Joseph S. Smothers (Claiborne County)
State House: 1872-1876
Born: 1817 in Lexington, KY
Died: January 28, 1891 in Port Gibson, MS
Baptist Minister. His epitaph says he was the pastor of the First Baptist Church (Col) of Port Gibson for 27 years. Vice president of the Colored Baptist Missionary Convention. Listed as “John Smothers” on the 1870 census with wife Frances and daughters. Listed on the 1880 census in Claiborne County with wife Milly Watkins (m. 1872) and several children. Though his estimated birth year on the 1880 census is 1830, he was 55 on the 1870 census, and his headstone says he was born in 1817.
He died in 1891, and his grave is marked by an obelisk in Golden West Cemetery. By 1900, Milly had remarried a William Booze.
Links:
Memorial on Find A Grave
This page was last updated on January 15, 2026.