A List of His Personal Property
After Presley R. Smith, the county and probate clerk, died Dec. 10, 1887, his successor issued letters of administration of “all and singular the goods and chattels, rights and credits which were of the said P.R. Smith at the time of his death.”
A second document, an appraisement of his estate made by J.F. Barr and Herbert Holcomb, showed his personal property valued at $176.25, an amount that would be worth about $6,127 in today’s dollars, as of 2026.
The property included the following and their valuations:
- 1 bedstead & spring mattress — $7.50
- 6 common mattresses — 4.50
- 4 feather beds — 15.00
- 1 single bedstead — 1.00
- 12 pillows & 18 quilts — 16.00
- 12 sheets & 2 counterpanes — 4.00
- 1 bureau & bedstead — 7.00
- 6 bed springs — 4.00
- 7 common bedsteads @ 1.50 — 10.50
- 1 heating stove, good — 3.50
- 2 old stoves — 3.00
- 1 cook stove — 6.00
- 2 old safes — 3.50
- 1 lot tableware — 5.00
- Creamer, sugar bowl, butter dish — 3.50
- 7 pictures and frames — 7.75
- 1 clock — 3.00
- 1 bureau & book case — 8.00
- 1 walnut wardrobe — 3.00
- 1 pine wardrobe — 1.50
- 1 center table — 5.00
- 2 round tables — 3.24
- 2 common washstands — .75
- 9 chairs — 4.50
- 1 cherry stand table — 1.25
- 1 dining table — 4.50
- 1 sewing machine — 10.00
- 1 lot Books downstairs — 5.00
- 1 lot Books upstairs — 3.00
- 5 vol. Commentaries — 5.00
- 4 Scott’s commentaries — 3.00
- 1 Memoirs of Lee — 1.00
- 1 History of U.S. — 1.00
- 1 molasses can — 1.00
Walter J. Lemke speculated that some of these items might have come from the Fayetteville Female Seminary, at which Smith’s wife, Lucretia, taught and then ran during its final years. The Smith home was just northwest of the seminary’s grounds.
Smith is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave at Gehring’s Chapel Cemetery
This list was reprinted in Volume 14, No. 2 of the Flashback historical journal in 1964.