David Nessmith (q.v. Nesmith), b. circa 1831 in Virginia of unknown parents, d. before June 1900 at or near Illinois Station (aka Campbell) in Cherokee Indian Territory, now the Town of Gore, Sequoyah County, OK.

In 1886 lead and zinc mining became significant at Galena, Kansas extending eastward to Joplin, Missouri and south across the Kansas border into the northern part of Cherokee Indian Territory. The tradition, either started or borrowed by a descendant of David Nessmith's daughter Dora, is that David was for a period of time prior to the June 1900 census working as a lead-zinc miner in greater Galena. In the June 1900 census David's son-in-law Thomas Nimrod Stone, who married as his second wife David's daughter Lillie Margaret Nessmith, was residing between the City of Galena, Kansas and Joplin, Missouri. In the same June 1900 census, a Dora Smith, age 19 born in Arkansas, possibly David Nessmith's daughter Dora Nessmith, was enumerated as a servant to a family residing in Garden Twp in Cherokee County, Kansas. Garden Twp is adjacent to the Kansas-Missouri border extending from south of the City of Galena to the present-day Kansas-Oklahoma border.

In 1897 David's son David (by 2nd wife Susan) married west of Fort Smith, Arkansas in then Choctaw Indian Territory, Mary Virginia "Jennie" Page, a Choctaw Indian by blood. Unlike the Cherokee to the north across the Arkansas River, the Choctaw south of the Arkansas River did not restrict an intermarried White man from being adopted as a member of the Choctaw Nation and sharing in the allotment of Choctaw tribal land. Son David is purported to have written to his father near Galena, KS as well as to brother-in-law Thomas Stone to relocate to Choctaw Indian Territory where David was acquiring land, by allotment or purchase, near present-day Pocola, LeFlore County, Oklahoma. The tradition is that the elder David Nessmith died near present-day Gore, Oklahoma on his return to son David's family.

Some writers have referred to David as Franklin David "Frank" Nessmith, although there is no record that his given name was Franklin or that he was called Frank. All of the censuses in which he definitively appears call him as David Nessmith, David Nesmith or David Smith. Only one census provides a middle initial, that being the 1860 census in Marion County, MO as "David N. Smith." But this may be an error due to the enumerator failing to write the full Nessmith surname resulting in "N. Smith" with the rest of his family given the surname of Smith.

On Aug. 2, 1848 at Miller Twp., Marion County, MO adjacent west to the City of Hannibal, David first m. Barbara Jane Kizer (q.v. Kiser), the marriage index errantly transcribed as between Mr. David Nasuit and Miss Barbary Jane Riser. The handwritten marriage record states:

• Maried August 2^ond 1848 by the undersigned Justice of the Peace of Miller Township Marion countye Mister David Nasmit to Miss Barbary Jane Kiser all of this county. John Whayby (sic) J.P. Filed for Record August 2^ond 1848. Tho. E. Thompson, Recorder.

There were at least six known children of the marriage (sons John W., James, Jesse, George and daus. Mary and Martha). However, there was at least one additional child born after the June 1860 census suggesting wife Barbara died as late of 1865-6. Her purported gravestone contains no inscribed year of death. Currently five of the six eldest children survived beyond infancy and left known descendants.

More later regarding David's first family.

On Dec. 1, 1866 at the City of Hannibal, MO, with both called of adjoining Miller Twp., David m. second "Mrs. Susan Grisham." In his 1938 U.S. Social Security application, their son David stated his mother was Susan Cave. Susan was the widow of James Grisham, and mother of one known child by him (Susan's daughter Florence Grisham's life has been uncovered confirming, in part, the enumeration of David Nessmith's family in the 1870 census.)

David and 2nd wife Susan had six children born in Missouri and Arkansas. Their second child, daughter Sarah Josephine (Nessmith) Stone, was buried in circa 1896 at Round Mountain cemetery east of present-day Gore, OK. Her father David was buried next to her near a tree, but at some point only "ith" in David's gravestone remained to mark the location of their graves. Every year on her birthday, Sarah's son Thomas Nimrod Stone Jr. would travel from Edmond, Oklahoma to place flowers on her grave. Tom Jr.'s son Ernest never knew exactly where his grandmother's grave was and absent a gravestone there is no written record of who was interred in that cemetery in the early part of the 1900s. All attempts in 2001 by the writer failed to find any remnant of a tree or David Nessmith's gravestone.

Revised 3/5/2017