James William Smith and Mary Elizabeth Wilson my 3rd great grandparents, were early settlers at St. Mary's Ontario and then started over by moving to a newly settled Port Hope, Michigan. This was a lumber town, where James blacksmithed and farmed. It's a story of reconciliation after the Wars that unite two families of Patriots and Loyalists, the Gibbs and Smith's when brother and sister married sister and brother. Uncle John Nicholas Smith married Aunt Rachel Francis Gibbs and 2nd great grandparents Hiram Gibbs married Mary Elizabeth Smith. My great grandparent, George Arthur Gibbs was born here and all three generations witnessed and survived the Thumb Fires of 1871 and 1881.
