Andrew Morgan SMITH, broad and tall was 21 years old when he traveled into McDade from Guinette County Georgia in 1883 that Christmas Day. His parents remain buried in Lawrenceville GA.  Relatives enticed Andrew with prosperity in McDade and employment opportunities He had just gotten off the iron horse and onto McDade’s bustling platform and his destination was to his cousin,  J. B Watson’s house.  What he got instead was a view of six dead men waiting for family to come and get them. 

 He didn’t know to stay or turn around but he was lost and nowhere near his cousin’s farm.    He ended up at the Ransom farm to ask for directions. John Ransom invited him in and informed him of the criminal activity reaching a boil. Andrew didn’t turn back.  EMILY MARIA HARVEY, and her children including EDITH MAE were staying with the Ransom’s while their father had left for another destination.  Edith Mae would be the future wife of Andrew.

George Whit Worth and J B WATSON were already in Texas from Andrew’s home in Georgia.  He ended up living with John Ransom and farmed for a while, then went to Llano County, Bluffton and stayed with a friend, JOHN FRANKLIN BANKS.   Mr. Banks was a schoolteacher and taught Andrew the equivalent to two years of college with a limited certificate.  He taught one year in Llano County and one at Oak Hill, Bastrop County.

EDITH MAE HARVEY attended South Western University for two years and taught school.  One term at the Old Shepard School (already gone for many years), near the vicinity of Mount Pleasant.  She boarded with the SHEPHERD family.  She taught one year at the Knobbs and boarded with the FRENCH family at the time she and Andrew married she was living in George Town with her aunt BESSIE COULUSON as a Dressmaker. 

Andrew went to George Town in a two-horse buggy and they married OCTOBER 12, 1887 and left at once for Llano where they stayed for a year.  From there they moved to Hutto where they lived for the next nine years.  Andrew ran a Grocery store and when it sold years later, he put in a millinery shop and ladies clothing shop for several years.  Edith Mae was a still a dress maker in 1898, they moved to Alief in Harris County, then moved back to McDade and rented a farm for several years before buying the Ransom farm in 1907 where they had a dairy farm for years located in the Oakhill community. 

Andrew died SEPTEMBER 28. 1931 and is buried in the McDade cemetery with his wife Edith. They had five children, Eva, Robert, Elgitha, Sue and Harvey.  His first grandchild was spoiled in affection and recorded the actual facts that brought Andrew Morgan Smith to the town of McDade Texas.