My Genealogy Hound

HON. NOBLE SMITHSON was born December 7, 1841, near Nolensville, Williamson Co., Tenn., and resided in said county until 1853. He, with his parents, then removed to Lexington, Ala., and resided there until 1865, when he came to Pulaski, and has since continued to reside here. His father is the Rev. John G. Smithson, who was born in Virginia, in 1820, and who immigrated to Tennessee in 1830, and settled in Williamson County. He is a clergyman in the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and now resides near Pulaski. The paternal grandfather of our subject was Hezekiah Powell Smithson, a Virginian, and a soldier in the war of 1812. At one time he was sheriff of Pittsylvania County, Va. The great-grandfather of our subject was Francis Smithson, also a Virginian, who died in Maury County, Tenn. The family came from North Cumberland County, Eng., to Virginia. The mother of our subject was Ann Vaughn Ladd, born in Williamson County, Tenn., in 1818, and was a daughter of Noble Ladd and Mary Burton Ladd. Her parents were natives, respectively, of Rockingham and Stokes Counties, N. C. She died near Pulaski, Tenn., July 20, 1886. Our subject’s early life was spent on the farm. His father being in humble circumstances, he labored to aid him in the support of the family and received a good English education, and April 2, 1865, wedded Alice Patterson, of Giles County, and by this union has six children. He has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is now a Mason and Knight Templar. He is also a Knight of Honor and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a member of the Tennessee Historical Society and of the Bar Association of Tennessee. He is one of the leading lawyers of the State, and in politics is Independent. He is an advocate of woman suffrage, and district attorney-general for the Eleventh Circuit, composed of the counties of Williamson, Maury, Marshall, Giles, Lawrence, Lewis and Hickman, from November, 1867, to September, 1870. He was elected to the Thirty-eighth General Assembly as State Senator, from the Fifteenth Senatorial District, composed of the counties of Giles, Lawrence, Wayne and Lewis, November 6, 1872, for the next two years, 1873-74. He was chairman of the judiciary committee and also chairman of a special joint committee to investigate the affairs of the Bank of Tennessee. He was one of the thirteen senators who voted for the public school law of 1873, under which the present system of popular education has grown to be so efficient and beneficial to the State. He was a delegate to the National Greenback Convention at Indianapolis in 1876, which nominated Peter Cooper for the presidency. He has a large practice in the local courts and the supreme court of Tennessee, and is a distinguished lawyer and an eminent citizen.