Background
When Smeathers was 12 his father was killed by Indians and his mother died shortly thereafter, leaving young Smeathers to tend to his younger brother James and sister Mollie.
When Smeathers was 12 his father was killed by Indians and his mother died shortly thereafter, leaving young Smeathers to tend to his younger brother James and sister Mollie.
Not much is known about his early days. He is believed to have been born in either Pennsylvania, Virginia or North Carolina. He may have been born as early as 1759 or as late as 1767.
In 1782 he was one of the first settlers in the Rough River area of, where he built Smeathers Station.
Smeathers was also an early settler of Fort Hartford (present-day Hartford in Ohio County), and he helped to build a fort at Vienna (later Calhoun in McLean County) on the Green River in the early 1780s. In 1797 or 1798 he built a home on the Ohio River, at a site that became known as Yellow Banks, becoming the first settler in what is now Owensboro, Smeathers served on first grand jury of Court of Quarter Sessions at Hartford, 1803.
In 1808 he was appointed land commissioner of Ohio County. He was acquitted but was advised to leave the area temporarily for his own safety.
He served in the "Corn Stalk" militia in 1803, and he served in the War of 1812 as a captain in the Mounted Spies under the command of Major Toussaint Dubois.
He reportedly visited (then under Spanish rule) in 1810, and at some point he seems to have lived in Indiana. He eventually relocated to, and in 1821 he helped Stephen F. Austin explore the coast to choose a location for Austin"s first colony. In 1822 he was one of the five men who established a fort, Fort Bend, at a bend in the Brazos River near the site of present-day Richmond.
The fort gave its name to present-day Fort Bend County.
Smeathers is listed as one of the Old Three Hundred, original settlers in Austin"s colony along the Brazos River in Mexican, the first of many Americans to settle in with the permission of the Mexican government. Later he was one of the first settlers in the DeWitt Colony in the Lavaca River valley area near current Hallettsville.
He died in Columbia,, on August 13, 1837. There is a Bill Smeathers Park in Owensboro, (Daviess County, ), where he is credited as the first settler.
Historical Marker #744 was erected in his honor at the park.
Historical Marker #1548 in Hartford,, (Ohio County) honors Smeathers for his contribution in helping erect a fort there and at Vienna (later Calhoun in McLean County). A monument near Fort Bend,, lists his name as "William Smithers" and commemorates his founding of Fort Bend with four other mentor lieutenant is reported that a lake in was named for him.
This probably refers to Smithers Lake in Fort Bend County
Smothers Creek in Lavaca County - also known as Smathers or Smeathers Creek - is named for him.