{{Infobox person | name = William Smeathers | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = unknown, {{circa|1765-1767}} | birth_place = unknown, probably Pennsylvania or North Carolina | death_date ={{death-date|August 13, 1837}} | death_place = Columbia, Texas | other_names = William Smithers, William Smothers | known_for = Pioneer settler of Kentucky and Texas | occupation = }}
'''William Smeathers''' ({{circa}} 1767 – August 13, 1837), also known as '''Smithers''' or '''Smothers''',<ref name="family">[http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/smothers.htm Sons of DeWitt Colony, Texas]</ref><ref name="Texas Online">[https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsm55 Handbook of Texas Online]</ref> was a pioneer settler of Kentucky and later Texas.
Not much is known about his early days. He is believed to have been born in either Pennsylvania, Virginia or North Carolina. He may have been born as early as 1759<ref>[http://www.txssar.org/Buried.htm Sons of the American Revolution, Texas Society]</ref> or as late as 1767.<ref name="family"/> When Smeathers was 12 his father was killed by Indians and his mother died shortly thereafter, leaving young Smeathers to tend to his younger brother James and sister Mollie.<ref name="family"/> He was married twice, the second time to Mary Winters of Tennessee. He had two sons, John and Archibald, and four daughters.<ref name="Texas Online"/>
==Kentucky== In 1782 he was one of the first settlers in the Rough River area of Kentucky, where he built Smeathers Station.<ref name="Texas Online" /> Smeathers was also an early settler of Fort Hartford (present-day Hartford in Ohio County), and he helped to build a fort at Vienna (later Calhoun in McLean County) on the Green River in the early 1780s.<ref name="migration.kentucky.gov">{{Cite web |url=http://migration.kentucky.gov/kyhs/hmdb/MarkerSearch.aspx |title=Kentucky Historical Marker database, #1548 |access-date=2010-06-06 |archive-date=2008-06-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610020910/http://migration.kentucky.gov/kyhs/hmdb/MarkerSearch.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1797 or 1798 he built a home on the Ohio River, at a site that became known as Yellow Banks, becoming the first settler in what is now Owensboro, Kentucky.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8eFSK4o--M0C&dq=william+smeathers+kentucky&pg=PA254 Kleber, J, ''The Kentucky encyclopedia'', University Press of Kentucky, Third Printing, 1992]</ref> Smeathers served on first grand jury of Court of Quarter Sessions at Hartford, 1803. In 1808 he was appointed land commissioner of Ohio County. In 1809 he was tried for murder (under the name Bill Smothers<ref>Taylor, Harrison and Taylor, Anthony, ''Ohio County, Kentucky, in the Early Days'', originally published Louisville, Kentucky, 1926, reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1997, {{ISBN|0-8063-4710-4}}, p.25-27</ref>) for killing a man who had allegedly raped his sister. He was acquitted but was advised to leave the area temporarily for his own safety.<ref name="family"/> He served in the Kentucky "Corn Stalk" militia in 1803,<ref name="family"/> and he served in the War of 1812 as a captain in the Kentucky Mounted Spies under the command of Major Toussaint Dubois.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/kentuckysoldier00reporich/kentuckysoldier00reporich_djvu.txt Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky, Soldiers of the War of 1812, page 22.] His name on the list is garbled as "Captain William Smeatiiers" and "William Sineather"</ref>
==Texas== He reportedly visited Texas (then under Spanish rule) in 1810, and at some point he seems to have lived in Indiana.<ref name="family"/> He eventually relocated to Texas, and in 1821 he helped Stephen F. Austin explore the coast to choose a location for Austin's first colony.<ref name="Texas Online"/> In 1822 he was one of the five men who established a fort, Fort Bend, at a bend in the Brazos River near the site of present-day Richmond, Texas; the fort gave its name to present-day Fort Bend County. Smeathers is listed as one of the Old Three Hundred, original settlers in Austin's colony along the Brazos River in Mexican Texas, the first of many Americans to settle in Texas with the permission of the Mexican government. Later he was one of the first settlers in the DeWitt Colony in the Lavaca River valley area near current Hallettsville. His son and three grandsons fought in the Texas Revolution.
He died in Columbia, Texas, on August 13, 1837.<ref name="family"/>
==Recognition== *There is a Bill Smeathers Park in Owensboro, Kentucky (Daviess County, Kentucky), where he is credited as the first settler.<ref name="family"/> Kentucky Historical Marker #744 was erected in his honor at the park.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://migration.kentucky.gov/kyhs/hmdb/MarkerSearch.aspx |title=Kentucky Historical Marker database, #744 |access-date=2010-06-06 |archive-date=2008-06-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610020910/http://migration.kentucky.gov/kyhs/hmdb/MarkerSearch.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> *Kentucky Historical Marker #1548 in Hartford, Kentucky, (Ohio County) honors Smeathers for his contribution in helping erect a fort there and at Vienna (later Calhoun in McLean County).<ref name="migration.kentucky.gov"/> *A monument near Fort Bend, Texas, lists his name as "William Smithers" and commemorates his founding of Fort Bend with four other men.<ref name="family"/> *A Texas State Historical Marker on U.S. 77, 1 mile south of Hallettsville, lists his name as "William Smothers" and recounts his accomplishments.<ref>[http://www.9key.com/markers/marker_detail.asp?atlas_number=5285005846 Historical marker on U.S. 77]</ref> *It is reported that a lake in Texas was named for him;<ref name="Texas Online"/> this probably refers to Smithers Lake in Fort Bend County *Smothers Creek in Lavaca County - also known as Smathers or Smeathers Creek - is named for him.<ref>[https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rbsdb The Handbook of Texas Online:Smothers Creek]</ref>
==References== {{reflist}} * [http://www.fgs-project.com/texas/groups/sm-so/smeathers-william.txt ''Family Group Sheet - William Smeathers Family'']
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smeathers, William}} Category:18th-century American explorers Category:Kentucky pioneers Category:People from Kentucky in the War of 1812 Category:18th-century births Category:1837 deaths Category:American people acquitted of murder Category:People from Owensboro, Kentucky Category:People from Hartford, Kentucky Category:People from McLean County, Kentucky Category:People from Coahuila y Tejas Category:People from Gonzales County, Texas