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mcc-jrr_722-009
Smith Cemetery, 72-2 Summary Report, page 9
Smith and the family of his assumed siblings in South Carolina. Yet, in Madison County, Hughy Smith lived in close proximity to several free Mulatto families of the Jacobs surname that had origins in South Carolina. The early census records show that the family of Isaac Jacobs and Burwell Jacobs lived in Richland and Fairfield Counties of SC at the same time that a Hugh Smith resided in Richland County, SC. Burwell, Isaac, and Hugh are all gone from the records in those SC counties by the census of 1830. People of those same names were living in Madison County on pre-arsenal lands by that time period, with Hughy Smith buying land by 1818 in this area. Still, Hughy Smith of Madison County consistently used the spelling of “Hughy”, not “Hugh” in his public records. Only the York County SC Hughy Smith fits this criteria of name usage. Therefore, considering his own name consistency, the siblings' and children's given names, and the time and circumstances, it is thought to be most likely that the York County Hughy Smith is indeed the one of Madison County. [If it should ever prove to be that the Hugh Smith of Richland County is the proper man, that will be of great satisfaction, as that Hugh Smith and the associated Jacobs free Mulattos were closely linked geographically in SC and AL with Ephraim Lemley, the only Madison County ancestor of John Rankin, author of this report.] The records from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) inserted earlier showed the lands that Hughy purchased on what is now Redstone Arsenal, but they also have a purchase by another “Hugh” Smith in Section 11 of Township 4 South, Range 1 East. This purchase was dated April 2, 1857, and it is for land about a half mile north of the bend in Dug Hill Road to the east of Highway 431, where Dug Hill Road turns northward. The 1860 census shows the age of this Hugh Smith as 60 (b. ~1800), born in TN, versus the Hughy Smith who purchased arsenal land was age 67 in the 1850 census, born in SC. Furthermore, the Township 4 Hugh Smith was found to have middle initial “A” in the 1850 census (when his age was given as 47), whereas the Hughy Smith of arsenal lands had middle initial “L” per Madison County AL Deed Book Q, page 314-315. Finally, according to probate records, the Hughy Smith of arsenal lands died at the end of April, 1857, just a few weeks after the land purchase in Township 4 by the other Hugh Smith. 9 - (2622)