Lishe Martha Whitley Smith

This is Grandma Smith.Lishe Martha Whitley Smith.A lot of people called her Lishe.To me she was just Grandma.She had 13 kids.11 lived and 2 twin boys died at birth.Grandpa died young,38 or 40 years old,which is right I don't know.Grandma never remarried and raised those kids herself.Her hair was always worn in a bun.Once she was combing her hair and I had never seen it before but her hair touched the floor.It was never cut till she was older and was bed ridden.At times it was just me and her at home and she made sure all the doors where locked day and night but let the sun go down and she would check all the closets and have me look under the bed.Just in case.I remember her wearing long dresses always an apron on and sweater summer or winter.For some reason she always had this sad look to her like she was worried about something.She was the wife of a Baptist preacher and story is there where always a house full of preachers.Sad but true she and the kids would wait till company had ate before they did.That is the way it was done back in those days.Story is that right after Grandpa had died she said he came back to see her.He was standing at the fireplace smiling.After that she never worried.If that was a dream or she really saw him who knows.

Old man Joe

This is a photo of my Grandpa and Grandma Smith,back row standing.

Think at the time they had no children.

Sitting in front is Joseph Smith and his wife Lonie,my Great Grandparents.

Joseph was called old man Joe I have heard and was obsessed with money.For the times I think it was said he was well off if not wealthy.He did give each of his children land for a farm.

Way story goes old man Joe had problems,what exactly I don't know.

He had made a statement while sitting at the supper table that one day he would be burnt like the piece of meat he was eating.Not long after he had said that it has been told he had a bad cold or flu and had rubbed some type of ointment all over his body and was last seen standing in front of the blazing fireplace wrapped in a blanket.The house caught fire.

My Grandpa John raced from the fields when he noticed the house burning.Jumping over something laying outside that he could not identify at the time to enter the house.As you might have guessed it was old man Joe.

Because of the statement he had made about being burnt like the meat he had been eating people thought maybe he had committed suicide.For years I have thought about this and what happened.There is no way to prove really what happened my opinion is that it was an accident.

Often I have thought if old man Joe wanted to end his life there are ways of doing it that would be more peaceful.