“Lucinda Alice Smith ... was descended in four lines--Smith, Harrison, Wynne, and Edge--from early colonial Virginia and Maryland families. According to family tradition, her grandmother Lucinda Harrison--for whom she was named--was a direct descendant of Benjamin Harrison V (1726-1791), a Virginia signer of the Declaration of Independence. Also, she was the direct descendant of three Revolutionary [War] soldiers of whose service there remains documented records. These are
-- Richard Harrison I (1739-1816) of Dinwiddie County, Virginia, later of Columbia Georgia;
-- Nehemiah Edge II (1754-1826) of Somerset County, Maryland, later of Wilkes county, Georgia; and
-- Jonathan Doster (1740-1827) of Frederick County, Virginia, later of Wilkes county, Georgia.

“[Lucinda Alice] was the niece of John Edward Smith (1827-1911), McDuffie banker, industrialist, and philanthropist; and she and U.S. Senator Thomas E. Watson (1865-1922), McDuffie’s most distinguished citizen, were both direct descendants of the same great grandfather--Sheppard Smith of Virginia, who migrated to Columbia County Georgia about 1815.

“[Lucinda Alice] grew up at her father’s country place, then in Columbia county, known as “Smith’s Mill,” on Maddox Creek, in the Pine Grove section. Her two sisters died in infancy and her mother died May 30 1850 when little Lucinda was only two. Her father remarried to Caroline M. Young. By this second marriage, Lucinda had a half-brother, William wesley Smith and a half-sister, Sumter Ophelia Smith. Lucinda Alice Smith, who was devoted to her step-mother, half-sister, and half-brother, grew up in surroundings of ease, if not of luxury. Her father owned many slaves and she and her sister each had a personal maid. Yet she was a person of great industry and thrift--these two qualities being singularly outstanding throughout her life.

“She attended the Richards School, a boarding school of high academic standards located near Wrightsboro, conducted by Goveneur Richards and his two sisters, the Misses Mal and Lizzie Richards. This institution is no longer in existence. When Lucinda Smith became engaged to Hezekiah McCorkle, she made the long trip by horse and carriage to Augusta to buy her trousseau. En route to Augusta, it was discovered that one of the negro men employed by her father had hidden himself in the springs beneath the carriage in order to go to Augusta “just for the ride”. This is mentioned as an early instance of hitch-hiking.

“A model housekeeper, a patient, untiring mother, [Lucinda Alice] always put home and family first. She was a loyal member of the Thomson Methodist Church. When the Ida Evans Eve Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was organized in Thomson and granted its charter on September 27, 1897, she was one of the charter members. She died at her Thomson home, Cleveland Street, Oct. 15, 1917. Her grave (marked) is besides her husband’s on the H. McCorkle Square of the Thomson Cemetery.”

-- Timmons-McCorkle history. p. 74