Margaret Ophelia Smith was born 14 Aug 1845 in San Augustine Co TX to Dr. Charles James Smith & Annie Adeline Townsend. Her father was a native of Virginia who moved to Mississippi in 1824, where he met and married, then came to Texas in about 1835. Margaret was reared in San Augustine County and after the Civil War she was introduced to a young man named Americus Peyroux "Meck" Cartwright, who had fought for the Confederacy and returned to his home town to join his father in the family's mercantile business. Ironically, she had never met Meck, & although he had been born in San Augustine in 1840 to Matthew Cartwright & Amanda Holman, he had been schooled in Tennessee. In April 1868 Margaret & Meck were married, but their marriage was short-lived, as Meck died in 1873. Margaret was a devout Episcopalian and spent her life devoted to her children & grandchildren. She was a widow when only when only 28 years old and pregnant with her third child. She moved her three children to Terrell TX in 1890 to remain close to the Cartwright Family. She died 11 Jan 1939 and is buried next to her husband at Oakland Cemetery in Terrell. Children of Margaret Ophelia Smith Cartwright:
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