George Joseph Smart & Lora Vale Edgar

George Grows Up in Texas

George was born in 1875 in Beaver Township in Fillmore County, Minnesota*, as was most of his siblings.

He became a veteran of the trail from the beginning, moving towards Texas in the 1880s when only a wee lad. By the time he was a young man, George had gathered a great deal of useful experience. He was the oldest boy in the Smart family but grew up cared-for and coddled by five older sisters.

As a young man, he rode out across the Badlands with his uncles. Serving as executor for the estate in a trade of the family's land for horses, he was given room to exercise his governing powers as the heir apparent.

He helped moved the family to Oklahoma in 1897 and homestead a large farm. Homesteading meant "breaking ground" and that first plowing of ground could be very hard work. His extended family was there to make things go smoothly. With virgin land and available water, they knew how to make a farm "work.

* [MN has birth records from 1900, death records from 1908]

As the farm began yielding glorious crops, his empire grew. Soon it was time this eldest son did as farmer's sons have done for centuries. It was time for him to settle down and raise a family of his own.

George had little chance to sharpen his social skills but he had plenty of ambition. He dreamt he would cash in on the American Dream, just beginning to unfold around him. He found himself in the middle of the vast American continent, surrounded by people from very diverse backgrounds and education. Growing up on the frontier did not prepare him for a world of "box socials" and formal dances that came with "society" now moving in and changing the world he grew up in. He had spent his life just getting to Oklahoma and now he wanted to be a big winner in the land rush where he found ways to acquire more than just a homestead.

As land became "the thing," George became a land baron of the plains. He bought, sold and traded many quarter sections as well as individual lots in and around Clinton. He even probated his mothers will, having become quite familiar with the workings of the court over in Arapaho, a pleasant few miles by horse or carriage from Clinton.

George Cuts Lora Vale from the Heard

Being too proud to let his sisters control any more of his life, he took on the task of finding and marrying the right woman. He may be shorter than his younger brothers but he wasn't going to let them best him! He would marry the prettiest girl from the best family--he'd show them all!

It was sometime during the first years of the new century, that George Joseph Smart met Lora Vale Edgar at social gatherings in the Clinton, Oklahoma area. She was a beautiful girl from a family of some repute. He was convinced from the first that she was the girl for him! Yes, she'd do just fine!

George didn't waste much time. In 1905, his proposal of marriage, put to her overburdened father, was accepted with what may have been too great a haste. All too suddenly George was getting married!

Jim Edgar 1875-1960 Colville, Washington (Eldest Son of Pascal & Mary Jane)

Around the year 1881, while the Smarts were still farming in Texas, George's future father-in-law, Pascal Wallace "Pack" Edgar was moving his family to Richmond, Missouri from Millwood, Kentucky where Pack's family had lived for over a hundred years.

Five-foot eight-inch Pack had a dark complexion, blue eyes and dark hair. He had served his time in the War, enlisting in the Union Army on March 9, 1865 as a Private, F Company, 17th Regiment, Kentucky Calvary Volunteers. He was discharged only 6 months later, on September 20, 1865, with piles and asthma.

Pack's Letters to Lora

Source/Scan for Picture

Jim was a large man and extremely nice to others. He was the only boy in the Edgar family with seven sisters. His fiancé was killed in a cyclone and he never married.

George and Jim hit it off at once--both having too many overbearing sisters trying to run their lives.

Lora Vale's Mother Dies Young

In 1895, Pack's wife, Mary Jane Paul O'Bannon, died at the age of 46 at Hardin, Ray Co., Missouri (see map), leaving him to care for four of the younger children, with the help of some of the older children. Lora Vale Edgar was about ten and her sister, Wilma, was seven.

It was probably shortly after that when Pascal moved the family, by covered wagon, to a 100-acre homestead, five miles south of Stafford, within a few miles of the Smarts farm in Clinton, Oklahoma. Jim, the oldest of two sons, and his father farmed there for many years.

George Marries Lora Vale Edgar

George married Lora Vale Edgar on New Years Day 1906 in nearby Arapaho, Oklahoma. They began married life on a section of land six miles from Clinton. From the start, Lora Vale felt she married below her station in life.

His horse-trading experiences in Texas when he was young left George with a keen desire to trade. Growing food was secondary to him--something you just did for yourself. It didn't bring in money itself. He realized the money was in trading.

Now that he had a wife to help him, he was going to accomplish big things in the world. He was going to be rich! He'd show her!

George Smart and Jim Edgar got along extremely well. Although Jim was large and George small, they found plenty of stories to tell each others since they were both plagued by a house full of sisters.

Marriage Records

George Gets Educated

Like so many during that time George had gotten what education he could when and where he could find it. The Smarts believed in education. They made great sacrifices sometimes so their kids could attend school. George learned a great deal and was a avid reader of just about all he could get his hands on.

Here is a picture of George in school when he was quite grown up. He realized the role that education would play in making him rich.

George Develops Wanderlust?

After a few years of working on their homesteaded section, George had it all fixed up. Then, in 1908, he sold the Clinton farm and moved into Cloudchief with Lara and two small children (Clifford Lee b. 11-27-06 and Clara Edna b. 2-10-08) where George opened and operated a grocery store.

Certainly, neither Lora Vale nor George seemed to excel at farm life. Few seemed up to the challenges of Western Oklahoma in the first days of settlement.

Besides, George had a trading nature that went to his very core. He always seemed more than ready to trade everything he had. He amassed a great deal of equipment but never made much growing a surplus of food.

In 1912, they moved to the original family farm in Clinton that Grover and Frances inherited when Margaret died at the end of '09. Lora had given birth to two more sons, Truest Ray b. 11-27-09 and Glenwood b. 5-3-11.

While George was struggling to establishing a paying farm, Lora was caring for a 6, 4 and 3 year-old in addition to their struggling infant and a two month-old son, Levern b. 9-21-12. As the winter of 1912 moved in on them, Glenwood would be lost (d. November 8, 1912).

Prairie Weather

One year while they were living there, a hailstorm hit, with hail as large as golf balls. George was just returning from town when the storm hit and he took refuge under the wagon. One of the horses pulling the wagon was hit in the eye by a hailstone that took his eye. Clara, their oldest daughter, had vivid memories of the dust storms on the farm. Lora would hang up a clean wash and a big wind would bring it down into the red dirt and she would have to wash the clothes all over again.

The Edgars Leave for Washington

[click for large image of Jim]

In 1914, Lora's father, Pascal, and her older brother, Jim Edgar, moved to Colville in the northeastern corner of Washington in the upper Columbia River basin. They brought 40 acres on Colville Mountain, sixteen miles north of Colville.

Back in Oklahoma

Back in Oklahoma, Lora missed her father and brother dearly. She was very close to her father, having lost her mother when she was young and Jim was everyone's favorite.

The next year (1915), George and Lora moved into Clinton where the older children began school. The year began with a new son, Ralph Wayne b. 1-22-15.

For their first summer break, Lora took five children to Colville to visit their "Grandpa Pac" and their big Uncle Jim. Cliff, nine, was a fatherly oldest child. Clara is only seven but she also helped with the three younger boys, including baby Ralph.

The next winter (1915-16), George spent much of his time in bed with rheumatism. Even touching the bed would cause great pain. Although he would have spells of rheumatism on-and-off his whole life, this would be one of the worst bout.

Willie and Lloyd Hobbs in Washington

In the spring of 1917, George and Lora moved to Colville, Washington with their five children, staying first with Jim.

But most of the summer the Smarts lived with Lora's younger sister "Aunt Bill" and Lloyd Hobbs and their family near Rice, southwest of Colville on the Columbia River. Lora gave birth to Helen Margarite b. 6-18-17.

The handle "Aunt Bill" came to Wilma Temple Edgar in stages. She was known as "Willie" from childhood. Somewhere along the way, it got shorted to "Bill." The nieces and nephews took it from there.

George was getting much better and was able to take care of a large vegetable garden Willie had planted.

George Goes to Work Near Spokane, Washington

Soon the family moved to Kettle Falls where George got work on a farm and the family moved to Greenacres, now a suburb of Spokane, on the Spokane River. Estle George was born here February 4th, 1919.

In 1921, George worked in a cement plant outside of Spokane.

George Gets Into Real Estate

George went into real estate in the 1920s. Through his new contacts, he heard of a 160-acre farm at Halfmoon Prairie, near Deer Park and the Great Northern Railroad, north of Spokane. The family bought the farm and moved there in 1923. They grew produce and took it to Spokane to sell.

The Family Pulls Together

It didn't seem to matter weather they were in Oklahoma or Washington, when it was time to pick fruit, the whole family chipped in to help friends and neighbors "get the fruit in." The money earned working the fields and orchards helped sustain them when they needed it most.

Education for the Children

The children went to school, walking 2 miles or so, and the older children finished the first 8 grades there--passing the State Tests and graduating in the spring of 1924. Clara finished the 9th grade and went on to high school in Greenacres, living with friends.

The younger children were kept in school all through the 8th grade, in spite of moving every few years. Ralph, for example, went to 1st grade in Green Acres (1921), 2nd-4th in Deer Park, 5th-7th in Goldendale and graduated in Wenatchee in 1930. Some months he only made it to school six days.

Model" T" Ford Pickup

In 1925, George bought a Model T Ford.

He traded the wagon and team for mechanized transportation. This was indeed a big change in his life. Delivering fruits and vegetables was significantly affected.

George's Motor Vehicle License

George Rides a Motorcycle

George at Range Valley Gardens

Lora Vale Breaks A Leg

One summer day, the entire family was going to the fair except Lora, who wanted to stay home and rest. She was adamant and rebuffed all protests until she got her way. They all loaded up in the truck and left early and were gone until very late in the day. George insisted she tie the cow up to graze all day and she did. When she went to move the cow one time, she couldn't get it to go where she wanted. She was a small woman and it was a large cow. While she was trying to move this cow, she somehow got her leg broken pretty badly. She had to lay there all day until the family returned and, by the time they got her to a doctor, the leg would never be straight again. She walked very poorly all the rest of her long life.

In the fall of 1926, only a few years after buying it, George sold the farm in Halfmoon Prairie and moved the family to Centerville, near Goldendale, Washington where Lora's sister Willie and her husband Lloyd Hobbs lived. Clara went to high school there, graduating in 1928.

[Willie and Lloyd moved from Rice where they lived in 1917?]

The Davis Relatives

Clay was married to Cary (Carolyn/Caroline) Edgar, one of Jim's seven sisters.

[Click thumbnail for large image of

Clay & Cary in Ashland, Oregon]

George Dies in Washington

George Smart died at the age of 59 in 1934 in Wenatchee where he is buried. George and Lora had eight children.

Lora Vale's Later Years

In 1936, Lora Vale Smart went to Madera, California to visit Cliff for the winter. The next fall she moved there, where she lived most of her remaining years alone in a little one-bedroom house with a big elm tree on a quiet stree in Madera.

She always dressed nice, wearing petticoats under her pastel dresses. She wore plenty of perfume and powder all the time. She wouldn't come out of her room until she was completely dressed and made up.

She loved gladiola and grew a few in the yard.

Post-WWII Visit with Relatives

She died in a rest home in Roseville, California on January of 1969 and is buried in Belmont Memorial Park, 201 Tielman Ave., Fresno. (Helen lived near Sacramento and Ralph was in Tracy)

Lora's Gravestone Block 24, Section 313, Grave 1

Lora's Death Certificate