George W. Smith (1858-1891)

George W. Smith (1858-1891). The above photograph was taken in September of 1877, possibly at Redding, California, at the age of 19-years-old. The photographer is unknown. From the collection of Jeremy Tuggle.

This short blog chronicles the life of George W. Smith who was born in 1858 in California, his father, Gottlieb George Kaylor Smith, was 46 and his mother, Elizabeth Jane (Lamberson) Smith, was 25 at the time of his birth. He had three brothers and six sisters during his parents' union. George W. Smith was raised at Horsetown, a son of a local farmer in Shasta County, and he attended school in the area as shown in the 1870 U.S. Census. He later became a mill worker at the Eagle Creek sawmill near Eagle Creek, (now Ono). Smith was accused of poisoning the livestock of a local rancher named George Fenwick whose ranch was on the South Fork of Cottonwood Creek. 

On May 23, 1891, George W. Smith was caught by Fenwick trespassing on his property, and Fenwick charged at Smith in which a fatal quarrel took place with Fenwick shooting and instantly killing Smith on his land with a loaded gun. Smith died on May 23, 1891, at the Fenwick Ranch on the South Fork of Cottonwood Creek at the age of 33. The local sheriff was called to the scene and a coroner's inquest report was held by the local coroner the shooting was documented as suspicious and the sheriff took Fenwick into custody it was later determined that there was not enough evidence to hold George Fenwick for murder. Fenwick was discharged from custody and released from the Shasta County Jail in early June of 1891. George W. Smith (1858-1891) was my maternal great-great-great granduncle. He is supposedly buried on Rainbow Lake Road on land that is now private property. He is one of two burials at this small cemetery on Rainbow Lake Road the other burial is that of his younger brother Issac Jonas Smith (1870-1876) who died young.

Sources:

1870 U.S. Census

1880 U.S Census

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, May 30, 1891

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, June 6, 1891