Martha P Smith Alford in SC & MS

Martha P. Smith Alford

25 March 1802 SC – 8 August 1861 MS

My 3x Great Grandmother

Martha was the daughter of Jeremiah Smith & Joanna Dillon.[1] Her siblings were: Hollander, Eli, Jane, Edwin, Wyatt, Eliza, Calvin, Lidda, Mehala, Milevey, Joanna & Jeremiah. Her brother, Wyatt Smith is also my 3x great grandparent. Therefore Martha & Wyatt’s parents are my Double 4x great grandparents!

Martha married Edwin Barksdale Alford, son of Jacob Alford & Elizabeth Bryant, on 20 December 1818 in Pike, MS.[2],[3] In 1820 they were in Pike, MS with a young son.[4] They would stay in the area and become the parents of 13 children.

A grandchild wrote:

Grandmother was a well-chosen wife for him. Married at the age of sixteen years, she was mother before she was eighteen, had twelve children, all of whom lived to be grown except one that died in infancy.[5]

Two of Martha’s brothers lived near Martha & Edwin. Wyatt Smith & Calvin Smith also lived in in the Simmonsville & Progress area.[6]  The 1850 Census report shows Edwin as a 58 year old farmer. Martha still had 5 children at home. Sons, Jeptha and Seaborn were farm hands.[7] 

           

Martha & Edwin are buried in the Edwin B. Alford Cemetery. The small cemetery is on a gravel road, one and one-half miles southwest of Silver Springs Baptist Church and 3/4 mile north of the Louisiana line.  "Martha Smith Wife of Edwin B. Alford BORN Mar. 25, 1802 DIED Aug. 8, 1861".[8]  It is directly by the roadside on a small hill.  Visiting the cemetery in August 1997, it was difficult to see the gravestones from just a short distance away because of the weeds and brush grown up all around and through the site. 

Related Post:

• Wyatt Smith

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[1] Holbrook and Fressenden’s Stereotype Edition of the Holy Bible, Brattleboro, VT, 1825. Original owner: Jeremiah Smith Sr. of Pike Co., MS. Copied by Texana Carter, 27 August 1854. In possession of Mrs. W C Uhlman, Rte 6, Tylertown, MS, great granddaughter. Copy given to author by Pat (Brock) Smith.

[2] Pedigree Chart for Roy Brown; 1700's to 1948; Compiled by Zelda Marie Alford Fortenberry; Given to author, June 1994, by Rayleen Brown Hall.

[3] Heard, Ruby Alford, Gil Alford. "Early Mississippi Alfords." AAFA Action: The Official Publication of the Alford American Family Association III (1990):p. 36.

[4] Heard, Ruby Alford, Gil Alford. "Early Mississippi Alfords." AAFA Action: The Official Publication of the Alford American Family Association III (1990):p. 36.

[5] Tynes, Walter Edwin. My Pilgrimage, 1928.

[6] Land & Maps. Boyd, Gregory A. Family Maps of Pike County, Mississippi. Deluxe. Norman, Oklahoma: Arphax Publishing Co., 2005.

[7] 1850 U. S. Census, Pike County, Mississippi.

[8] Parish, Ray and June Sartin. Cemetery Inscriptions, Pike County, Mississippi 1750 - 1978. Privately published.