Kentucky Ancestors, Volume 46, Number 1 - Kentucky Historical ...

The Vestige of Private Lewis Smith Sr.
By Carolyn Warfield
Follow the clues when researching family
history to develop good logic. A death certificate
for a collateral relative apparently does not exist,
so I used a document which preceded his death to
prove intention as indirect evidence. Genealogical
conclusions based on indirect evidence can be as
solid as answers found in direct evidence. 1 Civil War
veteran Lewis Smith died on 27 November 1910. 2
By 1911 Kentucky was registering vital records in
local health offices. Presented in this narrative is the
transcript of a land deed Lewis Smith negotiated for
burial purposes. “Within regular land deeds you can
sometimes find where family plots were located.” 3
The mystery is where was Private Lewis Smith buried?
“A mystery cannot be answered; it can only be framed
by identifying the critical factors and applying how
they have interacted in the past.” 4 Lewis Lines (aka
Lewis Smith, 1825-1910), and my paternal greatgrandfather,
George Beverly (aka George William
Warfield, [1837-1919]), were fellow Union soldiers
in different companies of the 118th United States
Colored Regiment. Conceivably the two knew each
other before and during the war, however, I am not
certain. Both soldiers returned to the border state
area of Henderson County, Kentucky, after the war;
and became in-laws when several of their children
intermarried.
Union commander Stephen A. Burbridge issued
General Order No. 34 in April 1864, extending
recruitment to slaves with owner’s authorization;
Lines and Beverly chose freedom and joined the
Union Army. 5 “Congress allowed slaveholders to file
claims against the Federal government for loss of
the slave’s services: $300 for slaves who enlisted or
$100 for slaves who were drafted.” 6 In Henderson,
Negroes brought an average of $232.50. 7 Evidence
of Lewis Lines being a private in Company C of the
118th U.S. Colored Infantry is abstracted in the
Civil War records of the Ancestry Web site (Library
Edition). His discharge document confirmed he
“enrolled 24 August 1864, to serve three years.”
Serving under Captain Charles B. Randolph, Lines
was honorably discharged 6 February 1866, at
Whites Ranch, Texas. 8 Over the years, Private Lines
and Private Beverly received service and disability
pensions, and chose the surname of their preference,
based on personal slave experience. Relative Bonita
Smith-Wood’s great-great grandfather Lewis chose
Smith, and my great-grandfather George chose
Warfield. As freedmen, our ancestors were eager to
claim their rights and privileges.
A deed of land purchase was agreed upon and
witnessed (16 February 1892) by Jack McGuire (the
father of John McGuire) and Lewis Smith, as follows:
This deed between Jack McGuire, colored
Grantor and Louis Smith colored Grantee,
witnessed that Grantor in consideration of
ten dollars, the receipt of which is hereby
acknowledged, do hereby transfer and convey
to Grantee, his heirs and assigns the following
property: one lot of land for burial purposes
situated on my farm as follows -- thirty feet
on the North side of the present burying
Autumn 2010 | 15