San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE FALKENBOROUGH SMITH
Prominent among the sturdy,
progressive and prosperous pioneers whose fruitful lives were spent in intimate
association with the growth and development of California, especially with the
expansion of the northern section of the state, was George Falkenborough Smith,
less familiarly known, perhaps, by that name to his fellow-pioneers of early
days than by the name Fortenberry Smith, as he was
generally called throughout the great central valley, where he was always
popular and esteemed as an experienced and very successful “Gringo” cattle
raiser. While best known in the
Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, his dealings extended through the state to
the south as far as the Mexican border; and having always maintained amicable
relations, through his honest and generous methods with the native Spanish and
Mexicans, he was welcomed wherever he rode by the cattle raisers.
His branch of the Smith family went
back to Virginian ancestry in the person of Grandfather Isaac Smith, a
Revolutionary soldier. His son, Robert
Smith, was born on June 2, 1771, and in time migrated to Kentucky, where he met
and married Lydia Ann Hardin McMahon, a member of two other Virginia families,
the McMahon’s coming from Frederick County and the Hardin’s from Fauquier
County, in that state. The first Hardin
emigrant was a French Huguenot, while his wife was Lydia Waters, of English
birth. John McMahon, and Rosannah
Hardin, born in 1760, went to Kentucky when Lydia (who was born on May 9, 1784)
was three years old, joining the expedition headed by Rosannah’s brother, Col.
John Hardin. He had already been there
and had located lands, and about 1786 or 1787 he took his family and certain
relatives back to Washington County. The
sons of Martin Hardin, the great-grandfather, who lived and died in Fauquier
County, lived some years at George’s Creek, Monongahela, Pennsylvania; and from
there they floated down the river into the Ohio River, to Kentucky.
George F. Smith was born on
September 13, 1822, in Crawford County, Indiana, and from infancy profited by
the English, Irish and Huguenot traits inherited from his excellent parents,
who had moved into Crawford County because they considered the river lands
unhealthful. They had ten children; but
one boy died in infancy, and their only girl, Rose, passed away when she was
nineteen years old and just budding into attractive womanhood. George was born about the time she breathed
her last. Having a large family and no
daughters, Mrs. Smith trained her sons to household duties, assigning four to
help their father in the field, and retaining four to assist her in the
home. Two of the latter did the cooking
and general housework, and two, Ben and George, busied themselves with the
spinning and weaving. George was the
spinner, and inordinately vain over his ability in that line; he would spin his
stint, and then help Ben with his weaving, and after that they were free to
play. He would also challenge all the
girls of the neighborhood to a contest of skill, but the girls never ventured
to accept his challenge, and hence he regarded himself as the champion spinner
of the neighborhood. Robert Smith, who
had long been a cripple through a fall from a horse, died when George was
sixteen, and as soon as they were old enough the boys went back to the Ohio River,
several settling in Meade County, Kentucky, where they lived and died. Thus it happened
that George, our subject, attended the schools of that county, and with his
brothers spent much time on the Ohio. In
their locality, flat-boating was quite an enterprise; and so they built boats,
and loaded them with their crops, or perhaps with lime, and floated down the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers to whatever market they desired. New Orleans, of course, was the great goal as
a marketing-place, and George Smith made a number of trips there and back by
the big river steamers before he embarked on his most adventurous journey and
came out to California.
In the famous year of the Argonauts,
1849, George F. Smith crossed the then little-traversed plains and arrived in
Sacramento on Independence Day. His
party, which was composed entirely of young and hardy men, all had fine mule
teams, and they adopted the method of overtaking an ox-train and traveling with
it, while their mules rested. Then they
would push on more rapidly and overtake the next ox-train. There was danger, of course, from the
Indians; but they were successful in slipping through, probably because their
method was unusual and unexpected. It
was George Smith’s intention to try his luck at mining; but after casting in
his lot at the so-called “southern” mines he met with little or no success, and
when other opportunities beckoned he answered their appeal. Later in life, he often said it would have
been a financial misfortune had he met with even moderate success, and so been
diverted or retarded from his destined way.
Leaving the mines, he first went to
Stockton, where he established a livery stable in partnership with a man named
Van Dyke; but although they were well rewarded, he sold out his interest in the
spring of 1851, just before a fire swept the city and destroyed the
stables. He already had begun to
negotiate with one of the old Spanish families for the purchase of its
holdings, consisting of a ranch on the west side of the Tuolumne, near its
junction with the San Joaquin River in what is now Stanislaus County; and he
immediately proceeded to secure United States title to this land. With the land, he acquired the “harp brand”
and its accompanying ear-marks, the “swallow-fork” and the “under-slope,” and
this purchase conveyed to him, wherever found, “all cattle or horses bearing
one or both of said marks, being marks of identification, or calves following
cows, or colts following mares, bearing the same.” He immediately planted an orchard, and his
place was known far and wide for its fruit, and people came comparatively long
distances to partake of his hospitality and to eat of his fruit, his vegetables
and his luscious melons, for the cattlemen kept open house to all comers.
On May 9, 1854, Mr. Smith was
married at Sonora, in Tuolumne County, to Miss Jane Bell, a native of
Rutherford County, North Carolina, where she was born on March 7, 1827, a
daughter of John and Margaret (Neel) Bell, both North Carolinians of Scotch
origin, and descendants of good old American Revolutionary stock. She had come to California two years before,
by way of the Nicaragua route, and had braved frontier life with true pioneer
spirit. John Bell was born in Lincoln
County, North Carolina, on March 4, 1787, and Margaret Neel was born in
Cabarrus County, in the same state, on September 29, 1796. Both of Jane Bell’s grandfathers were
Revolutionary soldiers. Thomas Bell, her
father’s father, was born in Rathfriland, County
Cork, Ireland on February 2, 1745; but his father, William Bell, came over to
Ireland from Dundee, Scotland, early in 1700 to escape “Bloody Mary,” for they
were followers of the Scotch Stuarts, though Presbyterian in religion. Thomas Bell came out to America in 1765,
enlisted for service in the Revolution during the second year, and served with
credit during the remainder of the war.
He married Rachel Ewart, who was born in 1759 and was related to old
North Carolina families, her father having been Robert Ewart, born in 1725, who
served at the Battle of King’s Mountain, and was a member of the Committee of
Safety from the Salisbury district in 1775, and her mother, Margaret Adams, a
daughter of William Adams. Jane Bell’s
maternal grandfather, John Neel, was born in North Carolina. His father was James Neel, a Revolutionary
soldier, and his mother was Margaret McEwen.
The Neel’s and the McEwen’s both lived in western North Carolina in
early Indian days, and there had thrilling experiences; but the family of John
Neel’s wife, Sarah Gayley, had moved to North Carolina from Pennsylvania.
Soon after Jane Bell’s birth, her
parents moved to Tennessee, then decidedly a frontier country,
and no place for a family of children, away from the school advantages of a
thickly settled, established community.
Then, too, the farm of John Bell sold, in Rutherford County, North
Carolina, later yielded much gold, being in the far-famed goldfields of the
Tar-pitch State. The Bell’s lived in
Tennessee until 1841, when they removed to Metropolis, Illinois. There they remained until they came to
California in 1852, with the exception of a brief period when they were in
Smithland, Kentucky, where John Bell died on July 12, 1844. Margaret Bell, the mother passed away in
Metropolis, on March 17, 1849, and both parents are buried there.
Two of Jane Bell’s brothers, Andrew
and Thomas Bell, had come out to California in 1848, and later Andrew came back
for his family. The party consisted of
Jane Bell, James Bell and his wife, and a married sister, Rachel Robertson, and
her husband (a doctor) and her stepson.
Andrew Bell had had such a hard trip overland to California that he
wished to take his family by the way of the Nicaragua route, and be spared
equal hardships; but they also had a very hard trip. They embarked at New Orleans on the steamer “Pampero,” but it encountered a hurricane in the Gulf of
Mexico, and the steamer, which had been rebuilt and made longer, broke in twain
and they were in great good fortune to be able to get back to New Orleans. On their second trip, they were fairly
comfortable while traveling on the Atlantic; but when they reached the Pacific,
only one boat met the two steamers, bound respectively from New York and New
Orleans, and the New York passengers got aboard the Pacific steamer first. The Bell family, although holding first-class
passenger tickets, only had a portion of the deck assigned to them, until two
gentlemen gave up their cabin to Jane Bell, who had been stricken with the
Panama fever, and to her sister-in-law, who was also sick. Both came near death; and later, on their
arrival in Sonora, where their brothers were located, they contracted smallpox,
their brother Thomas already having taken that disease and so communicated it
to them.
The Bell brothers were millwrights
and carpenters. They built the first
Sonora court house, and later James Bell erected a flour mill near Sonora, and
was a prominent businessman of the county, closely associated with the history
of that locality and also prominent in Masonic affairs. He lived there until his death in 1896. Andrew Neel Bell and Thomas Ewart Bell were
interested in the first quartz mills erected in California, but on account of
the quality of the ore and the crude milling methods, the venture proved a
failure. Twenty years later, with improved
machinery and methods, the mine became one of the greatest producers of gold in
the mother lode. Later, Thomas and
Andrew Bell went to Inyo County and became prominent in the history of that
section. Andrew Bell built the first
flour mill established there; and this is still in existence, one of the oldest
and most interesting landmarks.
George F. Smith took his bride on
horseback across the California plains, brilliant with the wild flowers which
made it look like a gorgeous carpet, to his home cattle ranch at the fork of
the Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers.
There three of his children were born, Richard Russell, Thomas George,
and Henry Clay, the last named passing away there also. He built a new home upon the place; but
shortly after it was completed, he sold the place to an Englishman named John
Davis, and in November, 1860, moved his family to Stockton where Thomas George
died of diphtheria, on January 13, 1861.
He made several trips back to Kentucky, to visit his brothers and
friends, the first in 1869, when he took his family and stayed six months, the
second trip in 1871 or 1872, and the third in 1883, when he took his daughter
Bell with him.
In the sixties Mr. Smith became
associated in business with the late Jefferson G. James of San Francisco and
Fresno counties; and although their cattle and ranges were never amalgamated,
in almost all speculations they were partners, and there are now surviving a
few properties from this old partnership of Smith & James. The two men were close friends, and the
strong bonds of friendship held intact after Mr. Smith decided to retire from
active participation in business. In his
operations in more active days, he had employed mostly Mexican herders and had
learned enough Spanish for all business purposes; and he had in other respects
matched up with the natives. The
Mexicans, for example, were wonderful riders, and George Smith became quite
expert as a horseman, and could pick up a handkerchief from the ground as he
rode by at full speed.
Mr. Smith bought a block of land in
Stockton, and in the fall of 1861 at the family home at 347 East Poplar Street,
which is now the property of his daughter, Miss Nellie Alice Smith, was ready
for occupancy. After selling his ranches
in Stanislaus County, he purchased the Smith slough range of 8,000 acres, and
moved his horses and cattle there, while Mrs. Smith made a visit to her
brother, James Bell, near Sonora. Her
brother, Thomas Bell, was taking her to Stockton to their new home when they
were caught at Knights Ferry by the flood and had many exciting
experiences. She was the guest of the
Edwards family for six weeks, and saw the Two Mile Bar Bridge (a toll-bridge
built and operated by her brother, Thomas Bell) go down the Stanislaus
River. She also saw the Knights Ferry
Bridge go off. The present bridge at
Knights Ferry was also long operated as a toll-bridge, in which all the Bell
brothers held large interests. During
the disastrous flood, Mr. and Mrs. Smith had no knowledge of each other’s
welfare, and Mr. Smith did not succeed in reaching Stockton until two weeks
after his wife had arrived. They then
moved into their home, where they lived until her death in 1910, except for a
few years when she lived on her ranch near Stockton. Her two youngest children were born in the
Stockton home, and there their youngest boy, Willie, died. The eldest daughter, Bell, was born in
Jackson, Amador County, and was one of the three children who have lived to
maturity. Richard Russell Smith has been
married twice; his present wife was Miss Hetty Corlett, a native of Iowa, who was reared in San
Francisco. By this marriage there were
two children, but both are dead, the boy at birth, and
the little girl, Kathryn Bell, who was a remarkable child, just before her
fourth birthday. His first marriage was
with Miss Etta Russell, a native of Woodbridge, San Joaquin County, and there
were three children by this marriage:
George Russell, Ebell, and Elta. George has been married twice, the second
time to Miss Sue Waldie of Antioch, California, by
whom he has had two children, Richard Russell, 2nd, and Jane Bell,
who is named for her great-grandmother. Ebell Smith married Henry Addison Barnett, the son of a
pioneer family known to the Smith’s from earliest days. There is one child, Francis Marion, who is so
named for his paternal grandfather. Elta Smith married Arthur H. MacFarland, of Los Angeles,
who is a member of a prominent family of that place. Emma Bell, George F. Smith’s oldest daughter,
married Otto Grunsky, of Stockton, and they had three children, Otto, Jr.,
Charles and George. The year 1899
brought sad misfortune to the Smith family, for Death took away three members
of the devoted circle. First, Bell Smith
Grunsky died, on March 15; then Etta Russell Smith, Richard’s wife, died on May
26; and little George Grunsky, Bell’s son, passed away on the 2nd of
December.
Otto and Charles, Bell Grunsky’s sons, both went overseas in the great World War,
but Otto alone saw actual fighting. He
went in the ranks of the 91st Division, was under Col. Henry C.
Jewett of the 316th Engineers, Company C, Captain Collins’ command,
and was a sergeant when the war closed.
He was in three major engagements, St. Mihiel, the Argonne, and Lys-Schedlt, in Belgium, and he went over the top as an
infantryman in the Argonne, besides doing engineer service. He served along the battle front, and his
company was in action when the armistice was signed; yet he came out without
injury, although his comrades fell at his side.
Charles volunteered as soon as the United States went into the war, took
the training at the Officers’ Training Camp, won the rank of first lieutenant,
and was assigned to the 5th Engineer Train at Fort Funston, Texas,
where for a long time he was the only officer.
He took the train overland to Corpus Christi, Texas, and while waiting
to be sent overseas he qualified for the regular army, and became captain of
Company B, 5th Engineers, 7th
Division. He arrived in France on August
12, 1918, and was regimental supply captain part of the time there. He went to an officers’ bridge-building
school, and while there his company was sent to the front. He had just rejoined them when the armistice
was signed. He was very popular with his
company, each member declaring that he never failed to mete out absolute
justice. Charles was married on July 11,
1922, to Gertrude Jessup Dixon, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Jessup of San
Francisco. Mrs. Jessup was Marietta Cowie of Sonora, Tuolumne County, and her parents were
early friends of the James Bell family there.
Richard Russell Smith lives retired at Berkeley, and Miss Nellie Alice
Smith resides at the old Smith home place at 347 East Poplar Street, Stockton,
an old Stockton landmark, where Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Barnett reside with her.
In the late sixties, Mr. Smith sold
his lands and cattle in Fresno County, retaining, however, the “brand and
ear-marks” as his property; and for five or six years thereafter he gave much
of his time, in the capacity of a director, to the affairs of the Bank of
Stockton, the largest organization of that character in San Joaquin
County. In the early seventies, Captain
Kidd, the president and manager of the bank, moved his residence to San
Francisco and gave all of his attention to the management of his interests in
that city. For a time a manager was
employed to take over his duties in the Bank of Stockton; but as this proved
unsatisfactory to the directors, they determined if possible to have one of
their members assume the duties. The
choice centered upon Mr. Smith; but after considerable hesitancy he refused the
offer as he feared that after all the years he had lived in the freedom of the
“open,” such confinement would prove irksome to him. In 1872 and 1873, he purchased 3,000 acres of
land four miles northwest from Stockton, the greater part of which was swamp or
tule land, and the leveeing, ditching, draining and breaking of which kept him
very busy for a number of years. The
first levees were built by Chinese coolie labor, 260 of the Orientals being employed
at one time. Levees so constructed
having proven unsatisfactory, Mr. Smith constructed an endless chain dredger,
known as “The Ajax,” one of the pioneer dredging machines of the San Joaquin
and Sacramento delta regions. After
disposing of his ranges and cattle interests, he intended to retire; but he
found he could not endure the inactivity.
His family regret that he did not take the opening offered him by the
Stockton Savings Bank, but he bought instead the 3,000 acres referred to, on
the lower Sacramento Road. He had a hard
and expensive training, when he changed occupations, for he said he never knew
what hard work was until he became involved in farming. Reclaiming swamp and overflow lands were a
new enterprise, and even to this day people are ruined financially trying to
accomplish it. He sank a lot of money in
this farm; and worse than that, he lost his health when a tenant shot him in
the back. His death at the comparatively
early age of sixty-seven was probably due to the bullet, which was never
removed, and to an accident some years later when he was thrown from a cart at
his Los Banos sheep ranch and kicked by the horse. He had been a strong, robust man, but he
never fully recovered from these two injuries.
In personal appearance, George F.
Smith was six feet one inch tall, broad and muscular, and weighed about 190
pounds, with not an ounce of fat on his frame.
He was a man to whom all children felt a strong attraction, and he made
it his boast that no child had ever refused to come to him from its
mother. In politics he was a Democrat,
but invariably voted for any Republican whom he regarded as more capable or
honest. For a time, he was a member of
the San Joaquin Society of Pioneers.
Owing to the meager educational facilities in Kentucky early in the
nineteenth century, Mr. Smith always felt that he had been deprived of the
early education to which all American youths are entitled. He was therefore much interested in the public
schools, and served for a number of years on the Board of Education of
Stockton. He was at the time of his
death a member of San Joaquin Lodge No. 19, F.
& A. M.; Stockton Chapter No. 28, R. A. M.; and
Stockton Commandery No. 8, K. T.
His son, Richard Russell Smith, is also a member of all three.
After Mr. Smith’s demise, the
following resolutions were sent to the family of the deceased:
To
the Officers and Members of Stockton Commander, No. 8, K. T.:
Your Committee, appointed to draft
resolutions of respect to the memory of our late Sir Knight George F. Smith, beg leave to submit the following:
Sir Knight George F. Smith was a
member in good standing in San Joaquin Lodge No. 19, F. A. M.; Stockton Chapter
No. 28, R. A. M.; and Stockton Commandery No. 8, K. T., and his death has
caused a vacancy in our ranks.
Now that he has gone, we are more
conscious of his good character, a model of punctuality in all his dealings,
sincere and earnest in all he did, thoughtful in all he said, cautious, cool, energetic
and candid. He has left behind him an
honored name, more valuable than the fortune which crowned his career with
success.
In order, therefore, to perpetuate
the recollection of his virtues, as a member and Sir Knight of this Commandery,
be it
Resolved, That the loss sustained is
deeply felt by the members of this Commandery; that his virtues and demeanor
are worthy of imitation; that we mourn his death as an irreparable loss to his
family, to the community, and to the members of this Commandery; that these
resolutions be spread upon the minutes, and a copy hereof sent to his bereaved
widow and children, with the sympathy of his fellow-members.
(Signed)
James
W. Smith, Fred M. West, and A. Leitch
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
666-671. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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