When William Arlington Smith was born on 26 December 1864, in Fayette, Alabama, United States, his father, John Russell Smith, was 27 and his mother, Birdie Priscilla Harkins Smith, was 20. He married Mary Holland Whitely on 27 June 1893, in Bell, Texas, United States. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 5 daughters. He lived in Coryell, Texas, United States in 1935 and Justice Precinct 2, Robertson, Texas, United States in 1940. He died on 23 November 1943, in Hearne, Robertson, Texas, United States, at the age of 78, and was buried in Norwood Cemetery, Hearne, Robertson, Texas, United States.
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Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
On June 19, 1865, Gordon Granger (Union Major) read General Orders, No. 3 to the people of Galveston. The statement was written as follows: "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."
Statue of Liberty is dedicated.
English and Scottish: occupational name denoting a worker in metal, especially iron, such as a blacksmith or farrier, from Middle English smith ‘smith’ (Old English smith, probably a derivative of smītan ‘to strike, hammer’). Early examples are also found in the Latin form Faber . Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents in other languages were the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is also the most frequent of all surnames in the US. It is very common among African Americans and Native Americans (see also 5 below). This surname (in any of the two possible English senses; see also below) is also found in Haiti. See also Smither .
English: from Middle English smithe ‘smithy, forge’ (Old English smiththe). The surname may be topographic, for someone who lived in or by a blacksmith's shop, occupational, for someone who worked in one, or habitational, from a place so named, such as Smitha in King's Nympton (Devon). Compare Smithey .
Irish and Scottish: sometimes adopted for Gaelic Mac Gobhann, Irish Mac Gabhann ‘son of the smith’. See McGowan .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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