Copyright - 1999-all rights reserved
The birth dates of people still living have not been added here. They are available to imediate family members only.
Emal was the seventh child and fourth son of James and Susan (Doss) Smith. He was born at Briar Branch Fork of Harts Creek 22 February, 1920. He died at age 57 on 9 June, 1977. He married Audrey Workman, d/o Peter and Nancy Jane (Marrs) Workman. My own memories of Emal was when he was in his early twenties. I remember that he was a good looking man with blonde hair. He was at our house (and we at theirs) many times when I was a little girl. They just lived up the road from us. I remember that Emal was close friends with two of my other cousins, Jesse Sargent (who was the son of my Aunt "Doskie (Smith)and Bascom Sargent, and "Wid" Dalton. Wid and Jesse were the local "celebraties." They were both talented musicians and country singers. I remember Emal as being rather quiet and more serious when he was young. It may have been that he was shy. Hopefully, his wife and children will add more to this, to tell us more about Emal Smith, the husband and father.
Emal is buried high on a mountain top at the old homeplace of Tom Smith and Ann Eliza Steele, the first Smiths to settle on Harts Creek, in Logan County, WV.
After their marriage, Emal and Audrey lived at Verdunville (Mud Fork) He was a coal miner. Emal and Audrey had four children:
1. Effie Marlene "Lena" Smith- Lena has one child, Greg, married Susan Olsen (adopted)
Greg and Susan have 2 children
Jesse David, Scott Michael, Jennifer Lynn and Amy Christine.
Emal's daughter in law, Betty was not from the mountains, but she certainly fits the Smith family profile of determined hard working people who know what they want and how to get it. She related the following story to me and it is reprinted here with permission.
I remember being at the Smith Family Cemetery for Jesse's dad's funeral. It was very pretty, but quite a hike. They had to have someone build a road to get the funeral up there.
Jesse, Lena and I as well as several other people, rode in the hearse with the casket. The hearse got stuck on the mountain and the casket started to slide. We all had visions of it sliding out of the car and over the cliff! Lena laid across the coffin to hold it. It was quite a funeral! Finally, a truck that was ahead of us was selected to carry it the rest of the way up.
My daughter, Amy, was just a few years old. She was riding with me. We had to hand her to someone on the cliff side of the car to get her out. She was terrified! We crawled out and men had to lift the coffin from the back, over the top of the hearse and onto the truck.
I remember being in nylons and heels and crawling up the rest of the mountain on my hands and knees. When we got to the top, it was beautiful. We did come back to the grave not long after that. We wore more comfortable clothing and hiked to the top!
