Frontier Swashbuckler: The Life and Legend of John Smith T.

Abstract

Although the reader may approach this biography of John Smith T with some apprehen-sion, even wondering who Smith T was, by the end of the reading there will be little doubt that the time and effort was well spent. Dick Steward has ably reconstructed the life of this exceptional man in a way that clarifies not only the subject but also something of the dynamics of power where he lived and operated. This is not to say that he makes great claims for Smith T, for he does not; nor does he attempt to gloss over or apologize for his subject's excesses. Rather, Steward presents a balanced and carefully researched picture of an individual often forgotten in the history of early Missouri and the Old Southwest. John Smith added the T to his name to separate himself from the many other John Smiths—the T signifying Tennessee—and he lived a life as distinctive as his name. From Tennessee to Alabama to Texas to Iowa, and generally based in Missouri, Smith T speculated in land, developed businesses, became tainted by the Aaron Burr and James Wilkinson scheme, recruited private armies, and collided with many who were in his way during the first third of the nineteenth century. A ruthless and vitriolic but capable and extremely ambitious man, he used the law when it suited his goals, and he used brute force when the law was insufficient or landed on the side of his opponents. Often feared, frequently hated, Smith T was, as Steward suggests, a violent man with an entrepreneurial bent—or vice versa. Although Smith T left few records of his life (but they include a remarkable challenge to duel), Steward is able to recover ample information from court records (his litigious naturerevealing much), local histories, official reports, and the papers of associates and rivals.