Descendants of Gabriel D. SMITH

Fifth Generation

38. Erastus Frazier Smith [scrapbook] ^{1, 2} (Aaron Joseph Smith , Aaron Smith , Richard (W.) , Gabriel D. ) was born ³ 17 Nov 1883 in , Culman County..Alabama. He died ⁴ 25 Aug 1968 in Duncan, Stephens, Ok, USA.

From: "Angie Smith"
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 14:07:21 -0500

Roy, I have been communicating with Stephanie. She passed on your e-mail about Chester Leonard Smith. It was so great to have the information from you. I talked with your mom last night; she is really remarkable. By the way, my name is Angie Smith. I am married to Robert Smith, youngest son of Delmar Smith who is the oldest son of Erastus Frasier Smith who is the oldest son of Aaron Joseph Smith and Georgia Emma Simms Smith.

Erastus married ^{4, 5} Rosa (Rose) Etta Betts ^{1, 2, 3} on 24 Oct 1907 in Lawton, Comanche, Okla, USA. Rosa was born ⁶ 14 Dec 1891 in Heber Springs, Cleburne, Arkansas. She died ⁷ 2 Oct 1983 in Marlow, Stephens Co., Oklahoma.

They had the following children:

+	49	M	i	Delmar Lowen Smith was born 11 May 1909.
	50	M	ii	Alford A Smith was born 18 Mar 1911 in Grandfield, Tillman, Ok, USA. He died 4 Jan 1985.
	51	F	iii	Marie Smith was born 3 Nov 1912 in Garden Valley, Smith Co, Tx, USA.
	52	M	iv	Milton Miller Smith was born 26 Mar 1914 in Garden Valley, Smith Co, Tx, USA.
	53	F	v	Irene Smith was born 19 Nov 1916 in Frederick, Tillman Co, Ok, USA.
	54	M	vi	Iven Ike Smith was born 22 Feb 1918 in Garden Valley, Smith Co, Tx, USA. He died 1920.
	55	M	vii	Eugene Velid Smith was born 22 Aug 1919 in Garden Valley, Smith Co, Tx, USA.
	56	F	viii	Margaret Smith was born 7 Mar 1922 in Frederick, Ok, USA.
	57	F	ix	Nellie Gertrude Smith was born 29 Feb 1924 in Frederick, Tillman Co, Ok, USA.
	58	F	x	Alta Melba Smith was born 19 Jun 1925 in Frederick, Tillman Co, Ok, USA. She died 1994.
	59	M	xi	Aubrey Smith was born 2 Aug 1928 in Snyder, Ok, USA. He died 13 Mar 1979.
	60	M	xii	Oliver Smith was born 9 Aug 1930 in Snyder, Ok, USA. He died 1990. RCL remembers Oliver visiting Leonard Smith while we were living in Ceres, California about 1950.

39. Ezra David Smith [scrapbook] ¹ (Aaron Joseph Smith , Aaron Smith , Richard (W.) , Gabriel D. ) was born Mar 1887 in , , Georgia.

Ezra married Mattie Fillmon ¹ about 1910 in , , Oklahoma.

They had the following children:

61

F

i

Josephine Smith was born about 1913. Clara Smith said Josephine was still alive in 1999 and living in Fort Worth, TX. In October 1999 Angie Smith said "Because of Clara, I have made contact with Josephine Daniels (Ezra's daughter); hope to visit with her this month. We have talked many times on the phone."

41. Rhoda Viola Smith [scrapbook] ^{1, 2} (Aaron Joseph Smith , Aaron Smith , Richard (W.) , Gabriel D. ) was born 12 Oct 1891 in , , Alabama. She died 11 Nov 1961 in Ceres, California.

Rhoda married Arthur Lee Long on 10 Oct 1910 in Texas. Arthur was born 13 Nov 1888 in Titus County, Texas. He died 19 Mar 1944 in El Monte, California.

They had the following children:

	62	M	i	Everett J. C. Long was born Between 1909-1930 in Frederick, Oklahoma. He died 22 Feb 1933 in Plainview, Texas.
+	63	F	ii	Mildred Lena Long was born 18 Jun 1911 and died Nov 1979.
+	64	M	iii	Arlie Lester Long was born 21 Apr 1913 and died 26 Feb 1952.
+	65	M	iv	Chester Lee Long was born about 1917.
+	66	F	v	Dovie Marie Long was born 4 Aug 1917 and died Apr 1977.
+	67	M	vi	Roy Virdis Long was born about Sep 1919.
+	68	M	vii	Elmer Long was born 19 Mar 1922.
	69	M	viii	Delmer Long was born 19 Mar 1922 in Rufe, Oklahoma. He died 8 Apr 1923 in Rufe, Oklahoma.
+	70	F	ix	Winnie Viola Long was born 7 Sep 1923.
	71	M	x	Baby Long was born 18 Mar 1926 in Frederick, Oklahoma. He died 18 Mar 1926 in Frederick, Oklahoma.
+	72	M	xi	Archie B. Long was born about 1928 and died about 1992.
+	73	F	xii	Dycia Mae Long was born about 1929.

42. Fannie O'Neal Smith [scrapbook] ¹ (Aaron Joseph Smith , Aaron Smith , Richard (W.) , Gabriel D. ) was born 19 Jun 1894 in Blount Springs, Blount, Alabama. She died before 1980.

Fannie married Jack Williams.

They had the following children:

+	74	F	i	Opal Williams.
	75	F	ii	Ruby Williams.
	76	F	iii	Helen Williams.
	77	M	iv	Jack Williams.
	78	M	v	(Male) Williams.

43. Georgia Luella Smith [scrapbook] ¹ (Aaron Joseph Smith , Aaron Smith , Richard (W.) , Gabriel D. ) was born Feb 1897 in , , Alabama. She died Aug 1986.

The Social Security Death Index indicates birth as 02 Feb 1897 and death as Aug 1986 with last benefits paid to 90620 (Buena Park, Orange, CA)

From: "Angie Smith"
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 13:57:31 -0500

In the 1900 and 1910 census, she is listed as 'Georgia E'. I have another census document - listing Aaron Benjamin's birth in Cullman Co, Ala and the mother is listed as Georgia Emma Simms. Lenard's sister's name was Georgia Luella. Also, in the family bible she is listed as G.E.. Whoever listed her in the LDS Ancestral File listed her incorrectly.

Georgia married Henry Gray.

They had the following children:

	79	F	i	Pansy Gray died about 1994.
	80	M	ii	Sylvester (Mike) Gray died about 1992.
	81	F	iii	Mary Gray.
	82	F	iv	Paul Gray.
	83	M	v	David (twin) Gray.
	84	F	vi	Doris (twin) Gray.
	85		vii	(Male) Gray.
	86	M	viii	John (twin) Gray.
	87	M	ix	Jody (twin) Gray.
	88	M	x	Daniel Gray.
	89	F	xi	Ruthie Gray.
	90	F	xii	Ollie May (Rachael) Gray.
	91	M	xiii	Sharon Gray.
	92	M	xiv	Dale Gray was born 1941.

44. Aaron Benjamin Smith ¹ (Aaron Joseph Smith , Aaron Smith , Richard (W.) , Gabriel D. ) was born 18 Oct 1899 in Cullman, Alabama. He died 29 Jan 1934 in , Smith, Texas and was buried in Union Chapel, Smith, Texas.

Aaron married Winnie Boyd [scrapbook] ¹. Winnie was born about 1902. She died 1999 in Tyler, Smith, Texas.

Clara Smith said that Winnie lived for forty years after her husband Aaron Benjamin died.

Robert Smith (grandson of Erastus Smith) and his wife Angie were visiting with Winnie Smith (Aaron Benjamin's wife) in Tyler during the summer of 1999 when she had a heart attack and died.

They had the following children:

	93	M	i	Jack Smith. Jack died of cancer just before AJ was killed.
	94	M	ii	A. J. Smith was born about 1926. A. J. lived in Ceres, California either with or near the Chester L. Smith family for a time about 1950. He was about the same age as Chester's son Barney Smith. Clara Smith said that A. J. was shot and killed over a boundry dispute back in Tyler, Texas. Clara said he had two boys.

45. Chester Leonard Smith [scrapbook] ¹ (Aaron Joseph Smith , Aaron Smith , Richard (W.) , Gabriel D. ) was born 17 Feb 1902 in Culman, Alabama, Alabama. He died 7 Mar 1981 in Hemet, Riverside, California and was buried 9 Mar 1981 in Grand Terrace, Riverside, California.

Source: Smith family records. See Clara C. Smith.

Clara dictated the following biography of Leonard Smith to me (RCL) on October 18, 1999:

Leonard was born in Culman, Alabama and was raised on a farm near Munday, Texas. As a young man he worked for some time near Lindale, Texas close to where his brother Aaron lived. He married Birdie Wilson when she was 14 and Paul was born there. Their second son Barney was born in Oklahoma. Part of the time he was a blacksmith and a mechanic. He said that he was a mechanic for Bonnie and Clyde at one time. Birdie died and Leonard and the boys returned to Lindale, Texas. The Wilsons took care of the boys while Leonard worked. He married a very large woman in Oklahoma and they soon divorced. He then married Vera Nips in Lindale when she was 14. Clara Mae was born there in 1933. He worked as a mechanic there and worked late many nights. Vera thought he was womanizing and divorced him.

He then went out to west Texas where his father farmed. He and his friend Leonard Brown (Dora's son) picked cotton there. When his father died in 1939 Leonard and his son, Paul traveled in a Model A Ford to Phoenix, Arizona. Clara Mae remained with her mother and Barney stayed with the Wilsons.

About 1940 Leonard and Paul moved to Hanford, California where Arzo Smith lived. He worked for an oil company and hurt his back when an oil drum fell on him. He then moved to Tulare, California where he rented a cabin in the roadside Young's Courts. The court was at the rear of the store named Twin Palms owned by the Samuel Purdy family which included Clara Leggitt and her young son Jay.

By this time Leonard also had Barney with him. Leonard was a professional gambler in Tulare. Clara played six-card pitch nightly at the Twin Palms Store. Leonard worked his way into the nightly game so he could meet Clara. He had seen Clara walking around the court and had told Paul "I'm going to marry that little bitch!"

One night Leonard had taken Clara, Jay, and Paul to the theater in Tulare. In the midst of the show Barney came running in saying the Twin Palms Store was on fire. By the time they got back, the store and all its contents were gone.

After the fire the Purdy family relocated to Kingsburg where they established another gas station, a grocery store, and a furniture store. Leonard had moved to Merced to work at Castle Army Air Base. He frequently stopped by the store to see Clara.

By correspondence they secretly arranged for Clara to catch a bus to Merced on December 3, 1941, after which they drove to Reno, Nevada where they married on December 4th.

In the spring of 1942 Clara and Leonard had moved to Las Vegas. Once settled there they arranged for Clara Mae to join them from Texas and Jay to join them from Kingsburg. By then Barney was working in Texas in a carnival. Paul was working at Whimpies Hamburger Joint in Las Vegas. Leonard's and Clara's son Chester Leonard Smith, Jr. was born there in 1942.

During the war Leonard worked as a carpenter. Mostly, Leonard worked at Army and Navy bases in southern California. In 1943 and 1944 he worked for a contractor rebuilding railroad section hand quarters along the railroad between Barstow and Needles, California. This entailed living at some very remote and desolate places in the desert, including Hector that was later the epicenter of the October 1999 7.0 earthquake. Clara Mae and Jay attended quite a few different schools that year.

The family was living in Rialto, California when Margaret Emma Smith was born in 1944.

By 1947 Leonard and his family had purchased an automobile repair garage just south of Modesto, California. Within a short time he sold the garage and property for a very good profit and relocated the family south about five miles to Ceres where he bought a house from the profits of the sale. Lenore Ailene was born there. Leonard had an auto repair and blacksmith garage on the Ceres property. In 1948 a fire destroyed the garage.

For a while Leonard worked as a mechanic for his nephew (Fannie's son-in-law Oscar Banks) who had a vast cotton field south of Bakersfield.

He moved the family to Ridgecrest, California for a few months and returned to Ceres in the summer of 1949. He still owned the house there. His niece Winnie Long Summerfield had been renting it.

The Korean Conflict began in 1950 and in April 1951 Leonard and Clara moved with the younger children to Fairfield, California where he worked as a carpenter at Travis Air Force Base. Clara Mae had married and Jay remained in Modesto to finish high school (renting a room from his cousin Winnie Summerfield.)

By 1952 Leonard and the remaining family moved to San Bernardino and later to Fontana where they remained for several years. He worked as a finish carpenter during the early part of this time. Later, while working at Kaiser Steel in Fontana he had an industrial accident which broke his neck and precluded him from any further strenuous physical labor. He and Clara bought and ran a grocery store in Fontana. During this time his son Chet joined the US Navy and daughters Marge and Nora married and left home.

Clara began working part time as a real estate agent while living in Fontana. In the early 1970s she and Leonard moved to Crestline, just north of San Bernardino, California where Clara opened a real estate office and Leonard tinkered with a blacksmith and radiator shop next door.

By the late 1970s Leonard and Clara relocated to Lake Elsinore, California where Clara continued in real estate and Leonard tinkered with second-hand items for sale on their large lot.

In about 1980 Clara retired from real estate and she and Leonard moved to a beautiful hilltop lot in Sage, about ten miles south of Hemet, California to enjoy their retirement.

Just after turning 79 years of age, Leonard was killed in a freak automobile accident. While changing a tire on his daughter's car on the road to Hemet, his own car, which was parked behind her car, was hit from the rear by a drunk illegal alien. It crushed Leonard between the two cars. He clung to life in the Hemet Hospital for nearly a week but died on March 7, 1981.

Chester married (1) Birdie Wilson.

They had the following children:

+	95	M	i	Paul Willard Smith was born 18 Feb 1924 and died about 1971.
+	96	M	ii	Barney Aaron Smith was born 11 Jun 1926.

Chester also married (2) Vera Nips, daughter of Dave Nips and Nanny Smith, about 1932. Vera was born 31 Jan 1916 in Gliner, Smith, Texas.

They had the following children:

+

97

F

iii

Clara Mae Smith was born 13 Aug 1933.

Chester also married (3) Clara Clark Leggitt [scrapbook], daughter of Oscar Jack Leggitt and Margaret Inez Hussey, on 3 Dec 1941 in Reno, Washoe, Nevada. Clara was born 11 Jul 1916 in Berlin, Roger Mills, Oklahoma.

Source: Leggitt family records.

Clara was born while her parents were living on the Pittsburg Ranch north of Berlin. When she was three the family moved to a small two room house near Edenview where she later started school. When Clara was in the third grade her parents purchased some land from the Pittsburg Land Company seven miles northwest of Berlin. They built a big comfortable six room house there where Clara grew up.

About a year after her son Roy was born in 1933, Clara and he went to live with the Samual and Bonnie Purdy family in Carter, OK. Clara assisted Bonnie in the homemaking chores and did the family book keeping. She finished high school while at Carter in 1936. By the summer of 1937 the dust bowl made it impossible to continue making a living in Oklahoma and the family moved to California in a manner similar to John Steinbeck's novel, Grapes of Wrath.

They picked cotton and fruit the first years, but by 1940 the family had become quite successful. In 1941 Clara married Chester Leonard Smith who had a girl Roy's age and two nearly grown boys. She and Leonard had another family of a boy and two girls by 1946.

Leonard was primarily a carpenter and mechanic during the war (WWII) and post war years. However, he was seriously injured in an accident in the early 1950s and could no longer work doing physical labor. He and Clara later had a series of grocery stores and Clara entered the real estate business in the 1960s. She was quite successful and remained very active in that business until she fully retired in 1988.

Source of birth and marriage of all Smith children is Smith family records maintained by Clara C. Smith.

Chester and Clara had the following children:

+	98	M	iv	Major Roy Clarke Leggitt USAF (Retired) was born 6 Apr 1933.
+	99	M	v	Chester Leonard Smith Junior was born 1 Dec 1942.
+	100	F	vi	Margaret Emma Smith was born 17 Jun 1944.
+	101	F	vii	Lenore Aileen Smith was born 29 May 1946.

46. Arzo Jordan Smith [scrapbook] ¹ (Aaron Joseph Smith , Aaron Smith , Richard (W.) , Gabriel D. ) was born 10 Sep 1904 in Lindale, Smith, Texas. He died Jan 1977 in Fontana, Ca..

Arzo's profession was as an electrician. He lived in Hanford, California for many years.

From: "Stephanie Arrington"
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 10:19:26 -0700

My Grandparents were Jordan Arzo and Zella Iyone. They had three daughters Jacqueline Yvonne, Peggy Jean, and Donna Dene. Donna is my mother. They lived in Hanford and that's where me and my 2 other sisters were born. My mom used to talk about Uncle Leonard and Aunt Clara.

Angie Smith says Arzo and Orra Anna were born in Mineola, Wood Co, TX. The LDS Ancestral File has Lindale, Smith Co., TX.

The Social Security Death Index indicates a Jordan Smith, born 10 Sep 1904 as having died Jan 1977 with last benefit paid to ZIP code 92353 (California). This is an invalid ZIP code, but close numbers indicate the southern California area around San Bernardino.

Jordan was the baby of the family and they all babied him.

Arzo married (1) Zella Ione Odom "Iyone" on 2 Sep 1926 in Visalia, Ca. The marriage ended in divorce. Iyone was born 2 Apr 1910 in Los Angeles, Ca.. She died 20 Dec 1971 in Long Beach, Ca...

She died in Long Beach, but was buried at the Union Cemetery in Bakersfield, Ca. so she could be close to her Grandson Randolph Robert Jones. Zella added a "y" to her middle name Iyone to be different.

Arzo and Iyone had the following children:

+	102	F	i	Jacqueline Yvonne Smith was born 3 Feb 1928.
+	103	F	ii	Peggy Gene Smith was born 15 Jul 1930 and died Apr 1987.
+	104	F	iii	Donna Dene Smith was born 11 Aug 1934.

Arzo also married (2) Wilma.

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