According to her granddaughter Gracie, Emma Smith was born 13 August 1857 near Spring Creek in Rapides Parish. Her parents had married a year before, and she was their first child.
Emma lost her father and three of her younger siblings when she was not quite six years old, in the summer of 1863. According to Emma's daughter Nettie, Emma's father Joseph was a Civil War soldier who came home and died of a typhoid fever that took most of his children as well.
Emma's mother Vashti remarried just over a year later, making Emma and her two-year-old brother Joseph Richard members of the Anderson Leonard Chafin family. Anderson was already Emma's uncle by marriage, having been married to her father's sister Prudence before. In addition to living with five of her cousins, plus the older children from Anderson's first marriage, Emma soon had five new half-siblings: Jessey, George, Cornelia, Idonia, and Sauphronia.
The Spring Hill area of Rapides Parish was intermarried and close-knit. Emma would have known all four of her grandparents as a child and three of them almost lived long enough to see her married at the age of 24 to Adrean Pettiway Stockman in 1881.
Adrean and Emma had nine children together, two sons and seven daughters: Joseph Addrean, Ida May, Nettie Lee, Charles, Emma Louella, Vashti Eugenia, Florence, Ada, and Etta V.
When oldest daughter Ida May died young, Emma took on much of the responsibility of raising her granddaughters Gracie and Jessie.
It was Gracie who described Emma once as "a homebody who loved the Book of John." The family legend was that Emma couldn't read, but she could somehow read this book of the Bible. (Note, however, that in every census she is shown as being able to read and write, although she did sign with "her mark" on her marriage record.)
Emma lost her father and three of her younger siblings when she was not quite six years old, in the summer of 1863. According to Emma's daughter Nettie, Emma's father Joseph was a Civil War soldier who came home and died of a typhoid fever that took most of his children as well.
Emma's mother Vashti remarried just over a year later, making Emma and her two-year-old brother Joseph Richard members of the Anderson Leonard Chafin family. Anderson was already Emma's uncle by marriage, having been married to her father's sister Prudence before. In addition to living with five of her cousins, plus the older children from Anderson's first marriage, Emma soon had five new half-siblings: Jessey, George, Cornelia, Idonia, and Sauphronia.
The Spring Hill area of Rapides Parish was intermarried and close-knit. Emma would have known all four of her grandparents as a child and three of them almost lived long enough to see her married at the age of 24 to Adrean Pettiway Stockman in 1881.
Adrean and Emma had nine children together, two sons and seven daughters: Joseph Addrean, Ida May, Nettie Lee, Charles, Emma Louella, Vashti Eugenia, Florence, Ada, and Etta V.
When oldest daughter Ida May died young, Emma took on much of the responsibility of raising her granddaughters Gracie and Jessie.
It was Gracie who described Emma once as "a homebody who loved the Book of John." The family legend was that Emma couldn't read, but she could somehow read this book of the Bible. (Note, however, that in every census she is shown as being able to read and write, although she did sign with "her mark" on her marriage record.)
According to her granddaughter Gracie, Emma Smith was born 13 August 1857 near Spring Creek in Rapides Parish. Her parents had married a year before, and she was their first child.
Emma lost her father and three of her younger siblings when she was not quite six years old, in the summer of 1863. According to Emma's daughter Nettie, Emma's father Joseph was a Civil War soldier who came home and died of a typhoid fever that took most of his children as well.
Emma's mother Vashti remarried just over a year later, making Emma and her two-year-old brother Joseph Richard members of the Anderson Leonard Chafin family. Anderson was already Emma's uncle by marriage, having been married to her father's sister Prudence before. In addition to living with five of her cousins, plus the older children from Anderson's first marriage, Emma soon had five new half-siblings: Jessey, George, Cornelia, Idonia, and Sauphronia.
The Spring Hill area of Rapides Parish was intermarried and close-knit. Emma would have known all four of her grandparents as a child and three of them almost lived long enough to see her married at the age of 24 to Adrean Pettiway Stockman in 1881.
Adrean and Emma had nine children together, two sons and seven daughters: Joseph Addrean, Ida May, Nettie Lee, Charles, Emma Louella, Vashti Eugenia, Florence, Ada, and Etta V.
When oldest daughter Ida May died young, Emma took on much of the responsibility of raising her granddaughters Gracie and Jessie.
It was Gracie who described Emma once as "a homebody who loved the Book of John." The family legend was that Emma couldn't read, but she could somehow read this book of the Bible. (Note, however, that in every census she is shown as being able to read and write, although she did sign with "her mark" on her marriage record.)
Emma lost her father and three of her younger siblings when she was not quite six years old, in the summer of 1863. According to Emma's daughter Nettie, Emma's father Joseph was a Civil War soldier who came home and died of a typhoid fever that took most of his children as well.
Emma's mother Vashti remarried just over a year later, making Emma and her two-year-old brother Joseph Richard members of the Anderson Leonard Chafin family. Anderson was already Emma's uncle by marriage, having been married to her father's sister Prudence before. In addition to living with five of her cousins, plus the older children from Anderson's first marriage, Emma soon had five new half-siblings: Jessey, George, Cornelia, Idonia, and Sauphronia.
The Spring Hill area of Rapides Parish was intermarried and close-knit. Emma would have known all four of her grandparents as a child and three of them almost lived long enough to see her married at the age of 24 to Adrean Pettiway Stockman in 1881.
Adrean and Emma had nine children together, two sons and seven daughters: Joseph Addrean, Ida May, Nettie Lee, Charles, Emma Louella, Vashti Eugenia, Florence, Ada, and Etta V.
When oldest daughter Ida May died young, Emma took on much of the responsibility of raising her granddaughters Gracie and Jessie.
It was Gracie who described Emma once as "a homebody who loved the Book of John." The family legend was that Emma couldn't read, but she could somehow read this book of the Bible. (Note, however, that in every census she is shown as being able to read and write, although she did sign with "her mark" on her marriage record.)
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