The Sam P. Smith Family

Sam P. Smith & his wife, Lucy Ann George Smith

with their children Ida Bell (b. 1874), James Parnick (b. 1875),

Thomas W. (b. 1879), Ethie (b. 1882), Claude (b. 1885)

Barbara (called "Bobbie" & born 1896).*

     In the summer of 1986 my Mother was working on her Master's Thesis in Interior Design at the University of Tennessee. Her chosen topic was a study of her childhood home in the Paulette Community. I went with her one afternoon to meet with Mr. H.C. Hines to get some background information about my grandparents house.  The afternoon we spent with him was one of the most interesting research trips I ever took with my mother.  Mr. Hines was the grandson of Sam P. Smith and the son of Mrs. Ethie Smith Hines. He began the conversation by saying, "So, you want to know about my old homeplace in Union County."  He then talked at length about the house and his grandfather's store and the woods and creeks he spent time playing in when he was a boy. At one point he went and found a sheet of paper and drew a map of the way he remembered things to be.  He graciously gave my mother this family photograph as well as several photographs of the house in it's full gothic splendor. My mother's thesis, entitled "Evolution of a Folk House" was published in the winter of 1987 and she received her Master's Degree that spring. 

* A seventh child, Sallie, was not born at the time this photo was taken.