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Kentucky Genealogy and Biography Volume V – Battle – Perrin – Kniffin, 4th ed., 1886.

JOHN E. SMITH was born October 4, 1837, and is the eldest child of H. F. and Catherine (Brown) Smith, parents of seven sons and three daughters. H. F. Smith was born in Garrard County, in 1803, and his wife in Madison County in 1818; the later died in 1872. Edwin Smith, grandfather of John E., was born in Arlington, Va., in 1789, and was but six months old when brought to Kentucky by his parents, who settled near Bryantsville; he married Jane Ann Finley, daughter of John Finley, a companion of Daniel Boone. Henry Smith, a brother of Edwin, was governor of Texas during the Mexican war. Mrs. Catherine (Brown) Smith, was a daughter of John and Hannah (Rochester) Brown, natives of Virginia and Boyle County, Ky., respectively. John Brown was one of the early pioneers of Madison County, but went to Arkansas about 1832, and bought a cotton plantation near Little Rock. John E. Smith was reared on a farm in his native county of Garrard. At the age of eighteen he taught a term of school, and then traded in horses and mules until the war, when he enlisted in Company C, Second Kentucky Cavalry, in Gen. John H. Morgan’s command; was afterward transferred to Buford’s company, and then again restored to Morgan. He was in the battles of Murfreesboro and Milton (Tenn.), and in the latter was wounded; he also took part in numerous other fights and skirmishes; was a prisoner at Camps Chase and Douglas; subsequently joined his command, and was at Greensboro, N. C., when the general surrender took place. After his return he engaged for two years in cotton planting in Mississippi. In 1868 he came to Danville, Ky., and was for two years in mercantile trade; in 1869, November 13, he married Josephine, daughter of Capt. John and Mary (Elliott) Neet, and to this union were born four children: Katie May, Harold, Josie and Anna Laura (the last deceased). In 1870 he went to Bonham, Fannin Co., Tex., conducted mercantile business four years, then returned to Garrard County, Ky., and purchased his father’s farm. In 1882 he moved to Danville, where he now has an interest in the Danville Rolling Mills. He is a Free Mason and an Odd Fellow, and with his wife a member of the Presbyterian Church.