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Andrew
Farney Smyth,
soldier and
riverman, son
of Andrew and
Susannah Smyth
of North
Carolina, was
born "on the
road going
through
Tennessee" in
1817 and
reared at his
father's mill
near Moulton,
Alabama. He
lived most of
his life in
Jasper County,
Texas, where
he was a
planter,
lumberman, and
riverman. He
left home in
the autumn of
1835 with a
party of other
youths who
journeyed
overland to
Texas with the
intention of
joining the
celebrated Red
Rovers,qv
a volunteer
company from
Courtland,
Alabama,
formed to
fight in the
Texas
Revolution.qv
The runaways
were delayed
in Nacogdoches
and later
learned that
most of the
Red Rovers had
been massacred
at Goliad.
Smyth went
south to join
his elder
brother George
Washington
Smythqv
in Jasper
County. He
enlisted with
the Jasper
Volunteers,
was made first
lieutenant,
and with the
company
marched out to
join the
revolutionary
army,qv
but arrived
after the
battle of San
Jacinto.qv
As a member of
the Jasper
Volunteers,
Smyth rode
from San
Jacinto in the
escort that
took the
Mexican army
back to the
Rio Grande.
With the war
over, and a
land grant in
hand, he
returned to
Jasper County,
where he moved
in with his
brother, whom
he assisted in
the operation
of a cotton
plantation on
Walnut Run.
Andrew, a
trained
surveyor like
his brother,
also assisted
George in that
capacity. In
years to come,
when the elder
Smyth's public
career took
him elsewhere,
Andrew managed
George's farms
and other
interests in
Jasper County.
As
early as 1838
he began his
career as a
riverman by
building
flatboats,
which he would
load with
Jasper cotton
and float on
the Angelina
and Neches
rivers to the
Gulf of Mexico
at Sabine
Pass. On the
coast he would
sell cotton
for his
various Jasper
clients and
then sell the
boat for
lumber, before
heading home
on horseback
to Jasper. By
the mid-1840s
he had seen
the advantage
of upriver
commerce and
had built the
keelboat
Jasper,
on which, with
a flotilla of
flatboats, he
would descend
the river with
cotton, corn,
and tobacco.
From his
clients'
cotton money
he would make
purchases as
they
requested,
fill the Jasper
with them, and
then have the
boat towed
home. In this
middleman role
he made
valuable
business
contacts in
Galveston, New
Orleans, and
St. Louis. At
the outset his
crew worked on
shares; later
he found it
more
advantageous
to pay wages.
In 1844 Smyth
journeyed to
Kentucky,
where he
married Emily
Allen,
daughter of
Benjamin and
Nancy Allen of
Owensboro, and
niece of
Francis M.
Grigsby (Mrs.
George W.
Smyth). To
this union
were born five
children.
First the
Smyths
occupied a log
house on high
bluffs where
Indian Creek
pours into the
Angelina. In
1845 a friend
purchased for
Smyth 1,060
acres of land
on the
Angelina River
at Indian
Creek, two
miles upriver
from
Bevilport. In
1849 Smyth
acquired the
title to this
land. In about
1850 the
Smyths moved
to a new frame
house toward
the center of
their property
and away from
the river. A
T-shaped
structure with
an open
central hall
they called
the entry
still stands
much as it was
when they knew
it. The house
was apparently
built in part
from timbers
from the
keelboat Jasper.
Captain
Smyth-as he
was by then
universally
called-developed
a variety of
business
endeavors
through the
1850s. He
built two
water-powered
mills on
Indian Creek,
one a
gristmill and
the other a
sawmill. Each
had a great
turbine wheel.
His business
accounts show
that by 1855
he employed
some eighty
people
full-time at
Smyth Mills.
The several
slaves he
owned were
domestic
workers. In
1856 he
entered a
partnership
with William
A. Ferguson to
establish a
general
merchandise
store in
Bevilport. The
partnership
was not
successful,
and Smyth,
finding
himself near
bankruptcy,
turned to
friends among
the commission
merchants in
Galveston for
assistance in
buying
Ferguson out.
He saved the
store, which,
as Smyth's
Mercantile, he
kept in
operation for
many years
after.
Smyth
joined the
Jasper
Volunteers in
February 1862
but left the
company within
a month and
returned home.
His activities
during the
Civil Warqv
remain
something of a
mystery; he
served part of
the time as
county judge,
even though it
is clear from
his papers
that he was
actually away
from Jasper
County much of
the time.
After the
Civil War he
purchased the
first of his
two
steamboats,
the Camargo.
Though it was
highly
profitable,
the boat had
mechanical
difficulties
and was
replaced in
the early
seventies by
the
Laura,
a new boat,
which Smyth
bought in
Evansville,
Indiana. This
sternwheeler
was the
premier vessel
on the Neches
for a quarter
century, a
familiar sight
at Sabine Pass
and, on
occasion, at
Galveston.
Used both for
freight and
passenger
service, she
made the
journey from
Bevilport to
the coast and
back
(thirty-five
days each way)
on a regular
basis,
stopping at
many
now-vanished
villages. She
provided the
first
dependable,
scheduled
transportation
in lower East
Texas. In
Beaumont,
Texas, on a
stop of the
Laura,
on October 22,
1879, Smyth
died suddenly
of unknown
causes. He is
buried in
Magnolia
Cemetery in
Beaumont,
where a Texas
state marker
honors his
service in the
Texas
Revolution.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
William Seale,
Texas
Riverman: The
Life and Times
of Captain
Andrew Farney
Smyth
(Austin:
University of
Texas Press,
1966).
William
Seale
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