to tell that.  They were working in the field, and he pulled off his shirt and laid it down on some logs, I think it was.  And come quitting time, when they were going to go home, he put that shirt on, and he come on, but the spider bit him, and he knew what kind of spider it was.  It didn’t seem to hurt him at the time, but he come on home, and got ready and went to see his girl…I don’t remember what girl it was…but he got sick on the way and he turned around and come back.  Now, that’s the way I remember it, but Ellis tells it a little different. 

            “And of course, they didn’t know what to do for him.  And Mother did have a little whiskey there…she always kept it locked up in her trunk in case of sickness.  Cause none of them didn’t drink.  And she went and got that and gave him a toddy until the doctor could come.  And then she called Grandpa.  He was real good in sickness.  Grandpa Sanders.  And they got him drunk, and he said he was dying.  Well, really and truly, I wouldn’t have taken it a bit harder if he had been.  We all was standing around the bed crying.  I thought he was gone.  He was just drunk, but we didn’t know it.  Cause they just give him so much of it.  I can remember that.  I don’t care what any of them says.  But he got all right when he sobered up.  (Laughter.)  Because he wasn’t used to that.  Because Ellis didn’t ever…I never did know of him to drink.  But they just gave him too much of it.  I can remember that as well as if it were yesterday when he talked…and told us all goodbye and that he would see us in heaven.  I didn’t know how they reacted or anything.  But he never had nothing like that.”

          Retha:  “Mama, wasn’t it Uncle Ellis that had the flock of chickens? 

          Grandmother:  “Yes, he had, oh maybe, I guess two dozen.  Leghorn hens up there at that barn.  The far one.  You see, they had an old one, and then they built a new one, and he had all them chickens out there, and they just laid eggs.  Those leghorns really laid a lot of eggs, yes.  He would gather them up and take them to the store to Select…to John Stewart.  That’s how he made his spending money.  He liked that.  He was business minded.  Setting old hens and raising little chickens.  They were all his too.”

          Retha:  “Didn’t you say he would work so long, and…”

          Grandmother:  “Oh yes.  He was just quiet and went at everything gently.  He was never worried and there wasn’t no fuss about him.  And mother said, he raised as good a crop as any of them.  Without any trouble.  Yes, Ellis was always quiet.  Steady.”

Ellis James Smith

June 15, 1887 – Feb 20, 1982

          On a July 11, 1988 tape I stayed with Grandmother while Darrell and Eula Mae went to take Eula Mae to the doctor for a stress test.  Grandmother described their old and new house to me: 

         “We had about one acre orchard.  The first barn was great big, and was pretty old.  When it fell in, they built a new barn with a driveway through it for the wagons.  The shed was it and had a driveway through it for the wagons, and it had stalls on both sides and troughs fixed for each stall, and a gate to go in and out and around the barn, and you open it and throw in the corn in and was fixed that way so the horses couldn’t kick you with their heels when you went around to fee them.

          “The barn had a loft without a banister, and Ellis walked off it one time.  He and our cousin, George Taylor, had gone to church and had come back by the barn.  The loft just had a ladder, and Ellis thought he was stepping down where the ladder was, but in place of that, he just stepped off the loft into air.

        “It knocked him unconscious, but George didn’t bring him to the house until he revived.  And it left a gray spot on his head where his hair just turned grey.  They were young men at the time, old enough to be going with the girls.”

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 Obituary for Ellis J. Smith from the Times-News, Hartford, KY, dated February 25, 1982, Page 2-A

                                               Ellis J. Smith

Ellis J. Smith, 94, of Cromwell, died Saturday, February 20, 1982, at Ohio County Hospital, Hartford.

He was born in Ohio County and was a member of Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church.

 

Survivors include a son, Glenn Smith of Jupiter, Florida; two daughters, Mrs. Oren Davis of Cromwell and Mrs. Kenneth Barnard of Owensboro; four grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; three great-great grandchildren; a brother, Harb Smith of Cromwell; and a sister, Eva Cox of Troup, Texas.

 

Services were Tuesday at William L. Danks Funeral Home, Beaver Dam.  Burial was in Sunnyside Cemetery.

 

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         One time when we were talking about family, Grandmother remembered that Uncle Ellis’ wife was called “Nettie”.  Grandmother said that she had never known that her name was really “Jenetta”.

        She said, “Well, I never did know that.  And her name was Jenetta?”  That’s the first time I ever heard that.  And she was a nice looking girl, and could always fix her hair so pretty.  And she was a good housekeeper, too, believe me.  They had two daughters, Gladys and Edith.”

         “Edith was born before Gilbert was.  And before Eula Mae.  Edith and Gilbert were babies together.  We lived pretty close together.  We would go spend the night with each other.  Saturday evening until Sunday.”  Retha said, “Edith was born on the old Chancellor place.  That mama got when they divided up, you know. ”

Obituary from The Ohio County News, Thursday, 25 December, 1969, page 11:

 "Mrs. Nettie Smith"

 "Cromwell -- Mrs. Jeanette (Nettie) Smith, 78, died at 10 p.m.  Monday, December 22, at the Ohio County Hospital, following  a brief illness.

Mrs. Smith was born in Ohio County on July 26, 1891.  She was the daughter of the late Jim and Eliza Shields Drake.  Mrs. Smith  was a member of the Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church.

Survivors include her husband, Ellis Smith, two daughters, Mrs. Oren Davis of Cromwell, and Mrs. Kenneth Barnard, Owensboro; one son, Glenn Smith of Richmond; two sisters, Mrs. Evelyn Reynolds of California, and Mrs. Mary Routh of Depauw, Ind.; one brother, Clay Drake of Beaver Dam; four grandchildren and seven great- grandchildren.

Services were set for 2 p.m. Wednesday, December 24, at the William L. Funeral Home, Beaver Dam, conducted by Rev. Arnett Williams, pastor of the Concord Baptist Church, with burial in Sunnyside Cemetery."

 Thanks to Janice Brown.