John T. Smith

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight with a little road dust on top. Now, John Titus Smith was a man who covered some ground in his time. Born on March 5, 1815, up in New York, he didn't stay put for long.

He made his way south to Georgia, and then in 1849 he pointed himself toward Texas and didn't look back. He settled at a place called McKenzie's Bend, right there on the Trinity River, and set himself up on a cotton plantation. But a cotton plantation wasn't enough to hold a man like Smith.

He also operated a steamboat, the Ida Reese, working that river like it was his personal road. The Trinity giving, the Trinity taking, and John T. Smith right in the middle of it all.

Now here's where it gets interesting. The people of Houston County looked at this man, this New York transplant running boats and raising cotton, and they said, that's our Chief Justice. He served as Chief Justice, which is to say County Judge, of Houston County from 1854 to 1860.

Six years on the bench, keeping order in a county that had plenty of reasons to need it. Then came the Civil War, 1861 to 1865, and Smith fought in the Confederate Army. When the war was done, he came back and the people sent him to the Texas State Legislature, not once but several terms.

A man who kept getting called back into service, one way or another. Along the way, he had married Elizabeth Greene Gaines, born in 1819 and gone by 1860. Together they had eleven children.

Six of those children lived to adulthood, which in those days was its own kind of hard-won victory. John Titus Smith died on February 16, 1874. New York born, Texas made, and buried in Houston County ground.

The river's still out there at McKenzie's Bend. The Ida Reese is long gone. But the marker stands, and now you know the man.

What the marker says

(March 5, 1815 -- February 16, 1874) New York-born John Titus Smith moved to Texas from Georgia in 1849. He settled on a cotton plantation at McKenzie's Bend on the Trinity River and operated the steamboat "Ida Reese". Smith served as Chief Justice (County Judge) of Houston County, 1854-60. He fought in the Confederate Army in the Civil War (1861-1865) and served several terms in the Texas State Legislature. he married Elizabeth Greene Gaines (1819-1860). They had 11 children, six of whom lived to adulthood. Recorded - 1985