Smith, John G. bio

History of Fulton County, Illinois; together with Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chas. C. Chapman & Co., Peoria, Illinois, 1879, page 963, Woodland Township
John G. Smith, agriculturist, was born in Coshocton Co., O., June 15, 1822. his father, James Smith, was born in Prince William Co., in the Old Dominion, where he followed farming, and married Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Wm. Dawson, by whom he had 6 children, John, the eldest. In 1839 James Smith, with his family, settled in Kerton township, where he shortly afterward entered 160 acres. Mr. Smith was in the woods one day when a gang of deer were running towards him, and he concealed himself in a brush-heap; the deer came rushing on, and one deer, as he was leaping over the brush-heap, was caught by Mr. Smith, who held and slew the animal without weapons. Mr. James Smith died in 1844, and was buried in Kerton tp., where also the remains of his wife are buried. John was in his 18th year when his parents came to Fulton Co. June 15, 1849, he married Miss Amanda Hughes, a daughter of Taylor Hughes, by whom he has 8 children, James T., Wm. J., Mary S., Ariel E., Zilla, John A., Emma L. and Bertha. Mr. S. is the owner of 136 acres of valuable land in this tp.; has been Constable and School Trustee.