An American Family History

John Smith was the last of Josiah Smith and Sarah Pitt's children to be born in Meigs County, Tennessee. He was born in 1862. He was listed in the 1870 census of Wapello, Lucas, Iowa as age eight.

At the time of the 1880 census he was eighteen and working as a servant in the Relph home in Lucas County. Oral family history says his wife was named Mary.

John Elmer Smith was named after him. His great-niece, Maryon White, wrote

He was a real windjammer! One of the stories I recall about him had to do with a missing part of his anatomy-a finger, thumb, or maybe entire hand. Anyway, when people asked what happened, he told them he was swimming across the Atlantic Ocean and a steamboat ran over him.

Bill Smith said "Uncle Elmer and my Dad [Bryan Smith] did not know much about John; they only knew that he had been involved with the law in a bad way and that it involved a gun."