Col. Ebenezer Folsom, State Sen of NC - His wife, Edith, was not a Tuscarora nor Chickasaw. She was of English descent.

A Very Short History of Johnston County

Historical Properties
Historical Mural
If you read about the founding of Johnston County and Smithfield, you learn that the Smith family operated Smith’s Ferry and Edith’s father, Samuel Smith, Sr. was on the 1776 NC Council of Safety.
The narrative that follows is based largely on a book by Thomas J. Lassiter and T. Wingate Lassiter: Johnston County: its history since 1746. Copies of the book may be purchased from the Heritage Center. Click here to order directly from our Web site.

Prehistoric Residents, the Tuscaroras, an Iroquoian-speaking tribe, flourished here until the second decade of the 18th Century. They were defeated in a bloody war with European colonists in 1713, after which most Tuscaroras fled to New York where they became the sixth nation in the Iroquois confederation. Those allowed to remain in the Carolina colony were placed on a reservation in Bertie County, but many of these later followed their fellow tribesmen to New York. Tuscarora descendants still live on a reservation near Niagara Falls where much of their history and culture is kept alive.