Branching out from here.....

It’s 1850 in Pleasant township, Allen County, Indiana  in a small town called Nine Nile.  It’s nine miles from Fort Wayne so what else would you call it? There a Smith Family who lives there and they have 10 children. They came from Darke County, Ohio a few years back along with other Ohio families.  They traveled with the Millers, John, Hannah (Smith) and their children, the Davis', Benjamin C, Letishia and their children and the Overly's, Thomas, Emeline and their children. It was a hard trip in wagons to cover the 80 distance miles to get here but James and Susannah Smith have been married for twenty years now.  They have known hardship before and knew that they would experience it again.  It is a part of living in this time and place. Susanna was the daughter of Martin and Polly Overly of Darke County Ohio when they married on December 9, 1830.  She is the sister to Thomas Overly.  James Smith and Hannah (Smith) Miller are siblings too.

Much has changed in those twenty years since the Smith's were married.  Many people were settling in Ohio and it was getting hard to find a place where you belonged.  Land was being gobbled up and there were not too many opportunities left.  So families were moving further west. Now they live on a plot of land that they are improving. It is in Pleasant Township, in Allen County in the state of Indiana. They must remove the trees and clear fields so they can grow crops on the land. In time the government will make it their land. It is hard work but there will be a reward in the end. Susanna’s brother Thomas and his wife and their family live with the Smiths as do James’s nephew Charles and his new wife Sarah (Dilley).  All the men and family members who are able, work hard to clear the land and get the first crop in with hopes of bright new beginnings.

James and Susanna would have their first child in 1831 in Ohio, her name is Margaret. Then Mary Ann came in 1833, Sarah Elizabeth in 1834 who was followed by William in 1835 and Branson in 1838. They finally had two sons! Branson would be followed by Charles in 1840 and by a daughter named Kisiah in 1842. The next child born would be James W. Smith in 1843. He would be the last of the children born in Darke County Ohio. Between 1843 and 1847 the Smith family left Ohio and settled in Nine Mile, Indiana. Joseph J Smith would be the first Smith child was born in 1847 in Indiana. The next child born in 1849 was John F. Smith.

Listed is the 1850 Federal Census for the state of Indiana, Allen County, Pleasant Township. The last Family listed on this page is James Smith and the remaining Smith children are on the next page.

James, Joseph and John Francis are listed on the top of the next page. The family listed in the Census following James and Susanna is James’s nephew Charles Miller and his new bride, Sarah. The next family is Thomas and Emeline Overly and their children. Thomas is Susannah Smith’s brother.


The time has come for us to give "Thanks".  To Unite as a family and show God how grateful we are for all the blessing that he has bestowed on us.