Hamner family

The Hamner family was a prominent Austin family with a rich and complex history, which began with the marriage of Robert T. Smith (1789-1840) and Harriet Wright (1793-1851) on November 27, 1814. Both the Smiths and Wrights were from Mount Sterling, Kentucky, and the Wright Family included portrait artist, Thomas Jefferson Wright (1798-1846). Robert and Harriet had nine children, Lydia Ann Smith (1815-1854), William Halley smith (1817-1889), Elizabeth Smith (1819-1881), Mary Smith (1822-1848), Susanna Smith (1823-1858), Eleanor Smith (1825-1870), John Lyle Smith (1828-1898), Sarah Smith (1830-1832), and Robert T. Smith (1834-1918). The family came to Texas when Benjamin Franklin Wright (1800-1867) moved to Walker County in 1835, followed shortly by his nephew, John Lyle Smith. Benjamin Franklin Wright died in Walker County in 1867. John Lyle Smith served in the Confederate Army, and after moving to Texas, and began corresponding with Sarah Katherine Murray (1838-1923) of Huntsville, Texas.

John Lyle Smith and Sarah Murray were married on May 7, 1857 and continued to reside in Huntsville, Texas. The couple had eight children, Robert F. Smith (1858-1931), Mary Elizabeth Smith (1861-1954), George Lyle Smith (1863-1966), Lee Wright Smith (1866-1877), Emma Smith (1868-1952), Harriet Smith (1870-1958), A.U. (Urbin) Smith (1875-1947), and Rosa Susan Smith (Sue Smith) (1878-1958). The Smith family was highly educated. John Lyle and Sarah Smith were both able to read and write well and corresponded, both with each other early in their relationship and with their children throughout their lives. Sarah Smith ran a boarding house in Huntsville for young women attending the Sam Houston Institute, which later became the Sam Houston State Teachers College (SHSTC).

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