My Genealogy Hound

Drury D. Smart. Among the many eminent and enterprising agriculturists of Independence County, Ark., worthy of mention in these pages, is Mr. Smart, who has been identified with the farming interests of the community since 1856. He is a son of Reuben and Margaret (Melton) Smart, natives of Rutherford County, N. C., and he was born in the same place. He partly completed his education in his native county, and after the death of his father, in June, 1845, he and his mother, in the fall of that year, emigrated to East Tennessee, and here finished his schooling and grew to mature years. From 1856 to 1859 he worked as a farm hand in Independence County, Ark., but at the latter date removed to Little Rock, and engaged in stage driving, being employed by Messrs. Hanger & Gaines, who were extensive mail contractors, and remained with them about two years. In 1861 he again returned to Oil Trough Bottom, where he gave his attention to tilling the soil until 1862, at which date he enlisted in Col. Dobbins’ Cavalry regiment of Arkansas Volunteers, and remained in the army until 1865, participating in the battles of Helena and Marks’ Mills, where 1,300 of Gen. Steele’s command were captured, together with ninety-six wagons and teams and four pieces of artillery, this blow effectually putting an end to the Red River expedition. In 1864 he was in the saddle forty-two days, in pursuit of Gen Steele’s command, who was attempting to form a junction with Gen. Banks in his Red River expedition, but, as stated above, the attempt only met with failure. June 5, 1865, he was mustered out of service and returned to civil life, locating in Cache Township, Jackson County, Ark. He was married in the summer of the same year to Miss Sarah Obarr, of Jackson County, a native of Georgia, from which State her parents emigrated to Arkansas, in 1848 or 1849. After making three crops in Jackson County, he returned to Oil Trough Bottom, and was an extensive farmer of that region until 1871, when he moved to Faulkner County, this State, and homesteaded eighty acres of heavily-timbered land, and at once set energetically to work to clear and improve his land. He cleared and put forty acres under cultivation, built a good double log house and other buildings, and made many other valuable improvements during his twelve years’ residence in the county. In 1885 he returned to Independence County, the hub around which he had so long revolved, and has since been farming on land belonging to E. L. Watson, of Newport, Ark. Mr. Smart and his wife are the parents of six children, two of whom have attained their majority: James D., Jesse Y., Reuben T., John M., Alice L. A., and William Asher. Mr. Smart is a patron of education, and is giving his children good advantages. He is a Democrat in politics, and while in Jackson County, held the office of justice of the peace of Cache Township. He was a member of the Wheel during its existence, and he and wife are in communion with the Missionary Baptist Church.