Anthony  Smith

SMITH, ANTHONY (1832 ~ 1920). The following is a biography of Confederate veteran Anthony Smith which was written by one of his ancestors.

"Anthony Smith and his brother arrived in Galveston, Texas, 5 February 1846, aboard the Franziska, having sailed from Bremen with the German Emmigration Company. Anthony was born 25 October 1832, and was christened Francois Antoine Schmitt, of Oberentzen, France. As far as I know, Anthony Smith was the only name used after he arrived in Texas; however, his parents came to Texas in the 1850s, settled in Castroville, Medina County, Texas, and retained their name Schmitt.

Anthony enlisted 10 May 1861 in the First Texas Field Battery, CSA in San Antonio, Texas. Two of his brothers fought for the Union. On 24 June 1869, he married Mrs. Susan (Hensley) Hicks in Burnet County. She was the daughter of George W. and Susan Hensely. George W. Hensley had come to Texas in 1836 and served in the army of the Republic of Texas. Susan was born in Texas in 1840.

In 1870, the Anthony Smith family was listed on the census of Williamson County. They lived in Round Rock where he was listed as a stonemason. My mother told me that he had done all the stone work on the old Sheppard house on Brushy Creek in the 1870s.

Children born to Anthony and Susan were: Lucie married Bob Patterson; Fanie married J. T. Smith, married second Matthew Pate; Albert, married Maggie; Kate married Charles Goble; Inez married Charles Benner; Georgia married Martin G. Davis; Wm. Edgar married Bessie Price. Susan's daughter, Ardelia (Della) Hicks married Jim Shipp.

The Smith family moved to Burnet County where Anthony farmed and worked as a stonemason. Around 1900, his rheumatism became so bad, and since the boys had married and gone, he sold the farm. Susan went to stay with daughter Kate in Callahan County. Anthony and his daughter Fanny and her two children went to Castroville for a few months and visited his brothers. Then in 1906 they came to Round Rock where Fanny bought a house in Old Town. Anthony lived there with her and the children until her marriage in 1907 to Matthew Pate. They moved to the Pate home but after a time, Anthony went to Callahan County and later to the Old Confederate Home in Austin. He left once, made the rounds of visiting his children and returned to the home where he died 10 July 1920. He is buried in the State Cemetery in Austin. Susan died 17 February 1923 and is buried in Clyde, Texas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Seals, Ellen, Anthony Smith. Williamson County, Texas: Its History and its People. Williamson County Genealogical Society. Austin, 1985."

Further information available through the Texas State Cemetery research department.