Kessinger Family - Ourfolk

James Smith made agriculture his occupation. He farmed in Vigo county one or two seasons, then moved back to Farmer s Prairie in Hamilton township, Sullivan county, where he purchased sixty acres of land. After residing there for nineteen years he sold out and moved to Shelburn, Indiana, where he lived a retired life for two years. He the moved to his farm in Curry township, where his wife died. He married Mrs. Thomas Chambers, of Cass township, Sullivan county, but subsequently they separated and he moved to Dugger, where he was engaged at various business enterprises for a time, but about 1902 he went to Oklahoma, bought a farm there and remained there until his death. Politically he was a Democrat. Both he and his first wife were members of the Christian church. They were the parents of the following children: Homer, deceased; Marshal B., a barber of Hymera; Emma A., of Oklahoma; Charles, of Sullivan; James D., of this notice; William, of Washington, North Dakota; and two who died in their infancy.

(A History of Sullivan County Indiana Thomas J. Wolfe Volume 1 1909