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About Dorothy Putnam Smith
Dorothy 'Dollie' Putnam Bledsoe (Gates)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/128281679/dorothy-putnam-bledsoe
Dorothy's first husband was the Rev. John C. Smith b: 23 September 1795 in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. They were married on 12 January 1811 (*also said to have been married 2 December 1818 in Caldwell County, Kentucky) and had the following children:
1. Martha (Ballard?) Laurence Smith b: 1821,
2. Robert E. D. Smith b: 1821,
3. Betsy Ann Smith b: 1826,
4. Mary Beard (Ballard) Smith b: 22 Feb 1828-29 in McKenzie, Tennessee
5. Dorothy Jane Smith.
Her 2nd marriage was to James Haywood Bledsoe b: 10 February 1788 in Wake County, North Carolina. They were married 18 March 1832 in Carroll County, Tennessee, and had the following children:
1. Boyd Clay Bledsoe (CSA) b: 24 February 1833 in Macedonia, Carroll County, Tennessee,
2. Ballard Gates Bledsoe b: 1835,
3. Beulah Jane Bledsoe b: 1837,
4. Ruth Bledsoe.
Her 3rd husband was Joel Ridley Smith, 1797-1852, who fought in the War of 1812. She was his 2nd wife. They were married 12 January 1841 and had the following children:
1. Nathan Smith b: 1842,
2. Gussie Smith.
During the War Between the States a battle was fought near her home. She sheltered inside her house during the battle, then, when it was over, went and tenderly laid out the dead. Later when moon came out she went back to cover their poor faces. It is said the horror never left her. After end of war she sold her Tennessee home (in Collierville) and moved back to Fredonia, Kentucky. Shortly thereafter she died while sitting at dinner table, quietly slipping to the floor. Buried beside her mother Dolly Gates, the family was too impoverished by war to afford a headstone for her.
NOTE: Dorothy Putnam (Gates) Bledsoe remarried Joel R. Smith, January 12, 1841. She and the latter husband sold her one-fourth interest in the Bledsoe estate slaves to John K. Clark in December 1848. (Carroll County Deed Book G, page 278) At age 52, Dorothy Bledsoe Smith was living with her husband and family, ostensibly on the Bledsoe farm in civil district nine in 1850 (Census, page 172). Joel R. Smith is buried beside his first wife in Oak Hill Cemetery in Huntingdon. In February 1852, Dorothy P. and Joel R. Smith sold her dower in the estates of her former husbands, Rev. John C. Smith (35 acres) and Haywood Bledsoe (135 acres) to Robert Smith, on the latter of which she then lived. (Carroll County Deed Book H, page 466) On December 6, 1852, a few days before his demise, Joel R. Smith resigned his position as a justice of the peace. (IBID., County Court Minute Book 1850-1856, page 217) She was appointed guardian of their son, Nathan Smith. She lived until 1867.
GEDCOM Note
During the Civil War, Dorothy lived at Collierville (TN) on the old Memphis and Charleston R.R. (now the Southern) and her front yard was on the main, much traveled road to the East from Memphis. One night just at dusk some troops met unexpectedly and had a skirmish. Dorothy was alone in the house with a colored maid. After it was over, there were dead left in her yard. Having sons (Boyd Bledsoe and Nathan Smith) somewhere in the army (CSA), Dorothy's anxiety was so great tat she took this maid and went out and turned over each body, to assure herself (none were her sons). Later, when the full moon came out, she could not sleep for looking out at those unfortunates, so then went out and covered each face with towels. Mrs. Cates saw this old house in her childhood days and the bullet holes in it. Dorothy sold this house at the close of the war to the Howlett family and returned to Fredonia, KY where she lived with her daughter, Mary Smith Johnson. She was never well afterwards and fell (slipped to the floor) from her chair at the dinner table one day, dead.
An old letter from her daughter, Mary Beard Smith Johnson, written in 1867 stated that Dorothy was buried by the side of her Mother, Dorothy Putnam Gates in the Livingston Cemetery. It is said they were so impoverished at the close of the war that they could not afford a headstone for Dorothy Smith. There does not appear to be any marker for her to this day. (Dale Nicoll visited Livingston Cemetery in 2009.)
Notes from Mrs. Willis Cates (Mattie Bledsoe)
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Dorothy Putnam Smith's Timeline
| 1798 |
January 1, 1798
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Stow, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States
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| 1820 |
January 3, 1820
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Caldwell County, Kentucky
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| 1821 |
November 29, 1821
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Caldwell County, Kentucky
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| 1824 |
January 30, 1824
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Carroll County, Tennessee
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| 1826 |
April 22, 1826
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Carroll County, Tennessee
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| 1829 |
February 22, 1829
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Carroll County, Tennessee
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| 1832 |
1832
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Caroll County, Tennessee, United States
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| 1833 |
1833
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| 1867 |
March 20, 1867
Age 69
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Fredonia, Caldwell County, Kentucky, United States
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