Smith, Adam

Flourished: Sangamon County, Illinois

In November 1829, Smith purchased 241 acres of land west of Springfield, Illinois. Two years later, he also owned a house and lot with stable on the north side of the public square in Springfield. In 1830, he had ten other people in his household. He served as constable in Springfield in 1830-31. He also bred horses. When Governor John Reynolds called for volunteers to quell the Fox and Sac Indian incursion into Illinois in May 1831, Smith answered the call, serving as captain of a company in the Second Regiment of Illinois Mounted Volunteers. Smith commanded this company from June 4 to July 2, 1831. The following year, he served as a private alongside Abraham Lincoln in Jacob M. Early's company.

Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Sangamon County, 816:4; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 15 December 1831, 3:6, 15 March 1832, 4:5; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 54-55; Minutes, 11 March 1831, Sangamon County Commissioners' Court Record Book C, 191, Illinois Regional Archives Depository, University of Illinois Springfield, Springfield, IL; Muster Roll of Captain Jacob M. Early’s Company of Mounted Volunteers; Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:91, 545; U.S. Census Office, Fifth Census of the United States (1830), Sangamon County, IL, 182.