Smith, William Jr. (1789-1867)

Born in Liberty County, son of William and Mary Townsend Smith. He married Mary Ann Baxter (1790-1856), daughter of John S. Baxter of Colleton County, South Carolina, in 1810. Their children were John W., William Baxter, Nancy Ann, James Madison, Eleanor Elizabeth, and Sarah C. Smith.

He was Justice of the Peace in the 16th Militia District in 1819, 1829, and from 1837 to 1846. He was surveyor for Liberty County from 1830 to 1832, and state representative from 1853 to 1854. His plantation encompassed 4,000 acres, and he owned 18 slaves. He was a member of Liberty Union Lodge No. 94, Free and Accepted Masons at Taylors Creek, and third cap­tain of a militia unit in the 16th Militia District in 1824.

His son, James Madison Smith, was captain of the Altamaha Scouts (Company I, 25th Regiment, Georgia Infantry) during the Civil War. He and his brother, William Baxter Smith, were two of the three members of the first Liberty County Board of Commissioners in 1872. William Smith Jr. and his wife are both buried in the Smith Cemetery in Long County, Georgia.

From “Sweet Land of Liberty, A History of Liberty County, Georgia” by Robert Long Groover; Appendix Number 39, Page(s) 231-232; Used by the permission of the Liberty County Commissioners Office