SMITH - GATTIS HOUSE
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1938 (Library of Congress - Frances B. Johnston)

During the same period of the early 1820s, Smith was a partner of Josiah Turner in a copper shop, though he soon sold his share of the business. His largest venture was with Thomas D. Crain in the operation of mills, distilleries, and tanyard of which Smith became sole owner in 1836.
Smith was active in the construction of the Masonic Eagle Lodge on the property adjacent to his house (Lot 23,) as well as the construction of the 1845 Orange County Courthouse
In 1845 he went bankrupt and was divested of all his property except what he had been able to transfer to his wife and children; it is likely that he relocated at that time to a house they named "Oakland" on Smith Level Road and Price Creek outside Chapel Hill.
Notably, this house was likely the birthplace of Cornelia Smith, grandmother of the Reverend Pauli Murray; Cornelia was born to a woman enslaved by the Smith family, named Harriet or Harriot. James Sidney Smith, son of James Strudwick Smith, was widely acknowledged to be her biological father, as he raped Harriot repeatedly.
Sometime after 1845, the house became the property of Samuel M. Gattis, who built a Queen Anne style house next door in 1908.
1954 (Pauli Murray, from the Murray Collection at the Harvard Schlesinger Library)
The Smith house was demolished sometime between 1954 and 1955, as the (late) 1955 aerial photo of Orange County does not show it. The area is vacant yard for the Gattis House as of 2017.
The lot is reported to be the gravesite of Samuel Benton, who was buried (likely his cremated remains) there in 1810.
Current view; I believe these steps outside the sidewalk were likely to the house. 03.29.2020 (G. Kueber)
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From the February 27, 1886
From the February 27, 1886 Orange County Observer:
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Excerpt from a letter to the
Excerpt from a letter to the editor in the June 20, 1875 Hillsborough Recorder:
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From the February 27, 1886 Orange County Observer:
Excerpt from a letter to the editor in the June 20, 1875 Hillsborough Recorder:
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