Crabtree

Hugh Smith – summary of secret past

Gale / Hugh Smith / , /

1920

On the 1920 Census taken on January 19th Eliza Jane Honeycutt was in the 5th District living on Capuchin Creek Road with her parents and siblings. Her parents were James Michael Honeycutt (born on April 26, 1875 in Smith Creek, Scott Co, TN.) Ida Belle Riseden. Liza Jane was the third of nine children: Hiram, George Harrison (later became a reverend), Liza Jane, Mary Ann, Elvin, Jonah, Floria, John Calvin, and Daisy. (source http://webpages.charter.net/wepollard/d2145.html) She was 18 at the time of the census and there was no occupation listed for her.

1920 Census page for Eliza Jane Honeycutt

Post with Pictures of the Honeycutts

On the 1920 Census taken on January 20th George Crabtree was living in the 4th District on either Terry Creek Road or Elk Valley Road. It says George was 28, but since he was born in 1890 I assume he was 29. He was living with his wife Josephine (Josie) and 2 daughters ages 4 and 1. His occupation was a laborer on timber.

1920 Census page for George Crabtree

Article of George Crabtree killing his brother

Eliza Jane may very well have been pregnant at the time of the Census since Elihu Honeycutt was born on September 23, 1920. The birth certificate lists George Crabtree, a farmer age 30, as the father. Eliza Jane Honeycutt was listed as 18 years old and working as a housekeeper.

birth certificate for Hugh Smith (Elihu Honeycutt)

By the way dad described his early childhood I think Eliza Jane must have left home when she became pregnant. From the lack of any information about her life on web sites that have copious information about all her siblings, I wonder if Eliza Jane became a black sheep in her family and was no longer in touch with them to any great degree.

The Honeycutts and the Crabtrees were related through Marcum sisters a couple generations back. I traced Josie’s family backward and they came from South Caroline so despite having the same last name of Honeycutt I don’t believe Josie (George’s wife) was distantly related to Eliza Jane’s family.

I initially thought there may have been some kind of scandal when Eliza Jane got pregnant by George Crabtree due to a family connection. May they were appalled that she took up with a married George and got pregnant by him. She did have two brothers who became ministers. Maybe her parents threw her out when it happened.

Janie Honeycutt married J. F. Smith on December 28, 1923 in Campbell County, Tennessee when dad was three years old.

Marriage certificate

Dad indicated there were a lot of men in and out of their lives and specifically said a new boyfriend came along when dad was around three years old who didn’t like her child so he was kicked out and had to go door to door knocking to see if someone would take him in. I wonder if this story was about J. F. Smith.

1930

By the 1930 Census George was still married to Josie and had two more children – a daughter and a son and was listed a farmer. I assume he and Josie stayed together since they are buried together under the same headstone.

On the 1930 Census Janie was still married to John F. Smith. Dad had become Hue on this census. He was 9 years old and attending school. Janie and John had two more sons John F. Jr (Clay) and David who were 5 and 3. Both the younger boys were listed as born in Virginia so the family had been there at least five years. If dad was there from the ages of 5 to 9 then many of the stories of hunting and Rover he told may have taken place in Virginia instead of what I always assumed was Tennessee. I also wonder if the nice teacher he spoke of was in Bonny Blue.

It was common for miners to move to where there was work available. They lived nearby in mine housing, shopped at the mine company store, went to the mine company doctor and dentist, the kids went to the mine company school.

1930 census page for Smiths

Stories about Rover

Bonny Blue story by Charles Rogers

Bonny Blue – what happened to the coal camp

1930 Census – Images and information on Bonny Blue, VA check out picture of little boy

1930 Census – Dad living in Bonny Blue, Virginia map of where Bonny Blue was

1940

On the 1940 Census the family was back in Elk Valley. Dad was 19 and still living with them, but his name was now Hugh and he was working as a coal miner along with John Smith and Clay who was only 15. They lived at 319 Lick Fork Road which was the location of a mine, so they were in the mining camp.

1940 census page for Smiths

1942

In 1942 dad married Jeanette Botts on February 1st. She was 4 years older than dad.

Marriage certificate

On December 29, 1942 Jeanette gave birth to Stephen Hugh Smith.

Dad entered the army on October 30, 1943 and was released from service on February 6, 1946.

I have the papers where Jeanette filed for divorce on August 20, 1945. Dad responded and the divorce was granted on October 16, 1946.

Jeanette’s parents wanted to adopt Stephen since he’d been living with them since he was 10 months old — which would have been October of 1943 when dad enlisted. According to a letter dated March 1948 Jeanette had remarried and didn’t want the child. They were unable to adopt since they couldn’t find dad.

I ordered a death certificate for Stephen. He died in 1998 at the age of 55 due to a brain tumor. The certificate lists Stephen’s father as Lehigh Hugh Smith.

Stephen contacted mom at the time of dad’s death wanting to claim part of dad’s estate — at least that’s what mom said. He just may have wanted to find out what happened. It would be pretty upsetting for mom to have this man contact her at a time like that.

Mom and dad met in Berlin around March 1947 and married in May 1947 and the story of our family began.

My conclusions

I assume the name Elihu was left behind forever. Why dad took the last name of a man he must have so thoroughly detested, that he never mentioned him once in my entire life, is a puzzle. I seriously doubt John Smith went to the legal trouble to adopt dad. Maybe since Janie married John when dad was only 3 years old Smith was simply the only last name he’d ever known.

Hugh Smith is the only name on any records from that point on. He got a social security card as Hugh Smith, he enlisted in the army as Hugh Smith. The one exception, of course, is his birth certificate. Makes me wonder how he got a social security card in 1939 with the name Hugh Smith.

From what dad said about his mother I think she was a user (read post Jane Honeycutt – my recollections). Even Clay, who I’ve been told was a decent man, chose to be buried by his father and not his mother. By the way — Clay lived in Toledo, so I bet that’s where Jane was staying when she called dad when I was a little girl.

I suspect John Smith was a monster to my dad by the simple fact dad never once mentioned there had ever been a step-father.

His biological father was a married man with kids by his wife before and after dad’s birth and a murderer to boot. No wonder dad didn’t want anything to do with his family.

Mom’s story about why dad never told us about his previous marriage included dad’s belief his wife had been sleeping around. That’s about the only reason I can imagine him leaving a child behind — he believed the child wasn’t his.  I feel bad for the boy though — he got the shaft from everyone except his grandparents.

My one disappointment is that I didn’t find out if there was Cherokee blood in dad. If there was any Indian blood my guess it came from James Honeycutt (dad’s grandfather) based on how similar they looked as young men.

Picture of maternal grandfather

My research is done here. Dad was right to leave it all behind and I don’t want to be here anymore. I’ll be searching for a better place next month. I keep thinking “Let sleeping dogs lie” and that dad wouldn’t want me to hang around here.

Hugh Smith Paternal Family Tree

Hugh Smith Paternal Family Tree

Gale / Hugh Smith / /

There’s a lot of information on this. The last three of four generations before dad ended up including a lot of criminals. When I found out his biological father, George, murdered his younger brother Noah and spent ten years in prison for the crime (I guess murder didn’t get a life sentence in 1932) I officially threw in the towel.

There may be good stuff in his lineage (like fighting in the Revolutionary War) but I now have a clear understanding why dad left Tennessee behind and would never let it touch his family. I sincerely hope he did not know who his biological father was and I also hope he was still living in Virginia when all mess surrounding the murder was going on.

Hugh-Smith-Family-Tree-Paternal-lg

Hugh Smith’s birth certificate

Hugh Smith’s birth certificate

Gale / Hugh Smith / , , /

With the help of my friends at the Campbell County Historical Society I had found my dad’s mother. Eliza Jane Honeycutt born in April 1901, who became Janie Smith, and lastly Janie Cross.

What I really wanted to know was who my dad’s father was. The ladies at the historical society warned me that in 1920 illegitimate births were usually not recorded and often the children were raised as the grandparent’s late in life offspring.

For me it was a due diligence issue. Once I realized that my dad was probably born Hugh Honeycutt, son of Eliza Jane Honeycutt, I felt I had to try one more time with Tennessee Vital Records for a birth certificate. The ladies at the society rolled their eyes at the futility of my effort, but it was something I wouldn’t feel good about if I didn’t try.

So I filled out the little form again, sent my money again, crossed my fingers, and hoped for success.

On April 5, 2013 my efforts were rewarded. I received my dad’s birth certificate in the mail. Based on Eliza Jane Honeycutt they had found it.

Those words don’t convey the magnitude of this information. After staring dumbfounded at the certificate for several minutes, I ran to the phone and called Trulene to exclaim “I got it! I got my dad’s birth certificate.” She couldn’t believe it and wanted me to read all the details.

This may sound stupid for some, but as a mom myself, my heart melted at the idea of my dad arriving at 1:00 AM on September 23, 1920 in ElkValley to an unwed mother. I couldn’t help but think of my dad as a tiny, little guy who had no idea the mess he had entered the world in.

His mother stated his father was George Crabtree of ElkValley and aged 30 years. She was 18. I suspect she was getting some kind of financial assistance, maybe at a poor farm, and whoever had delivered the child submitted the birth information to the state.

It didn’t take a whole lot of checking to find out George had married Josephine Honeycutt in 1914  and already had two children with his wife when he got Eliza Jane pregnant. What a great guy.

So Eliza Jane had an illegitimate Elihu (pronounced Eli Hugh) Honeycutt who eventually became Hugh Smith.

Hugh-Smith-birth-certificate

I can find a lot of detail about Eliza Jane’s family – everyone except her. My suspicion, and this is only based on my gut reaction and what my daddy said, is that she became a black sheep in her family and was shunned so no one knew what happened to her.

I want to find out if she was in a poor farm after daddy’s birth. One of dad’s few comments on his early life was that there was a steady progression of new boyfriends through their house and he was sometimes kicked out if the new one didn’t want a child. So my thinking is she was rejected by her family over the pregnancy – which makes me wonder if there was some family connection.

The birth certificate said she was a housekeeper at the time of dad’s birth and George was a farmer. He wasn’t a farmer – he was not a land owner and worked for other people. I would love to know who she was housekeeper for.

So following more suspicions, I suspect Eliza Jane became Janie and met John F. Smith who was willing to marry her. I suspect John Smith abhorred the idea of her previous child. They then had a couple children – Clay and David – and I think dad became an unwelcome reminder of Janie’s previous life and was treated as such. Dad had really ugly stories from his grade school years that seethed with great hate from his parents.

Somewhere along the way Elihu Honeycutt morphed to Hu Smith on the 1930 Census and the Hugh Smith by the 1940 Census. I have to tell you, I can’t believe my father stuck with the name Smith since I figure John Smith was one bastard extraordinare. What else explains my dad never mentioning a man in his childhood? That man had to be horrible.

So I sit here as Gale Smith and I think there’s a good chance I should be Gale Honeycutt, because John Smith was NOT my father’s father. Or maybe I should be Gale Crabtree. Oh that’s just peachy – the name of some ass who girls pregnant while he was married and having kids with his wife. Just dandy.

Why is God’s name did he go with Smith when I think he had to abhor the man and never once mentioned him to me ever in any way?

The only thing that matters is that he was the man who was forged by the miserable circumstances of his upbringing and somewhere along the way he became Hugh Smith – a man of such strength, integrity, and character that I aspire every day to be half the person he was. I am the daughter he wanted me to be – I have honor, I have integrity, I have a strength of character that has carried my through crushing life experiences.

I would like to have the opportunity to ask him why he stuck with Smith when it probably came from an abusive man he detested. I’ll never get the answer to that question.

Elihu Honeycutt to Hugh Smith. My daddy. My hero. The finest man I’ve ever known. The father I adore and I still miss every day. I wish he was still here and 93 years old and driving my crazy. And trust me – if he was here and living with me he’d be telling me what was what and ticking me off and driving me crazy. And I’d be loving every minute of it. Kindred spirits. What can you say?