Elbridge was the eldest child of Francis Marion Smith (born Jackson County, AL) and his first wife. Emmeline Killingsworth of the Summerfield Community (according to Elbridge's half sister, Pearl Smith Echols, the first wife died during the Civil War and F.M. came home from his war service to attend her funeral. While home, F.M. married her youngest sister, and had four more children). Somewhere in my records I have Elbridge's wife's name and their children's information.

For more information on the family's residence in downtown Longview, read Aunt Pearl's introduction in Gregg County Genealogy. Both Killingsworth sisters are buried with their father in the Killingsworth family plot on their farm near Judson.

Elbridge lived on farm land that F.M. had acquired in Upshur County, near Gilmer prior to the Civil War. At one time, F.M. had patented 5,000 acres of land near Gilmer, as well as other extensive holdlings in counties within Texas. F.M. was a land speculator and cotton farmer, moving to Longview permanently around 1865. F.M. raised the children of his second wife in a home located across the street from the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Longview. His cottom farm was located where the Longview Mall, Oak Forest County Club, and other retail areas along the Loop in north Longview.

Elbridge's brother Leon is buried in Longview in the Castleberry/Fisher Cemetery (Elbridge's younger half brother, Sidney George, married Maud Castleberry whose father owned the land where the cemetery is located) and Longview Memorial Gardens (S. George Smith and Belle Smith Thrasher).

If you are still looking for information on Elbridge, his parents, wife and siblings, please email me directly at HistoricGreggCounty@yahoo.com.

Allen McReynolds