Site of Smith Plantation

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Site of Smith Plantation, out in Fannin County. Now settle in, because this one goes back a good long way. We're talking 1851, when a man named Gideon Smith packed up his life in Alabama and pointed himself toward Texas.

Born in 1815, Gideon had an eye for land, and when he landed in Fannin County, he didn't exactly think small. The man purchased a three-thousand-acre tract. Three thousand acres.

That's not a farm, friends, that's an ambition. But here's where it gets interesting. Gideon looks at all that land, and somewhere along the way, he decides he'd rather share it than hold it alone.

He deeded half the property to his brother, John C. Smith. John joined him out here in 1855, and the two of them set to work building something that would last.

Now these weren't just brothers, they were two very different kinds of men carving out the same piece of Texas. Gideon, the elder, the one who staked the original claim, went on to serve a term in the Texas Legislature, 1857 to 1858. Then when the Civil War came, he answered that call too, serving as a colonel in the Confederate Army.

John, meanwhile, became a doctor and practiced medicine right there in the area. A lawmaker, a colonel, and a country doctor, all on the same three thousand acres. The marker calls them both successful planters, and given what came next, that's no exaggeration.

Because here's the part that'll stop you cold if you let it. That plantation, one of the earliest in the area, has been continuously in production of grain and cattle since 1851. Since 1851.

The ground that Gideon Smith first turned has never stopped producing. Wars came and went. The legislature changed hands a hundred times.

But that land in Fannin County just kept on going. Some things, it turns out, you don't have to let go of.

What the marker says

Gideon Smith (b. 1815), a native of Alabama, moved to Fannin County in 1851 and purchased a 3000-acre tract. He deeded half of the property to his brother John C. Smith, who joined him in 1855. Gideon smith served one term in the Texas Legislature (1857-1858) and participated in the Civil War as a colonel in the Confederate Army. John Smith became a doctor and practiced medicine in the area. Both men were successful planters. Part of the plantation, one of the earliest in the area, has been continuously in production of grain and cattle since 1851.