J. ALVIN AND PAULINE SMITH

The following bio was taken from page 390 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

My husband, J. Alvin Smith, our daughter, Susan, and I came to Rusk County by choice to raise broilers. My husband (deceased August 10, 1980) taught vocational agriculture at Bells High School after four years of military service. Poultry was one of his favorite projects, so raising broilers for sale seemed like a good idea. We bought a farm in the New Prospect Community in June, 1951, and were soon in business. While my husband raised broilers, I was employed as a caseworker for the State Department of Public Welfare in Henderson.

The broiler business declined after a few years, so we returned to teaching. The next eighteen years we spent in the classroom as an administrator at Alba, Wood County and Richardson Independent School, Richardson, Texas. We retired in June, 1970 and returned to our farm home. We were not really ready to retire; therefore, in 1972, with help from the local County Extension Agents, we planted 1,000 Virginia Pine Christmas Trees, the first grown in this area. In three years some were ready for market and were sold locally.

Our families can be traced to Northern Ireland, Tennessee, and Georgia. My grandfather, on my father’s side, Mike Ryan, came from Northern Ireland in 1850, and my grandmother, Susan Hannah Doster came from near Savannah, Georgia. They married in 1870, came to Texas, and settled on a farm north of Emory, Rains County. My father, Daniel Webster, had three sisters – Kate, Betty, and Susan.

Grandfather Ryan became a brickmason in Ireland and followed this trade in America. He dug many water wells in Rains County. Some are still in use. He died when my father was fourteen.

Father and a friend went to Galveston to college when he was nineteen. They saw a banana boat being unloaded. Each bought a stalk and ate so many they were sick for days.

Theo and Elizabeth Bledsoe, by mother’s parents, came from Lincoln County, Tennessee in 1900 on the train. They sold most of their household goods, except the feather beds and quilts, as they could only bring a limited amount of baggage. My grandmother’s sister, Americus Donaldson, and her husband met the family at Greenville with wagons to take them to their new home north of Emory.

My mother, Ola Bledsoe, and my father were married in 1901. They had four children: Joseph Doster, Ruby Theor, Ola Alene, and Pauline (me). My brother was a Presbyterian minister.

Our daughter, Susan Smith, married Dale Weaver, a native of Rusk County in January, 1963. They have three children and live on a farm in the New Prospect Community.

My husband’s parents were Jasper N. and Sophronia Wright Smith. Mr. Smith came from Arkansas. Mrs. Smith was raised at Alba, Texas. Her parents were Peter and Mary Wright. Mr. and Mrs. Smith had twelve children, three girls and nine boys. My husband was the fifth oldest child. Two children died young. Three of the children were teachers: three were farmers; and four were self-employed. It has been a pleasure to be a part of this big happy family for forty-four years.

Submitted by Pauline Ryan Smith