Kizziah (Crouch) Smith (1845 - 1921)

Born 7 May 1845 in Izard County Arkansas

Ancestors

Wife of Enoch Jones Smith — married about Dec 1868 (to 18 Sep 1879) in Van Buren County Arkansas

Wife of William Madison Carter — married 26 Nov 1882 (to 26 Mar 1895) in Stone Co. Arkansas

Descendants

Died 5 Apr 1921 at age 75 in Velma, Stephens County Oklahoma

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Deb Cavel [send private message]

Biography

Events in Kizziah's Life

Kizziah Crouch Smith Carter aged 70

Birth 7 May 1845
Residence 1850 Izard Co Arkansas Census
Residence 1860 Bell Co Texas Census
Marriage to Enoch Jones Smith abt Aug 1868, Izard County AR
Birth of 1st Child Mary Levina Smith b 25 AUG 1869 in Ft. Smith AR
Birth of 2nd Child John William Wesley Smith, 6 AUG 1873 • Izard County, AR
Birth of 3rd Child Mahala Smith b 1875 Izard County AR

Birth of 4th Child - twin Eliza Ann Smith 3 MAR 1878 • Witts Spring, Stone, Co AR
Birth of 5th Child - twin Priscilla Josephine Smith 3 MAR 1878 • Witts Spring, Stone, Co AR
Death of 1st husband Enoch Jones Smith 18 Sept, 1879.
Marriage to William Madison "Matt" Carter 26 NOV 1882; Stone Co. Arkansas
Birth of 6th Child Randolph Daniel Carter 11 JAN 1884, Searcy, White Co. AR
Birth of 7th Child Martha E. (Patsy) Carter 30 MAY 1885, Texas
Birth of 8th Child Nancy Caroline Carter 24 DEC 1887, Bowie, Montague Co. TX
Birth of 9th Child Octavia Carter 18 MAR 1890, Cleburne, Johnson Co. TX
Death of 2nd husband Matt Carter, 26 MAR 1895, Comanche, Indian Territory
Residence1900; Census Smyrna, Pope, Arkansas
Residence1910 Census Justice Precinct 6, Red River, Texas
Residence 1920; Census Place: Precinct 67, El Paso, Colorado
Death15 Apr 1921 Velma, Stephens County, OK
Burial Old Velma Cemetery, Stephens County, Oklahoma

Kizziah isn't listed in this census, but then her mother is listed as male and baby Andrew is listed as James so I suspect a neighbour may have given the information.

^[1] 1850 Census; Sylamore, Izard, Arkansas
Name .... ... Age
Levina Crouch 36
Benjamin Crouch 14
Aaron Crouch 12
Mary Ann Crouch 10
Thomas Crouch 8
Levina Crouch 6
George W Crouch 3
James W Crouch 0

Between 1854 and 1855 Kizziah's mother Lavina married Lawson Henderson Smith and the 1860 Bell County Texas Census finds them living in a blended household, near several members of Lavina's family, her father Ben Cox and stepmother Elizabeth, her brother William, and others.

^[2] 1860 Federal Census Bell County Texas
L Smith                 M 48 North Carolina
Levina Smith F 39 Indiana
Jones Smith M 17 Tennessee
Wm Smith         M 12 Kentucky
Elizabeth Smith F 4 Arkansas
Henry Smith         M 2 Arkansas
Pricilla Smith F 2 Arkansas
Thos Crouch M 20 Arkansas
Levina Crouch F 17 Arkansas
Casiah Crouch [sic]F 16 Arkansas
Wash Crouch    M 12 Arkansas
Andrew Crouch M 10 Arkansas
Susanna Crouch F 8 Arkansas

Intimidation, Murder and Heartbreak

^[3] But the Smith/Crouch family was in for a rough time in the Spring of 1868. We don't have the whole picture, but we have a snapshot that gives a scene of murder, intimidation, financial loss, and heartbreak. All the young men in the family had served in the Union Army out of Arkansas, and that was the cause of the trouble. Men in Bell County who had fought on the Confederate side decided to "cleanse" the county of men who had served in the Union Army. Terrorism and death were the result and the Crouch family took the full brunt.

Lavina's eldest son Ben Crouch and his family were threatened at gunpoint by the KKK and run off their ranch without time to even gather a change of clothes. Two of Ben's brothers-in-law were killed, one lynched, the other shot, while looking for his brother's body. Threatened and terrorized, Lawson and Lavina's family scattered, to other counties in Texas, and north to Arkansas.

Lawson's son Enoch Jones Smith and Kizziah fled north to Arkansas, as did her brothers 20-year-old Washington and 18-year-old Andrew Crouch and their 12-year-old sister Elizabeth Smith. Enoch and Kizziah married in mid-to-late 1868. Their first child, a daughter, was born in August of 1869. The 1870 Van Buren County Arkansas census shows that they had assumed the care of their younger half-siblings, twins Jacob and Priscilla Smith.

Lawson and Lavina disappear. We can only guess that they were caught up in the violence and madness that engulfed the younger members of the family and died by the middle of the summer of 1868. Whether they were killed outright or died of some other cause it's impossible to say.

^[4]
1870 Census; Holley, Van Buren, Arkansas
Name Age
Jones Smith 26
Keziah Smith 24
Vina Smith 1
Jacob Smith 12
Sylla Smith 12

^[5]
1880 Census; Turkey Creek, Stone, Arkansas
Name Age
Kizire Smith 35 widowed
Mary L. Smith 10
John W. W. Smith 7
Mahala A. Smith 5
Priscilla J. Smith 2
Eliza A. Smith 2

Her husband Enoch Jones Smith died in Sept 1879;

^[6]
Enoch Smith M W Mar B abt 1842 TN Died 18 Sep 1879 died Richwoods, Stone, Arkansas; Cause of Death; Paralysis of 7 days duration

Administrators and guardians bonds and letters, 1873-1928; Author: Stone County (Arkansas). Clerk of the Circuit Court; Probate Place: Stone, Arkansas

After three years as a widow, Kizziah married William Madison "Matt" Carter, a Confederate Veteran, or as she used to say, "I had a husband who fought for the Blue and one who fought for the Grey."

^[7] Married William Madison "Matt" Carter 26 NOV 1882 • Stone Co. Arkansas

The loss of the 1890 census is devastating to genealogists, but stories from older members of the family tell us that Matt Carter was a loving husband and father, and some even retained dim memories of him as a grandfather. He died of stomach cancer in Comanche, Indian Territory, in March, 1895, leaving Kizziah with four children between 10 and 16 years of age.

Death of husband Matt Carter; 26 MAR 1895, Comanche, Indian Territory, now Stephens Co OK

After Matt's death she moved to Pope County Arkansas to be near her brother Aaron, to whom she'd been particularly close for much of her life.

^[8]
1900; Census Smyrna, Pope, Arkansas
Name Age
Cazira Carter 55 widowed
Randolf Carter 16
Martha E Carter 14
Nancy C Carter 12
Octava Carter 10

In 1910 she can be found living with her daughter Octavia and family.
^[9]
1910 Census Justice Precinct 6, Red River, Texas
Name Age
Garrett Talley 31
Octavia Talley 20
Kizzie Carter 65
Emily Talley 0

^[10]
1920; Census: Precinct 67, El Paso, Colorado
-- Name ... --Age
Randolph D Carter 35
Francis H Carter 23
Annabel Carter 5
Randolph D Carter 3
Carol H Carter 0
Kisarh Carter78

Death

^[11] Kizziah Crouch Smith Carter died on the 15th of April 1921 in the Parks Township, Stephens County, Oklahoma. She was staying with her daughter "Josie" and Josie's family at the time. The cause of death on the death certificate is stated as cardiomyopathy. Her son-in-law reported her death, states she was born in Arkansas, but does not know either of her parents' names.

Burial

^[12]Old Velma Cemetery, Stephens County, Oklahoma

She is buried in an aisle between two rows of graves. 20 -30 years later her son John William Wesley and his family bought the plot in an adjacent row, to one side of her unmarked grave, and her daughter Mary Levina Seely and family bought the adjacent plot on the other side of the row, so she lies in the aisle between the two plots of her children and grandchildren. The location of her grave had been forgotten until the 1980s, but has now been marked by a flat stone.

Stories about Kizziah Crouch

Granny K died in 1921, in Velma, Oklahoma and is buried in the old Velma Cemetery. Her second husband, Matt Carter, predeceased her by more than 25 years and is buried in the Old Fairview Cemetery in Comanche, Oklahoma. A visit to his gravesite in 1981 prompted my Aunt Susie (Susan Kizziah Cavel Lawson - then in her late 80's) to tell me the following story.

Except for a visit to my great-uncle Randolph in 1920, Granny Kizziah spent the last several years of her life living with her daughter Josie and family (my grandmother). In a day and age when it was common practice for everyone in a family to bathe on Saturday night, in order to be clean for church the following morning, Kizziah stood out. To everyone's amazement she insisted on a daily bath!

Every day at four o'clock, after helping with the household and childcare chores, she heated water on the wood-fired stove, shooed everyone from the kitchen, and had a bath. Once she was clean, she donned the freshly starched and ironed clothing she had prepared - always a white blouse and a long skirt. She would then sit on the big front porch (weather permitting) until dinnertime, teasing the children by telling them that "No one can touch me, even with a stick, because now that I'm clean, I'm going to stay that way!"

She pronounced her name to rhyme with bizarre. She was named after her grandmother Casiah Barbee, and she insisted that each of her daughters name a daughter Kizziah, and that persisted into the next generation. So we have a lot of Kizziahs and Kizzies in the family.

I once asked my father, when he was approaching 80, to describe his grandmother, to tell me what she was like. He was not a man given to emotional display, but remembering his grandmother, dead for 60 years, I saw him become tearful for one of the few times in his life. He was unable to speak for a while, then he managed to choke out, "She was wonderful."

She had her funny traits. She didn't like going outside after dark, for fear she'd hear the owl call the name of the next person in the family to die. She was a great tease, and loved to laugh, at herself and at life in general. She had big ears she called her “saddleblankets”. She would go into the woods to gather plants and make “medicine”, including a bitter (and highly laxative) “black drink” she'd make all the kids drink every spring.

She taught her Native language to her grandchildren and 60 years later her grandchildren Charlie and Susie still spoke the Tuscarora language fluently. In one of the censuses where people were asked what their mother's first language was my grandmother Josie gave the answer "other" rather than English. My father and his sisters just called their language "Granny's Indian Talk". If only we could spend a few hours with them, how would we spend those hours?

Sources

1. ↑ 1850 Census; Sylamore, Izard, Arkansas; Roll: M432_27; Page: 6A; Image: 18
2. ↑ 1860 Federal Census Bell Co TX; Roll: M653_1288; Pg 341, Image 210; FHL Film 805288
3. ↑ Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 35, Number 5398, 15 July 1868; Klu-Klux Klan in Texas; Official Report of Lieutenant F. Shiles, United States Army
4. ↑ 1870 Census; Holley, Van Buren, Arkansas; Roll: M593_66; Page: 41A; Image: 82; Family History Library Film: 545565
5. ↑ 1880 Census; Turkey Creek, Stone, Arkansas; Roll: 57; Family History Film: 1254057; Page: 207C; Enumeration District: 196; Image: 0721
6. ↑ 1880 Stone Co AR Enumeration District 196; Federal Mortality Census; Line 15
7. ↑ Arkansas, County Marriages Index, 1837-1957
8. ↑ 1900; Census Smyrna, Pope, Arkansas; Roll: 72; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0181; FHL film 1240072
9. ↑ 1910 Census; Justice Precinct 6, Red River, Texas; Roll: T624_1585; Page: 16A; Enumeration District: 0127; FHL microfilm: 1375598
10. ↑ 1920 Census: Precinct 67, El Paso, Colorado; Roll: T625_163; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 118; Image: 956
11. ↑ Oklahoma State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Death Certificate # 69250 for Kizzir Carter died 15 April 1921
12. ↑ Oklahoma State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Death Certificate # 69250 for Kizzir Carter died 15 April 1921, buried 16 April, 1921, Velma Cemetery, Undertakers, Goodman and Thomas, Duncan Oklahoma