Smith Bend

The area was settled by John Jackson Smith in 1856, a landowner from Scott County, Mississippi. His eldest son Burton had originally left for Texas, but died before his family arrived. Smith's son-in-law and daughter Silas and Ann McCabe travelled north from South Texas to join the family. The McCabes formed a separate community to the west named Coon Creek.[2]

Following the deaths of John Smith and his wife Margaret Butler Smith, seven of the children remained in the area. Gip, his youngest son, became a rancher-merchant.

By 1900 the community had 100 residents, a three teacher school that was opened in the 1880s, had closed by the early 1940s., and many of the largely rural workers had fled during the Great Depression.[3]

When Lake Whitney was opened in 1950, Farm Road 2114 crossed the Brazos at Smith Bend, however the economic benefits bypassed the community, focusing on the lakeside area. Prominent local river landmarks that had been known to earlier generations such as Twin Rock Bluff, Burks Crossing and Chalk Bluff were now cut off from public access.

The community now consists of twenty houses scattered along the road, a Baptist church that was constructed in 1962 to replace the old schoolhouse, and a gravel processing plant which was constructed in 1990, along with a commercial pecan orchard.

The Smith Bend-Coon Creek Cemetery, containing the remains of Burton Smith and 500 other graves stands to the west of the community.