Smith - Charity Farnsworth
Source: Crawfordsville Journal Crawfordsville, Montgomery County Indiana Friday, October 10, 1922
Reminiscences of Pioneer Days -- Story f an Old Resident of the County Descendant Telling of Pioneering a Hundred Years Ago November 8, 1822
Mrs. Charity Farnsworth Smith, daughter of Henry Farnsworth of Washington county, Pa., came to what is known now as Crawfordsville, Ind., stayed over night in a settler's tent where the soldiers monument now stands.
The following morning he rode horseback to Terre Haute where the government land office was located and entered one hundred sixty acres of land east of Crawfordsville know as the Enoch B. Smith farm on the Northwestern traction line. The Elmore land was entered at the same time.
Mrs. Smith's husband having died, she came with ten small children, the youngest age one year; Enoch, age three years. After traveling via Indian trail she reached the homestead with nothing to greet, she had the children except a large hollow log under which they made their home until she and the oldest daughter Ruth cleared and built a cabin.
The mother traveled horseback via Indian path to Cincinnati to buy grocery supplies. After a busy life she was taken on December 8, 1865, at the age of eighty - nine years.
Only two of twelve grandchildren of Enoch B. Smith are living, Farnsworth A. and Charles T. of this city. It is seldom that land stays in the hands of the same family for a century. It is surprising to note that two of the descendants of this great woman still own part of the ground that was homesteaded one hundred years ago. They are Mrs. E.O. Kirkpatrick, daughter of Jackson Smith and Mrs. Mary Smith, daughter of William Smith. - kbz