The township of Smith is of range number five township eighteen north from the Ohio river.  It is bounded north by Deerfield, in Portage county, and Berlin township, in Mahoning county; east by Goshen, in Mahoning county; south by Knox township, Columbiana county; and west by Lexington, in Stark county.  The general surface of the land is undulating, and in the northeastern part  hilly, where the greatest elevation is attained.  The center, within the radius of two miles from the town-house, is the most depressed portion of the township, the land gradually rising as the township lines are approached.  The township is drained by the Mahoning river and its tributaries.  The Mahoning proper passes northwesterly across the southwest corner of the township, which it again enters on section six, at the northwest corner, crossing it in a northeasterly direction.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

     Probably the first white man in Smith township, by whom any material improvements were made, was JAMES CARTER, from Pennsylvania, in the year 1803.  His advent was entirely an accident.  Carter having purchased land on what is known as the Western Reserve (of which the north line of Smith township forms part of the southern boundary) entered and cleared a portion, and built a log house on what he supposed to be his own lands.  The same year William Smith purchased from the government section three, containing six hundred and forty acres, and went with his family to occupy the same in 1804.  On his arrival he found that Carter had by mistake built

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his cabin on his (Smith's) land.  Smith paid Carter for the improvements he had made, who soon after left to occupy the lands he had in fact purchased.  Although the first improvements were made by Carter in 1803, and the first house built by him at that time, the distinction of first permanent settlement properly belongs to William Smith and his family.  William Smith died in 1841, aged seventy-three years; his wife died in 1845, aged seventy-two years.  Both were interred in the family burying-ground on the hill, near the present village of North Benton.

     JAMES C. STANLEY, of Hanover county, Virginia, was one of the pioneers of Smith township, and probably the second settler.  He came in the year 1805, and located on section twenty-four, which he had purchased from the Government, and which lies about four miles southeast of William Smith's section, in what was after wards called the “Stanley neighborhood.”  He brought with him a wife and eight children.  The house built by the pioneer James C. was the second in the township, and the first south of the center line.

     In the year 1811 EDMUND, oldest son of Thomas STANLEY, of Hanover county, Virginia, in company with John White (a colored family servant), came to Smith and built a log house in the eastern part of the township, preparatory to the coming of the family.  Thomas Stanley arrived with his family in the spring of 1812.  His children were John, who died in 1877; Elijah, who died in 1836; Frances, who married Isaac Votaw, and died about 1818; Edmund, who died in 1842; Millie, who married Joshua Crew, and came with the Stanley family or a few weeks later.  Joshua Crew died about the year 1845, after which his wife went to Iowa, where she died about 1868.  These were the children of Thomas Stanley by his first wife.  His second wife was Priscilla Ladd, and their children were Isaac, Thomas Binford, Sarah, who married Thomas Woolman, and Micajah.  Micajah Stanley married Unity Coppack, by whom he had eight children.

     JOHN DETCHON, son of Oswell and Annie (Carr) Detchon, pioneers of Trumbull county, came to Smith in 1822.  In 1824 he married Maria Hoadley, seventh child of Gideon Hoadley.

     GIDEON HOADLEY, with his wife and children, settled in the township in 1823.  In 1824 Henry
Hartzell's family settled here.

     In 1812 LEVI RAKESTRAW and his wife Rebecca (Bryan) came from New Jersey and located in Goshen township, where they lived until Nov. 10, 1825, when they moved to Smith township, where they spent the remainder of their lives.  Joseph Snods came from the same State in 1824 with his wife and three children.  His son William now lives in Smith township.

     One of the most prominent of the early settlers was BENJAMIN VOTAW, who settled permanently in Smith township in 1829.  He operated the first mill in the township before his settlement, built on Island creek about 1823 by James Smith, son of Judge William Smith, the pioneer.

     SAMUEL OYSTER was the first settler of the western part of Smith township, locating on section thirty-one in 1826.  He raised a family of fourteen children.

     Among the old families of the township was that of NATHAN HEACOCK.  He settled near Salem, Columbiana county, in 1816, coming from Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and in 1825 came to Smith, bringing a family of ten children.

     PETER WISE came from Pennsylvania to Smith in 1832 with a large family.

     In 1810 JAMES CATTELL, of New Jersey, located in Goshen township, and in 1833 moved to Smith, where he died in 1860.

     JAMES M. DOBSON came to Smith in 1833 with his wife and one child–John.

     GEORGE ATKINSON was a resident of Goshen in 1816, and one of his sons, William, afterward became a resident of Smith.

     Other early settlers were Solomon Hartzell, Jacob Paxson, Job Lamborn, Christian Sheets, William Johnston, Hugh Wright, and John Thompson.

     There were families among the early settlers whose history is not recorded.  Of these some are dead, others have left the township, and no authentic record of the date of their settlement, death, or departure can be obtained.  On information from the oldest living residents, the names of many have been obtained as follows: Mathias Hollowpeter, Jonathan Hoope, John Cowgill, the Cobbs, Hugh Packer, John Trago, Abram Haines, Leonard Reed, Abram and Samuel Miller, Adam

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McGowan, William Matthews, John Hillerman, Amos Allerton, John Schaffer.  These were probably settled in the township prior to 1830; yet it is possible that some were later, as in 1828 there were but twenty-three voters in the township.

ORGANIZATION.

     Smith township was organized at a meeting of the Columbiana county commissioners in the month of March, 1821, upon the petition of Judge William Smith, one of its pioneers, in honor of whom it was named.  The books of the township, containing records of the first meetings and of the election of the first officers, are lost or destroyed.  Notice of the organization was found in the old commissioner's journal.  James C. Stanley was probably clerk of the first town-meeting.

NORTH BENTON.

     The village of North Benton was surveyed and laid out on the 27th and 28th days of March, 1834, under the proprietorship of William Smith, Dr. John Dellenbaugh, and James Smith.  The map or plat was recorded Mar. 31, 1834.  Although not till then formally laid out, yet as early as the year 1830 a number of buildings had been erected, and the village was a general gathering place for the people in that vicinity.  North Benton was named in honor of Thomas Benton, a "hard-money" Democrat of the time, who had many friends and admirers in that community.  "North" was prefixed in order to distinguish it from another place of that name.  The first hotel was built in 1832 by one Fitch, and called the "Benton Exchange."
     The village has a population of about two hundred and fifty, comprising about seventy families, and has two churches, a school, several stores, and business interests of various kinds.

WESTVILLE.

     In the year 1831 the town or village of Westville was named and partially laid out, under the proprietorship of Aaron Coppack, and then was composed of a portion of sections thirty-five and thirty-six.  The map was recorded September 27th of the same year.  In 1835 an addition was made, and portions of sections one and two of Knox township included within the village limits.  This was done under the direction of Aaron Coppack, Samuel Coppack, Joseph Cobbs, and Edward Randolph, proprietors.  The plat was recorded Oct. 15, 1835.  The village was recorded Oct. 15, 1835.  The village continued to grow until about 1850, and became a convenient trading centre, having a saw-mill on section thirty-five and a general country store.  Since that time there has been no material increase in population.

BELOIT.

     This hamlet, although never regularly laid out of incorporated as a village, in indebted for its existence to the building of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad, in the years 1848-49.  It was originally called "Smithfield Station," and a post-office established there under that name.  In about 1863 the name was changed to Beloit, there being then another Smithfield village in the State.  Within the limits of what may properly be called Beloit are a church, saw-mill, two stores, a wagon manufactory, and a blacksmith shop.  The village has a population of about one hundred and fifty.

EAST ALLIANCE.

     East Alliance, as it is called, is but one of the suburbs of Alliance, Stark county, resulting from the growth of the latter place.  In 1879 East Alliance was made the second election district of Smith township.

CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.

     Smith township has four churches.  The first erected was in 1829 by the Friends on section thirty-four.  This building was also used for a school, taught by Hannah Courtney.  A Methodist Episcopal church was erected at North Benton in 1840.  A Presbyterian congregation formed in Deerfield, Portage county, moved to Smith, and elected a church near North Benton in 1851.  A union church was built in 1859 on section twenty-six, but was sold to the Presbyterian society in 1870.
     The first school of the township was taught in an old log house on the site of North Benton, but by whom is not known.  Margaret Davis taught the school at a very early day.  The township was originally divided into four districts, but now comprises ten.  The annual cost of the maintenance of schools is about $2.500.

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