Beechmore: The Smiths and "Little Colonel" Connections
Captain Thomas Floyd Smith purchased Beechmore in 1880, three years after Catharine Warfield's death. He farmed and raised horses on the property. From "Louisville's first families: a series of genealogical sketches"
by Kathleen Jennings, published 1920.
Oldest son of Captain Thomas Floyd Smith, George Weissinger Smith served as Mayor of Louisville from 1917 to 1921. From the City of Louisville archives.
By the 1880 census, Beechmore had been sold to Captain Thomas Floyd and Blanch Weissinger Smith. Both were descended from pioneer Louisville families.
Captain Thomas Floyd Smith (1835-1890) was born on a military post in Little Rock, Arkanas. His maternal grandparents were the famous Missouri furtraders Marie-Therèse Bourgeois and René Augustin Chouteau, Sr., the founder of St. Louis. His mother, Emilie (August 14, 1803-June 5, 1843), was one of their 12 children.
On his father’s side, his grandparents were Abigail Floyd (sister of Col. John Floyd) and Thomas Smith, who was killed in 1786 when Indians stormed Brashears Fort by Bear Grass Creek near Louisville. His father, Thomas Floyd Smith, Sr., was a career military man. According to “Creoles of St. Louis by Paul Beckwith” (St. Louis; Nixon Jones Printing Company: 1893), he was first appointed an ensign of the Rifles in 1813 and ended his 24-year military career as a major in 1837:
He particularly distinguished himself in the Indian war, and at the engagements of Stoney and Seconda Creeks. He was adjutant to General Gaines and led the storming party in the attack on Fort Erie, participating in the night attack on the English flotilla. He was promoted captain in 1819, and was transferred to the first regiment of infantry in 1821. He served in the Black Hawk war (editor’s note: an uprising of the Sauk, Meskwakis and Kickapoo tribes).
Captain Thomas Floyd Smith, Jr. also served a short hitch in the U.S. Army from 1855 to 1858. He resigned his lieutenant commission and later became captain of the Washington Guards of St. Louis. Beckwith notes that he:
…was with General Frost in the campaign against the Kansians in 1861, was adjutant of his regiment at Camp Jackson, but escaped capture. He took no further part in the war. After the war Captain Smith located in Oldham County, Kentucky, where he devoted the rest of his years to farming and planting. He was a lover of fine horses and had some noted stock on his place. He was also an ardent sportsman and found his recreation in hunting big game.
Both Captain Thomas Floyd Smith, Jr., and his brother, Louis Chouteau Smith, married granddaughters of the pioneer Louisville merchant Cuthbert Bullitt. Louis’s wife was his cousin, Mary Bullitt, daughter of Alfred and Minerva Beckwith Bullitt, and Thomas’s wife was Blanch Weissinger, daughter of George W. and Amanthus Bullitt Weissinger.
The Smiths’ decision to purchase Beechmore was undoubtedly influenced by Judge Peter B. Muir. The attorney served as executor of Catherine Warfield’s estate and his oldest daughter, Bell, was married to Harry Weissinger, Blanch’s brother. Judge Muir was responsible for selling Beechmore according to the terms of Catherine Warfield’s will.
The Smiths had four of their own children, plus a niece, living with them at Beechmore when the 1880 census was taken:
· Smith, Thomas, age 45
· Blanche, wife, 41
· Amanthus, daughter, 19
· George, son, 15
· Anna, daughter, 13
· Thomas, son, 11
· Weissinger, Amelia, niece, 12
The Smiths attended the Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church and at one time, Blanch served as president of their women’s group, according to “The United Presbyterian Church in Pewee Valley 1866-1966 Anniversary” booklet.
Captain Thomas Floyd Smith (1835-1890) was born on a military post in Little Rock, Arkanas. His maternal grandparents were the famous Missouri furtraders Marie-Therèse Bourgeois and René Augustin Chouteau, Sr., the founder of St. Louis. His mother, Emilie (August 14, 1803-June 5, 1843), was one of their 12 children.
On his father’s side, his grandparents were Abigail Floyd (sister of Col. John Floyd) and Thomas Smith, who was killed in 1786 when Indians stormed Brashears Fort by Bear Grass Creek near Louisville. His father, Thomas Floyd Smith, Sr., was a career military man. According to “Creoles of St. Louis by Paul Beckwith” (St. Louis; Nixon Jones Printing Company: 1893), he was first appointed an ensign of the Rifles in 1813 and ended his 24-year military career as a major in 1837:
He particularly distinguished himself in the Indian war, and at the engagements of Stoney and Seconda Creeks. He was adjutant to General Gaines and led the storming party in the attack on Fort Erie, participating in the night attack on the English flotilla. He was promoted captain in 1819, and was transferred to the first regiment of infantry in 1821. He served in the Black Hawk war (editor’s note: an uprising of the Sauk, Meskwakis and Kickapoo tribes).
Captain Thomas Floyd Smith, Jr. also served a short hitch in the U.S. Army from 1855 to 1858. He resigned his lieutenant commission and later became captain of the Washington Guards of St. Louis. Beckwith notes that he:
…was with General Frost in the campaign against the Kansians in 1861, was adjutant of his regiment at Camp Jackson, but escaped capture. He took no further part in the war. After the war Captain Smith located in Oldham County, Kentucky, where he devoted the rest of his years to farming and planting. He was a lover of fine horses and had some noted stock on his place. He was also an ardent sportsman and found his recreation in hunting big game.
Both Captain Thomas Floyd Smith, Jr., and his brother, Louis Chouteau Smith, married granddaughters of the pioneer Louisville merchant Cuthbert Bullitt. Louis’s wife was his cousin, Mary Bullitt, daughter of Alfred and Minerva Beckwith Bullitt, and Thomas’s wife was Blanch Weissinger, daughter of George W. and Amanthus Bullitt Weissinger.
The Smiths’ decision to purchase Beechmore was undoubtedly influenced by Judge Peter B. Muir. The attorney served as executor of Catherine Warfield’s estate and his oldest daughter, Bell, was married to Harry Weissinger, Blanch’s brother. Judge Muir was responsible for selling Beechmore according to the terms of Catherine Warfield’s will.
The Smiths had four of their own children, plus a niece, living with them at Beechmore when the 1880 census was taken:
· Smith, Thomas, age 45
· Blanche, wife, 41
· Amanthus, daughter, 19
· George, son, 15
· Anna, daughter, 13
· Thomas, son, 11
· Weissinger, Amelia, niece, 12
The Smiths attended the Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church and at one time, Blanch served as president of their women’s group, according to “The United Presbyterian Church in Pewee Valley 1866-1966 Anniversary” booklet.
In 1881, Pewee Valley growers shipped some 700,000 pounds of grapes.
Thomas Floyd Smith, III may have started his career as a grape picker, but he ended it as president of the Louisville Paper Company.
Louisville Paper Company factory in 1912, from a promotional brochure called, "The Beginning of a Greater Career."
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A biography of their son, Thomas Floyd Smith III, from Volume IV of “History of Kentucky,” by William Elsey Connelly and E.M. Coulter, Ph.D. (American Historical Society, 1922) noted:
…Thomas Floyd Smith was educated in the schools of Oldham and Jefferson counties, and the first money he ever earned was picking grapes at fifty cents per day… In the late 1800s and early 1900s, grapes were a huge cash crop in Pewee Valley. So it’s not surprising that Thomas Floyd Smith III – who later organized and became the president of Louisville Paper Company – claimed his first job was picking grapes. An 1881 report by Kentucky Commissioner of Horticulture G.E. Bowman, showed that J. Sacksteder was growing grapes and producing wine on his acreage -- sack, muskatucky, grape brandy and kalista. According to the 1879 Beers & Lanagan map, Sacksteder’s farm was located off what is now Houston Lane on the site of Martha’s Vineyard. The September 4, 1891 Semi-Weekly Interior Journal carried a newsbrief that noted, “It is estimated that 700,000 pounds of grapes will be shipped by the growers in Pewee Valley this season.” In 1892, while the Smiths were living at Beechmore, the local growers incorporated, according to this excerpt from Katie S. Smith’s “Pewee Valley: The Land of the Little Colonel:" Articles of incorporation of The Pewee Valley Grape Growers Association were filed on April 2, 1892. Nature of business: Buying fruit packages for members of the association; buying land and selling fruits, grapes, Agricultural & horticultural products general and shipping and selling such products. First Board of Directors: A. E. Clore, Lem Zaring, T.K. Barbee, Harry Hudson and Thomas Hite. Several Pewee Valley farmers displayed grapes at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, according to a catalog of the Agriculture Building and Dairy Bulding exhibits published by Moses P. Handy. They included one of the directors of The Pewee Valley Grape Growers Association, Thomas K. Barbee, as well as Jacob Going, Lemuel Going and D. H. Reddish. Grapes were also the impetus for the extension of Central Avenue from Peace Lane to the old Ballardsville Turnpike- Boonesboro Road (now Rollington Road). The extension gave local farmers a direct route to the Pewee Valley depot. |
Blanch died in 1887 and Thomas on January 12, 1890. A simple obituary ran in the “Courier-Journal” when the captain died:
Capt. Smith’s Funeral
The funeral of the late Capt. Thomas Floyd Smith took place at 1:30 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Brief services were held at his late residence in Pewee Valley, after which the remains were brought into Cave Hill Cemetery.
Capt. Smith’s Funeral
The funeral of the late Capt. Thomas Floyd Smith took place at 1:30 o’clock yesterday afternoon. Brief services were held at his late residence in Pewee Valley, after which the remains were brought into Cave Hill Cemetery.
Little Colonel Connections
This scene from the movie shows the Little Colonel with her mother and great aunt Sallie Tyler (far right) on the porch of the Shermans' Pewee Valley cottage.
The Smiths may not have lived in Pewee Valley very long, but they did help contribute to the town’s elite reputation through Annie Fellows Johnston’s Little Colonel stories. Beechmore appeared in the very first book – though not by name -- as the home of the Tylers, the Little Colonel’s great-aunt and uncle.
Just as in the story, Captain Thomas Floyd Smith and his wife, Blanch, were the real Little Colonel’s great-uncle and aunt. Blanch’s brother was Col. George W. Weissinger, Hattie Cochran’s (the real Little Colonel’s) grandfather. The Smiths helped raise Hattie’s mother, Amelia Weissinger Cochran, after her own mother died.
Captain Smith’s great-granddaughter Olivia Smith, says that according to family legend, the portrait of Thomas Floyd Smith appeared in the "Little Colonel" stories. It was the inspiration for the portrait of the Old Colonel’s late son, Tom, which hung in the drawing room at the Locust. The portrait was described in Chapter IX of “The Little Colonel:”
EVERY evening after that during Lloyd's visit the fire burned on the hearth of the long drawing-room. All the wax candles were lighted, and the vases were kept full of flowers, fresh from the conservatory.
She loved to steal into the room before her grandfather came down, and carry on imaginary conversations with the old portraits.
Tom's handsome, boyish face had the greatest attraction to her. His eyes looked down so smilingly into hers that she felt he surely understood every word she said to him.
In the story, Tom died fighting for the Confederacy during the War Between the States. In reality, however, Colonel George W. Weissinger never had a son. He didn’t marry until after the war and his only child was his daughter, Amelia. Annie Fellows Johnston may have combined the portrait of Captain Thomas Floyd Smith with a Civil War story she heard first-hand through another Pewee Valley family, the Clelands.
The Smith family’s final Little Colonel contribution didn’t occur until 1935, when the Shirley Temple movie was released. Their grandson, Karl Smith, parlayed the design skills he first learned working in advertising for his Uncle Thomas Floyd Smith, III’s paper company into designing the Little Colonel Game for Selchow & Righter Co. in New York.
Just as in the story, Captain Thomas Floyd Smith and his wife, Blanch, were the real Little Colonel’s great-uncle and aunt. Blanch’s brother was Col. George W. Weissinger, Hattie Cochran’s (the real Little Colonel’s) grandfather. The Smiths helped raise Hattie’s mother, Amelia Weissinger Cochran, after her own mother died.
Captain Smith’s great-granddaughter Olivia Smith, says that according to family legend, the portrait of Thomas Floyd Smith appeared in the "Little Colonel" stories. It was the inspiration for the portrait of the Old Colonel’s late son, Tom, which hung in the drawing room at the Locust. The portrait was described in Chapter IX of “The Little Colonel:”
EVERY evening after that during Lloyd's visit the fire burned on the hearth of the long drawing-room. All the wax candles were lighted, and the vases were kept full of flowers, fresh from the conservatory.
She loved to steal into the room before her grandfather came down, and carry on imaginary conversations with the old portraits.
Tom's handsome, boyish face had the greatest attraction to her. His eyes looked down so smilingly into hers that she felt he surely understood every word she said to him.
In the story, Tom died fighting for the Confederacy during the War Between the States. In reality, however, Colonel George W. Weissinger never had a son. He didn’t marry until after the war and his only child was his daughter, Amelia. Annie Fellows Johnston may have combined the portrait of Captain Thomas Floyd Smith with a Civil War story she heard first-hand through another Pewee Valley family, the Clelands.
The Smith family’s final Little Colonel contribution didn’t occur until 1935, when the Shirley Temple movie was released. Their grandson, Karl Smith, parlayed the design skills he first learned working in advertising for his Uncle Thomas Floyd Smith, III’s paper company into designing the Little Colonel Game for Selchow & Righter Co. in New York.
