Smith, Peter Evans, 1829-1905.

Peter Evans Smith of Halifax County, N.c., civil and mechanical engineer, inventor, surveyor, cotton planter, and railroad employee.

From the description of Peter Evans Smith papers, 1738-1944 [manuscript]. WorldCat record id: 23765356

William Ruffin Smith (1803-1872) and his brother James both married daughters of Peter Evans (1781-1852), who owned Egypt plantation in Chatham County, N.C., and whose LaGrange Mining Co. produced coal for the Confederacy.

Peter Evans Smith (1829-1905) was the son of Susan Evans (1810-1895) and William Ruffin Smith, Jr., of Scotland Neck in Halifax County, N.C. He apparently became deaf at an early age. Nevertheless, he attended Vine Hill Academy and Bingham School, circa 1845, before graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1851. A year later, he married Rebecca Norfleet Hill (1830-1915), who attended Vine Hill Female Academy and St. Mary's School. From about 1852 to the 1870s, Smith earned his living primarily as a plantation owner. During the Civil War, he supported the Confederacy and was involved in the construction of the ironclad, Albemarle . His mechanical potential became evident on this project when he invented a twist drill that dramatically shortened the time required to bore through metal. After the war, Smith became an active inventor, patenting a variety of improvements and inventions, from agricultural designs--such as a cotton planter and sulky plow--to industrial devices--such as an electric buoy, an improved spark arrestor for the smoke stack of wood burning locomotive, a self-coupling device for railroad coaches, and a form of railroad switch. During the 1880s and early 1890s, Smith worked as an engineer for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to design and construct branches from Scotland Neck to Kinston, Washington (N.C.), and other eastern points. He also served as a town commissioner of Scotland Neck and an Episcopal vestryman.

Peter and Rebecca Norfleet Hill Smith had two sons and two daughters who died young; three daughters survived. Lena H. Smith (1854-1943) attended St. Mary's, studied art in New York, taught and served as principal of Vine Hill Female Academy, and started her own school--the Cottage Home School--when she was fired from Vine Hill because of her deafness. Lena gained a reputation as a local historian and genealogist in her later years. Her sister Nan Hill Smith (1865-1954) also taught at Cottage Home School, and married James Henry Durham of Canada, who worked for the North Carolina Lumber Company. Rebecca Whitmel Smith (1861-1940) married Walter Shields (d. 1901).

Peter Evans Smith's brothers were William Henry (1830-1895), George Alexander (1835-1879), Benjamin Gordon (1837-1901), Charles Stuart (b. 1847), Arthur Lillington (b. 1850), and Walter Johnston (1852-1924).

(For additional family information, see Claiborne T. Smith, Jr., Smith of Scotland Neck: Planters on the Roanoke (Baltimore: Gateway Press, Inc., 1976).

From the guide to the Peter Evans Smith Papers, ., 1738-1944, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)