Currituck County Photographs
| Dempsey W. Smith |
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Tintype Photo - Dempsey W. Smith, son of
William Smith and Martha "Patsy", his wife, was born Sept. 28.
1840 and died March 10, 1902. Dempsey married Melissa S. Hampton
(Sept. 21, 1834 - June 4, 1885),
daughter of Dempsey W. Hampton & Mary _______*, on Dec.
31, 1865. To this union were born: 1. Annie Elizabeth Smith - born Sept. 26, 1866 2. George Smith - born c. 1868 3. Thomas Smith - born c. 1869 4. William Walter Smith - born Feb. 10, 1872 5. Mary Alice Smith - born July 6, 1875 [see her photo here] After
Melissa died Dempsey W. Smith married for the second time to Barbara Evans,
daughter of Elijah & Mary "Polly" (Jarvis) Evans,
on March 27, 1887 and to this union were born: *The Family Bible (see it here) only states that Melissa Hampton was the daughter of Dempsey W. Hampton and his wife Mary. This tombstone was supposed to read "In Memory of" when my uncle, Marvin Simpson, who was the grandson of Melissa Hampton Smith and I had it erected. At the time, we thought the information was accurate; but, now I know Mary Walker was not the mother of Melissa. At the Courthouse in Currituck County, N.C., my uncle found in Book A Record of Marriages, page 11, that Dempsey Hampton married Mary Walker on September 17, 1854. When he questioned someone in the register of deeds office that his grandmother was born in 1834 but the marriage record stated 1854, he was informed that a fire had destroyed the records. In order for the records to be replaced, people were requested to remarry. It was assumed that this was the case with Dempsey Hampton. However, with the current digitized copies of the census records, a recent search shows that Mary Walker was married BEFORE she married Dempsey Hampton in 1854. In addition when the 1880 census was taken, Mary Walker Hampton was in the household of Tom & Eliz, Poiner and listed as step-mother. Elizabeth was the daughter of Dempsey Hampton and the sister of Melissa. In Book B Marriage Register, Thomas Poyner, son of Benj. & Nancy Poyner, married Elizabeth Hampton, daughter of Demps & Mary Hampton, on 21 June 1874 in Currituck by V.L. Pitts, J.P. With these facts, we still do not know the maiden name of Dempsey Hampton's first wife and the mother of his children. With the exception of Mary Walker being listed as the mother of Melissa Hampton, all other information on the tombstone is accurate. If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact me. |
Photo and information kindly submitted by Benjamine O. Bateman, Jr. No part of this document may be used for any commercial purposes. However, please feel free to copy any of this material for your own personal use and family research. Images are for personal use only, not for redistribution.
