John Ransom Smith (born 1803) moved from Ohio to Indiana in 1841. It took four wagons and four weeks to make the trip. He started farming in the Aroma area, (Hamilton County), with other Quakers. His daughter Luisa taught school at the Ironwood Seminary and boarded with the
Jehiel Williams family. His daughter Luisa placed Ransom being born in Vermont.    Little information has been found about Ransom Smith. It is known that he married a woman named Rebecca Stall, also of Ohio, and they were the parents of nine children. He moved the family from southeastern Ohio to Hamilton County, Indiana in 1841 after the first three of his children were born -- all under seven years old at the time. An elderly descendant noted in a letter that the trip required four wagons and took a demanding four weeks to make. The remaining six children, whose names are unknown, were born on the farm he bought there.
 With another man, Ransom built the Hopewell church and became its preacher. From this point onward, nothing further is known of him.
 Their prospects must have been promising. The soil in Hamilton County was among the richest to be found anywhere, Indiana had become a state in 1816 and the last Indians, the Potawatomie, had been driven out in 1838. Whether or not Ransom Smith lived to profit from the promising prospects is uncertain as the date of his death is not known. (Taken from: A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust, by Donovan Faust 1997)   Luisa wrote the following letter in Aroma, Indiana, July 9th, 1922:    "As I am the only one left of a family of 11, Father, Mother & 9 children. My Father John Ransom Smith was borned in 1803 in Vermont, my mother Rebeca Stall Smith in 1804, in Ohio. I was borned in Janeville, Ohio, 1838. My father moved from Ohio to Indiana in 1841, in 4 wagons, took 4 weeks to make the trip. My father bought the farm where Clint Lower now lives, and he & the Cory Brothers built the Hopewell Church, and my father was the Preacher. I joined church there, when I was 15 years old. I taught school at Ironwood Simnary and boared at Jehial Williams, in 1861 I was married to Eli Baldwin, in 1869 Mr. Baldwin enlisted in the army. Lauisa Baldwin, age 85 yrs.".   Tombstone reads: "Lauvisa"  

Contributed by J.P. Smith

Pam Arnold