12Henry Irvin Smith
Key Facts
Snapshot:moonshiner; went to prison for punching a policeman
Parents:24Thomas J. Smith
25Dollie Oxley
Born:7 August 1902
Houston County, Georgia
Died:30 September 1964
Macon, Bibb County, Georgia
Buried:Carr Station Cemetery, Hancock County, Georgia
Coordinates: N33.20753 W83.10418

12Henry Irvin Smith was born 7 August 19021,2 (although one record states 7 July 19023) in Houston County, Georgia3 to parents 24Thomas J. Smith1,4-6 and 25Dollie Oxley.1,6

I have a few photos of 12Henry. I've colorized, enhanced, cropped, and shrunk the images below; use the sliders to see the images in their more original appearance, or see my original, lossless-quality scans here and here .

I have a few photos of 12Henry. I've cropped and shrunk the images below; see my original, lossless-quality scans here and here .

12Henry and 13Omie
"Henry I. Smith and Mr. Phillips (friend)"
Labeled on the back: "Jean[,] Henry I. Smith"

The 1910 and 1920 censuses show 12Henry with his family in Houston County.4,5


1910: 24Thomas' family in 1910 in militia district 500 (map), Houston County, Georgia. Full page.4



1920: 24Thomas' family in 1920 in militia district 769 (map), Houston County, Georgia. Full page.5

12Henry married 13Oma Mae Collins on 19 June 1926 in Baldwin County.8


1926: 12Henry's and 13Oma Mae Collins' marriage record8

By 1930 they had two children and were living in Baldwin County.9


1930: 12Henry's family in militia district 321 (map), Baldwin County, Georgia. Full page.9

12Henry's alcoholism put a serious strain on his relationship with 13Oma. During an interview in 2016 their daughter Joyce described an incident that occurred circa 1933:10

Joyce: I told y'all when Daddy got to drinkin', he was pretty bad, but Daddy was the best-hearted person you would ever wanna meet. He would do anything for anybody. And he, one day, Momma was working, and I forget what the fuss was about ... but we had [a] well, we lived on, over there on Zebulon Road, over there, uh, right behind where I live now, y'all, Zebulon Road, and we had a well. And he took Mama, y'all, and held her up over that well. Me there, screaming with all I could scream. I knew he was gon' threw her in that well.

3
[redacted, 3]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my mother (ahnentafel #3).

: He had been drinkin' then?

Joyce: Yeah. I say that will stay with me the rest of my life. I was six years old.

[...]

Joyce: If he was just drinkin' a little bit, y'all, he was a lot of fun, but if he ever got too much, he could be, ooooh he was mean. [...] And he wasn't mean to us. He was mean to Mama. He was always mean to Mama. He never was mean to the children.10

As alluded by Joyce's statement, the family had moved to Bibb County in the early 1930's. The 1940 census shows that they were paying $7 a month to rent a home at 515 Log Cabin Blvd. in Bibb County,11 although that street is now known as Log Cabin Road (as can be seen by comparing the 1940 enumeration district map with a modern map). Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out precisely where 515 was; no such address now exists, and I assume the house numbers were changed and reassigned at some point.


1940: 12Henry's family in militia district 1085 (map), Bibb County, Georgia. Full page.11

The 1940 census also describes 12Henry as an "apprentice carpenter." His children Joyce and 6
[redacted, 6]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my maternal grandfather (ahnentafel #6).

explained during an interview in 2016:10

[6]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my maternal grandfather (ahnentafel #6).

: Mama tried work, but she wasn't able.

[3]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my mother (ahnentafel #3).

: She wasn't able, so she didn't really work?

[6]: Nu-unh.

[3]: What did your Daddy do?

[6]: He done a little bit of everything.

[3]: He was like a little handyman, whatever needed doing?

[6]: Well, haul, cut wood, and stuff like that. And he always worked for hisself, more or less.

Joyce: [some inaudible comments in the background]. He owned these trucks, and he had these black workers.10

Joyce and
[6]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my maternal grandfather (ahnentafel #6).

also explained that 12Henry and his brother Thomas were illicit moonshiners, that 12Henry served time in prison due to an altercation while being arrested for moonshining, and further describe the strain that 12Henry's alcohol abuse put on his family:10

[3]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my mother (ahnentafel #3).

: So what'd he [Uncle Tom] do, moonshine or just a store?

[6]: Just a store. Well, he moonshined, too!

[laughter]

[6]: Him and Daddy both!

[much later in the interview...] Joyce: Daddy was good to me. [...] But he was mean as the Devil when he got drunk.

[6]: Yeah, he was.

[...]

[6]: So did he drink moonshine or just liquor?

Joyce: Liquor. But he made, he he went to jail for moonshining.

[...]

Joyce: He didn't have to serve but about a year. But the reason he had to serve,
[3]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my mother (ahnentafel #3).

, the policeman came and was gon' arrest him, and uh, the policeman started cussin'. And Mildred was with him. And Daddy slapped him. Wasn't nobody gonna sit over there and cuss in front of his children. And boy, that got him in trouble. I'll never forget that. We lived on Zebulon Road then. But uh, uh one time Mama had worked so hard cooking, and she had the best of it[?] out on the table, and he come in drunk. And he got mad with her 'cause she had done something or something like that. He took that table cloth, y'all, and all that went BLAM! on the floor. Every bit of it. That was just the type of man he was. He was great, he was good, but if he got drunk, that was it. And you know the black people that worked for them loved him, 'cause he would buy them Christmas.10

12Henry's World War II draft registration card suggests that he had moved at least temporarily to work at Fort Gordon in Augusta.3


12Henry's WWII draft registration card3

In 1946 12Henry purchased a small plot on Heard Avenue in Macon. As of 2011 his son Henry Lamon Smith had possession of the original deed, which he allowed me to copy: front, back. The property's street address can be deduced as 531 Heard Avenue (since the deed describes the property as "lot Number #19 in Block A," and the property's parcel ID on the Bibb County Assessor's website ends with "A19"). According to 12Henry's son Larry, Henry personally built a house there.10 The property owners were granted a demolition permit in 2018, and the house no longer exists,12 but here's a photograph of the house taken circa 2011 along with a "blueprint" of sorts:13


531 Heard Avenue, circa 2011. This photo has been modified; see the original file.13


Layout of 12Henry's house at 531 Heard Avenue.13

Not surprisingly, Macon's 1949 city directory and the 1950 census shows them still at 531 Heard.14,15


12Henry and 13Omie in Macon's 1949 city directory. Full page.14


12Henry's family in the 1950 census. Full page.15

However, sometime thereafter 13Omie divorced 12Henry due to his alcoholism.10 12Henry moved into a residence at Bowden Homes in Macon.10

By late April 1964 he was living at the Miller Hotel in Macon. While there he bought an Oldsmobile.16


12Henry's vehicle registration in 1964. Higher-quality image.16

He died a few months later. His granddaughter
[3]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my mother (ahnentafel #3).

recalls his being in the hospital, perhaps around this time: "I remember when he was in the hospital in Macon [...] and he was laying on the bed, and I was little, so I--he had stomach trouble or something. But I heard his stomach growling, and he was say--and I started laughing or something at him, 'cause I would laugh a lot with him. And he said, 'Come here and listen.' I put my ear to it. Me and him just laughed and laughed." 10

He passed away at 7:40 AM on 30 September 1964.1 His death certificate and obituary are copied below.1,6 The SSDI shows that his Social Security number was 253-16-8026.17

12Henry is buried in Carr Station Cemetery in Hancock County, Georgia at coordinates N33.20753 W83.10418. Below is a photo of his tombstone.2

Sources Cited:

1: Bibb County, Georgia death certificate 25646 for Henry Irvin Smith, who died 30 September 1964

2: Tombstone of Henry I. Smith, Carr Station Cemetery, Hancock County, Georgia at coordinates N33.20753 W83.10418. Photograph taken by 1Bryant Knight, circa 2012.

3: World War Two Draft Registration Cards. Henry Irving Smith, born 7 July 1902, Houston County, Georgia. NARA record group 147. Ancestry.com ("U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947" / Georgia / Bandy-Sparling / Smith, Golden-Smith, Homer Ervin / image 1329 of 2044), accessed 8 April 2020.

4: 1910 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). Militia district 500, Houston County, Georgia. Enumeration district 39, sheet 8A, dwelling 122, family 122, Thomas J. Smith household. NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 195. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RVP-KSX?i=14&cc=1727033&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AML24-9RK>.

5: 1920 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). Militia district 769, Houston County, Georgia. Enumeration district 49, sheets 5B and 6A, dwelling 104, family 104, Thomas J. Smith household. NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 263. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9R63-F26?i=9&cc=1488411&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMJ6C-287>.

6: "Henry I. Smith Services Today," Macon Telegraph (Macon, Georgia), Thursday morning 1 October 1964, page 6, 1st column, halfway down the page

7: Several undated photographs of 12Henry I. Smith, provided to me by his son Henry Lamon Smith on 17 September 2011. Some are from original photographs, and some are from mere copies. The photos shown above are modified from their original appearance. You can see my original, raw scans here.

8: Baldwin County, Georgia. Marriage book 1925, page 93, marriage of Henry I. Smith and Oma Mae Collins, dated 19 June 1926. Copied from the Baldwin County Probate Court office on 18 October 2011. Despite being labeled "1925," the book actually contains marriage records from 23 May 1925 through 11 April 1930.

9: 1930 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). Militia district 321, Baldwin County, Georgia. Enumeration district 5-8, sheet 6A, dwelling 97, family 99, Henry Smith household. NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 336. Internet Archive, <https://archive.org/details/georgiacensus00reel336/page/n1000/mode/1up>, accessed 2 May 2020.

10:
An interview at the home of 6
[6]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my maternal grandfather (ahnentafel #6).

(159 Fox Hill Rd SW, Milledgeville, Georgia; coordinates N33.038169 W83.293170) on 30 October 2016. I recorded the interview and later transcribed selected segments. There were six people participating in the discussion:
[6]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my maternal grandfather (ahnentafel #6).

, his wife
[redacted, 6w]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is the wife of maternal grandfather. The first letter of her first name is F.

,
[3]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my mother (ahnentafel #3).

, 1Bryant Knight and his wife
[redacted, W]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my wife.

, and Joyce Sweat (sister of
[6]
To protect my privacy and security, the names of certain close relatives have been redacted.

This individual is my maternal grandfather (ahnentafel #6).

).

11: 1940 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). Militia district 1085, Bibb County, Georgia. Enumeration district 11-73, sheet 12B, family 281, Henry I. Smith household. FamilySearch, <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9M1-49TW?i=23&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AK722-S47>.

12: Bibb County, Georgia. Macon/Bibb County Board of Tax Assessors, property record card for parcel Q093-0258. Online, <https://qpublic.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=702&LayerID=11410&PageTypeID=4&PageID=4868&Q=1078709621&KeyValue=Q0930258300+A19>, accessed 20 May 2020.

13: Bibb County, Georgia. Macon/Bibb County Board of Tax Assessors, property record card for parcel Q093-0258. Online, <http://www.co.bibb.ga.us/TaxAssessors/PropertyCard/PropertyCard.asp?P=Q093-0258>, accessed 17 September 2011. Notice that the Assessor has updated the website since 2011, and the photograph of the house is now gone. Fortunately I saved a copy back in 2011 before the house was demolished.

14: Polk's Macon (Bibb County, Ga.) City Directory 1949-50 (R. L. Polk & Co., Richmond, Virginia, 1949), page 462. Ancestry.com ("U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995" / Georgia / Macon / 1949 / Macon, Georgia, City Directory, 1949 / image 233 of 524), record URL <https://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=USDirectories&h=567956495>, accessed 21 May 2020. You can view the full page if you want.

15: 1950 U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule). Bibb County, Georgia. Enumeration district 11-3, sheet 10, dwelling 94, Henry I. Smith household. National Archives, <https://1950census.archives.gov/search/?county=Bibb&ed=11-3&name=meadows&page=1&state=GA>, accessed 10 November 2022.

16: Georgia vehicle registration application for a 1951 [or 1957?] Oldsmobile car, manufacturer ID 8C-284703, purchased by Henry I. Smith on 27 April 1964. Copy provided to me by the applicant's son Henry Lamon Smith on 17 September 2011.

16: Social Security Death Index entry for Henry Smith; SSN 253-16-8026; born 7 August 1902, died September 1964. Ancestry.com (copy), accessed 9 May 2023.