This month rather than diving deep into a family mystery that I’ve
solved, I’m going to do something a little different, I want to honor the birth
of one of my ancestors. On St. Patrick’s 1905 my Great-Grandpa William Byus
Smith was born in Elwood Indiana to Ara Smith and Eliza Olive (Bright)Grandstaff-Smith.
He was their 5th child together; I’m sure that if you would have
asked his parents they never would have guessed that they would end up with
eight more! (Let’s not forget that Eliza had a daughter named Bertha from her first marriage as
well.)
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| Rev. William Byus Smith |
Bill(as he was called) married for the first time in 1924 to
Anna O. Balser(who I wrote about on my blog in November 2016 in a piece called “The
Two Anna’s”) Anna and Bill’s marriage sadly ended in 1940 when Anna died. In
1941 (around the time he became a pastor) Bill married a widow and mother of
three young daughters named Mary Melissia (Webb)Eurick. Mary and Bill had two
children together: William Arthur Smith in 1942 and Nettie Bea Smith in 1947.
Bill died on the 18th of November, 1970. There is
a lot to tell about Bill’s life but today I just want to share some photos.
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| William B Smith (the youngest known photo of him) |
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| Bill at age 19 |
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| Anna and Bill Smith (the only know photo of Anna) |
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| Bill Smith taken in the 1930's on South R. st Elwood, Indiana |
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| Mary and Bill with their son Billy |
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Bill cutting one of his last birthday cakes.
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| Bill and Mary Smith |
grandpa would always hug you real tight and rub his beard all over your face knowing we would run to grandma and tell and she would rub your face and hug us and kiss our face.grandpa would just smile real big.and always cleaning fish in the garage.eeewww I never thought I would ever get that smell out of my nose.my best memory of him was watching him practice his sermon,walking up and down that small hallway in the house.it was like magic.the light wpould shine on his bald head and it looked like a halo.he was a great grandpa to me and I think of him often.but I know him and grandma are dancing together and watching over me.
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