Mr. Forest Hazel (The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation): “The Smiling Indian Community of Southwest Robeson County” 

Thursday, April 3, 2008. Session II, 10:30-11:45 a.m.

Forest Hazel is Tribal Historian for the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (OBSN), an Indian community located in Alamance County, North Carolina. He holds a B.A. and M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

While doing research for the Occaneechi, Hazel came across references to the Smilings in Robeson County. These references were to the family with the Smiling surname as well as to families associated with them: Epps, Gibbs, Chavis, and Goins. They were in Sumter County, South Carolina, and later in Robeson County. Hazel’s theory is that prior to their arrival in Robeson County, they had Indian identity in Sumter. But what were their origins in Sumter and prior?

Hazel displayed a chart of family names and focused on: Eady, Gibbs, and Beamer. He thinks these names are of native origin from coastal South Carolina. He thinks the names Smiling and Epps probably resulted from intermarriage with non-natives.

The probable area of origin of Smiling ancestry is just south of what is now Charleston (Johns Island, Edisto Island). Early maps (1705) show three separate Indian communities there. In the middle of these three communities, Richard Gibbs had a plantation.  The Indians probably took their surname from the wealthy white planter.

The Daniel Eady Family were up in Berkeley County around Eady Town between Santee Cooper Lakes. There were probably several intermarriages between the Eadys and the Beamers. If the Eadys intermarried with the Beamers, they probably originated in this same area. Hazel’s theory is that the Eadys came from the same area.  Indian Eadys picked up the name from the Daniel Eady family.

South Carolina set up a capitation tax – a head tax – on all free people of color. Indian people went to court and got affidavits so they would not have to pay the tax. “Daniel Eady an Indian” (Hazel displayed the document) is
an example. Hazel also showed an affidavit for George Eady from 10 Feb 1824.

He then showed an 1846 map of the area between the lakes called Eadvtown. It is over 1,000 acres in size. Most of the area is now under water. Hazel went through old plats and spent hours fitting Eadytown onto current maps.

As recently as the early 1900’s, Eadytown was still recognized as having an Indian component.  He read from a travelogue: “Eadytown, once the seat of a village of half-breeds, now extinct, I think.” Hazel said that actually, the Indians amalgamated with other races. He displayed a discharge record for Robert Eady, a photograph of the old Eady Cemetery, and the gravestone of Jonathan Eadie, born in1877. He also displayed a photograph of fire ants in the cemetery and warned,“Don’t step on their hills while taking photos in an abandoned graveyard.”

Thomas Gibbs owned a 931-acre tract in Privateer Township, southern Sumter County. He was a patriarch of the Smilings on the Claredon County border, McDonald Furman, who lived in the late nineteenth century, was like an ethnohistorian. He was a champion of the Smilings. He died in 1905.  He kept a diary of interviews he did with Smilings in the late 1800’s. Hazel then read from an excerpt of an interview: “Beccie Jacobs [a White woman] told me – August 26, 1893 – that Edie Goins said she came from the Cawtaba tribe.”

Hazel showed a World War II registration card for Appel Gibbs, who was considered Indian for the draft.

The 1910 Sumter County census recorded Smilings as mulatto or mixed. In the margin, the census taker wrote down Indian/White.

Hazel discussed a court case from 1894: South Carolina v. Hodge. A couple was charged with illegal intermarriage. Hester Gibbs, the wife, was shown to be of Indian ancestry.  She married William Hodge.

James Edward Smiling was a progenitor of the Smiling family. When McDonald Furman interviewed him, he claimed Indian ancestry from his mother’s side (Stapleton).  He also said his mother was kin to Locklears.

When the Eadys were living in Eady Town, Locklears and Cumbos lived right next to them. Hazel displayed a photograph of Bethesda Church, a Smiling Church in Sumter County. It is now a Black church. Most Smilings left and moved to Robeson County. Hazel showed a photograph of the old cemetery; lots of vandalism has been done. He also showed a photograph of the tombstone of A.J. Chavis and his wife, who moved to Robeson County.

At some point, Smilings in Sumter County created their own church, Hopewell. This church petitioned the Burnt Swamp Baptist Association for admission. The association sent J. W. Blanks to Sumter to investigate.  But then, Smilings moved to Robeson County. The Smilings in Sumter knew about the Indians in Robeson County because the Indians in Robeson were moving around due to turpentine work.

When Smilings moved to Robeson, there were two court cases; both went to the North Carolina Supreme Court on their ability to enroll in Robeson County’s Indian schools. Both cases involved Goinses:

1913 – initiated by W.W. Smiling and family
1925 – initiated by David S. Smiling and family

They were denied to be Indian according to the definition for Robeson County Schools, so they applied for a separate school district.  A Smiling school called Shoe Heel Creek was established near Maxton. For years, the Smiling school was listed as a White school on the county school list. Then, later, it was listed as a separate school system.

The Smilings seemed to have been fairly prosperous when they came to Robeson County. Hazel has identified 105 Smilings who moved to Robeson County from the Sumter settlement or were born in Robeson County.

Hazel concluded by summarizing what his research on the Smilings revealed in terms of Lumbee research. He emphasized that people were moving back and forth between South Carolina and Robeson County and were intermarrying.  The populations were not discrete.  There are links between the communities that we still don’t know about. You start with a core community. Over time, as other groups hear about this community, they move in. So many Smilings came in, all at once, that it was difficult to absorb them all.  The Lumbee had their own schools by then and were protective of them.  It wasn’t that they didn’t like the Smilings; they just didn’t know who they were.

He noted that this research also shows that in doing Lumbee history and genealogy, it is important to look at even minor families.  This might strengthen the overall case for the Lumbees’ Indian heritage.  He mentioned the name Santee, noting that you can’t get much more Indian that that. He doesn’t think anyone has traced the lineage of this name.

This page was updated on October 30, 2008 3:05 PM