DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, the name on this marker is Jefferson Davis Smith — Jeff, to those who knew him — born in 1862 in Kendall County, Texas, the son of Henry M. and Fanny Smith, she being a Short before she married. On its face, a quiet Texas origin story.
But friend, what happened next was anything but quiet. In 1871, young Jeff Smith was nine years old. His brother Clint was eleven.
The two boys were out herding sheep near their home — just another day's work, the kind boys did back then without a second thought — when Lipan and Comanche Indians kidnapped them both. Nine and eleven years old, out among the sheep, and then gone. Now, the marker says Jeff was reportedly bought by Apache Chief Geronimo himself and made to join his tribe.
Reportedly. That word is doing a lot of work, carrying a story almost too extraordinary to hold. But there it sits, carved into the record.
So Jeff Smith — a boy from Kendall County — spent years living among Geronimo's people. And then, somewhere around 1878, Mexican bandits captured him. Not to harm him, mind you, but to return him to his family.
For a thousand dollars reward. A thousand dollars. That was the price on bringing Jeff Smith home.
Whether you find that transaction cold or merciful probably says something about you, but either way, it worked. Jeff came back. And life, somehow, moved forward.
He married Julia Harriett Reed in 1894 and made his home in San Antonio. Born in Kendall County, taken in 1871, returned around 1878, married in 1894, gone from this world in 1940. Jeff Davis Smith lived a life that most Texans never had to imagine — and a few probably wouldn't believe.
What the marker says
(1862-1940) Jefferson (Jeff) Davis Smith, son of Henry M. and Fanny (Short) Smith, was born in Kendall County, Texas. Jeff, age 9, and his brother Clint, age 11, were kidnapped by Lipan and Comanche Indians while herding sheep near their home in 1871. Jeff was reportedly bought by Apache Chief Geronimo and made to join his tribe. Mexican bandits captured him to return him to his family for a $1,000 reward about 1878. He married Julia Harriett Reed in 1894 and moved to San Antonio. Recorded - 1993