Giles Smith

Giles Smith was born near Union Springs, Alabama, on the plantation of Major Hardaway, who held about a hundred people. When Giles was a few months old, the major gave him to his newly married daughter Mary, who carried him home in her arms and fed him from a bottle. He never saw his parents again. He took the surname Smith because his father had been born on the Smith plantation.

He remembered the day the enslaver gathered everyone and told them they were free, and he stayed on. After he turned fifteen he was paid $2 a month, the first money he ever had. Around sixteen he set out on his own with Frank Talbot, who was taking workers to Texas, and spent two years in the Brazos River bottom, homesick. He then worked seventeen years at a cotton gin in Brownwood. On December 18, 1880, he married Dee Smith. They had six children, and she died about 1931. For years his wife wrote letters for him to his former mistress, who answered warmly until she grew ill.

In 1908 he moved to Fort Worth and worked for a packing company until he was let go for age in 1931. When interviewed he lived at 3107 Blanchard Street and took odd jobs; he said his children had all scattered and he didn't know where they were.