On August 9th, 1827, at the age of 28, Joseph married Mary Ann Stewart Darnall in Edgar County, Illinois. She was 21.

Their marriage was recorded on a page of the official ledger. [Download full-size version of the marriage record/ledger page]

Mary was obviously very proud of her Stewart ancestry and the two families were close. Joseph & Mary's oldest daughter, Rachel, married Josiah Stewart from Ohio. Also, their oldest son, William, married Mary Stewart, Josiah's sister.

THE DESCENDANTS OF JOSEPH & MARY SMART:

Over the next sixteen years Mary and Joseph had seven children-all born in Illinois:

(Illinois birth and death records only go back as far as 1877)

WILLIAM M. SMART

William moved to Dayton Corners, Richland County, Wisconsin before 1853 where he died in 1893. He and Mary Stewart had eleven children: Eliza Ann, Mary, James, Lucinda, Emma Jane, Joan, Lucy, Charles, Clara Mae, Carrie, George Burton Sr. Smart.

RACHEL (SMART) STEWART

Rachel moved to Canova, Miner County, South Dakota and married Josiah Stewart in 1859. They had three children: Martha Ann, James A. and Moses Stewart. She died in South Dakota in 1913 at the ripe old age of 83.

NANCY (SMART) CRONINGER

Nancy moved to Forest, Richland County, Wisconsin around 1856 when she married George Croninger. They had nine children: Mary, Jeremiah, Benjamin Franklin, James J., Alfred Warren, Agnes Jane, William R. George W. and Daniel Croninger She died in Wisconsin in 1907 at the age of 75 years.

JAMES MOSES SMART

James moved to Beaver, Fillmore County, Minnesota in 1866 and then to Texas in 1879 where he died in 1895. The next part of the story follows the journeys of James & Margaret Clapp and their descendants.

MOSES JACKSON SMART

Mary Ann's beloved little baby, Moses lied about his age to join the Union Army at seventeen. He was soon mustered out and received a $50 pension from the US Army for the rest of his life. [Wayne Mullins has a copy of his discharge papers] [Phyllis Griffith said Mary bought him back out of the Army. Why would he get a pension? Was he hurt? Needs further investigation starting with a look at Wayne's papers]

He and Adaline Rosella Faucett had eleven children: David Jackson, Milford Agustus, Laura Belle, Myrtle Pearl, Ila Rebecca, Ethel Cloe, Rosella Florence, Iva Maude, Olive Fern, Emily Roberta and Elva Elizabeth Smart.

Moses later moved to Illinois and Kansas. He joined some of his children out west in Wenatchee, Washington. He later died there in 1925, an old gentleman of 82.

SMARTs in WASHINGTON

Many Smarts ended up in Washington State in what seems to have been...simply...a matter of coincidence. But was it?. Those already out west after the Civil War found better job opportunities by continuing westward, weather they continued farming or they found other work. Those who could pick an apple tree could always find seasonal work.

The Civil War scattered the Smart Family from Illinois. Brothers and sisters lost touch with each other over those trying years. Cousins have probably lived in the same neighborhoods or worked shoulder-to-shoulder with cousins without knowing it.

Descendants of Moses Jackson Smart, living in the Wenatchee area, wondered why there were other Smarts in the Wenatchee area that they didn't know. Their parents told them they weren't related. It turns out they were indeed related--all grandchildren of James Moses Smart! Moses Jackson followed his children to Wenatchee where he died. George Joseph Smart, followed his wife's family to Colville, Washington. He also died in Wenatchee.

It's possible more of the Washington Smarts are related to this family. But it's hard to tell because there's so little history published.

Another Smart family, living in the same area of Washington, started the tradition of Father's Day. We don't yet know how, or if they are related to James Moses Smart or even Joseph Reed Smart.

THE STORY OF FATHER'S DAY

Sonora Dodd, of Washington, first had the idea of a "father's day." She thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909.

Sonora wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. Smart, who was a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state.

After Sonora became an adult she realized the selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.

President Calvin Coolidge, in 1924, supported the idea of a national Father's Day. Then in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day.

Copyright © 1999 by Jerry Wilson