SMITH, Thomas Jasper.--Some of the most prosperous men of Lawrence County are those to have turned their attention towards an agricultural life. From their land they have reaped not only a living but a comfortable competence and look with pride upon their fertile farms. Such a man is Thomas Jasper Smith, now residing on Section 26, born in Clarke County, Ohio, January 7, 1848, a son of Samuel Smith now deceased, who was a farmer of Petty Township, but a native of Clarke County, Ohio, born April 15, 1812. The latter was a son of Samuel Smith, Sr. a farmer of Clarke County, Ohio, but a native of Georgia, who moved to Ohio in young manhood and bought a farm near Cincinnati. In 1805, he moved to Clarke County and located on Donnels Creek, where he built a cabin and reared his family, being one of the pioneers of that region. Samuel Smith Jr., the father of Thomas Jasper Smith married in Clarke County, Ohio Barbara Hardacre, born in Virginia in 1816. When he was a child her parents moved to Clarke County and thee she grew to womanhood. This couple became the parents of fourteen children. In 1871, Samuel Smith Jr., brought his family to Illinois and located in Petty Township, Lawrence County. He bought 1,000 acres long before he settled here, and after his arrival bought 20 more acres. A good part of his property had been improved, but he cleared off some, and farmed some until his death at the age of eighty-one years. His heirs inherited his large possessions. He was a Democrat and a member of the Baptist Church.
source: History of Lawrence County, Illinois p. 741