Biographies
Cherokee County
William Anderson Smith
Vol 31, No. 24, Coosa River News, Centre, AL, August 21, 1908
Contributed by Wendell StephensBell-Tree Smith
“Bill” Smith, the dead man, was a unique character and was known throughout all of this section as “Bell-Tree” Smith. Standing alone in the annals of illicit liquer-selling, was his scheme for disposing of mountain dew. His home was just on the State line, where Cherokee county, Alabama, joins Polk county, Georgia. A water oak stood by a little branch, and marked the geographical division. Nailed to the little oak was a common soap box, about three and a half feet from the ground. A pad of paper was nailed to the tree, and misspelled words directed the observer to “Rite your order and leve the muney.” There were no specifications as to what the commodity was, but the fame of the tree was such that no one ever order Sunday School literature or sandwiches. Above the writing pad was another sign also misspelled, warning the purchaser not to remain there after ringing the cowbell which hung on the tree on penalty of being shot. Directions were given to “go down the road and wait, you can tell the place when you get to it.” The “place” was fifty yards down the road around a bend and here seats were provided. The purchaser could wait in comfort until still following directions, he heard the bell ring again. He was then to walk slowly back to the bell tree. There he would find any brand of whiskey, beer, wine or other liquor, that he might have ordered, left upon deposit of the regular price charged in any market. Should the establishment be out of the particular liquid ordered a note would so state, and ask tersely “What else?”
Was Wealthy Man
Smith was a man of great wealth not all of it coming from the bell-tree. He inherited some money from his father, and purchased hundreds of acres of land, upon much of which mineral was found. He made lucky sales and was one of the few men in the County who had money when the Bluffton boom broke. This but served to increase his holdings and he was continually buying more land. At the time of his death he was said to pay taxes on $185,000 worth of property. He owned practically all of Signal Mountain, and had every inch of his farm under cultivation. He raised stock and supplied many Alabama hotels with meat during the resort season.
Was Of Generous Heart
The dead man was a frequent visitor to Rome, and was well known to many people here, who welcome him to their homes. He was a man of general disposition, except when crossed. He was of great physical strength, weighing more than 200 pounds and standing six feet two. He had a wife and seven children, and was very good to them, meeting their every wish. His generosity was not confined to his home, where he lived the life of a feudal lord, but extended to others. He paid the entire salary of the pastor of the church near Bluffton, and his home was the center for relief operations during the recent cyclone.
The Darker Side
But there was a darker side to this character. He is described by those who feared him, as domineering and insolent. Certain it is that “Marse Bill” had his own way, and that what he said “went,” or there was trouble, usually for the other man. More than one person had yielded up their life before the pistol that he always carried. At one time he killed two men on the porch of the old Etna Furnace near Bluffton, and at different times he slow two negroes, making four to his private cemetery. For all of these killings he was acquitted on the grounds of self defense. Smith also shot a white man, his brother-in-law, for beating his wife. His house was well provided with weapons, and he, in former years always carried a pistol.
Such are a few of the interesting points in the career of a man who might well furnish the outlines for a drama of romance. Esteemed by some as a benefactor, a friend, a gentleman by nature, condemned by others as a bully, blackguard, desperado, and blind tiger keeper, unable to read a line, or write his name, yet of keen intellect and business acumen, this section well not again see his likes.
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