|
BIOGRAPHIES
A Standard History
of
Erie County, Ohio
An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular
Attention
to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial,
Civic and Social Development. A Chronicle of the People, with Family
Lineage and Memoirs.
By
HEWSON L. PEEKE
Assisted by the Board of Advisory Editors
Volume I.
ILLUSTRATED
The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago and New York
1916
| |
BERT D. SMITH.
A high class business man of Sandusky who has won his
way from a humble position to one of marked prosperity
is Bert D. Smith, whose name is especially
familiar in the coal trade. Mr. Smith is
still young, and what he has accomplished in the past
fifteen or twenty years serves as a reliable basis for
judgment that his prosperity will be all the greater in
the years to come.
A native of Erie County, he was born Mar. 21, 1877, a
son of William C. and Louisa (Kunz) Smith.
His father was born in Ohio and is still living at the
age of sixty-six. Bert D. Smith was the
third in a family of four children. He was
educated in the grammar schools of Sandusky, but when a
boy started out to make his own way. He learned
the barber trade under his father, but after four years
in that occupation looked for something better. He
next became collector for the Kunz Coal Company,
and during the four years in that work gained a thorough
knowledge of the coal business. His experience was
increased by three years of employment in Toledo, Ohio,
and Detroit, Michigan, with different coal companies,
but in 1900 he returned to Sandusky and started in the
coal trade for himself. His name has been
identified with that particular business in Sandusky for
fifteen years. Mr. Smith is a live and
energetic salesman, and he disposes of large quantities
of coal every year, and has a very large and extensive
clientele. He also is a dealer in and carries a
full and complete line of builders' supplies, and this
department of Mr. Smith's business is steadily
increasing.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the
Fraternal Order of Eagles and the United Commercial
Travelers. Mr. Smith married Miss Pearl
J. Bates, of Sandusky, Ohio, and has one son, J.
Bates Smith.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County,
Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 1192 |
| |
COURT C. SMITH.
One of the vigorous and independent young farmers in
Vermilion Township is Court C. Smith, whose
homestead which was also his birthplace, is located on
the south side of the township. During his
father's lifetime and since then Mr. Smithhas
applied himself vigorously to the work and management of
this excellent farm and the success with which he has
pursued his chosen calling has been reflected in a
generous estimate of his abilities and good citizenship.
Born on the farm where he now lives June 28, 1883, he
was reared and educated in that community, and is a son
of the late Charles and Anna (Nixon) Smith.
His father was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1840
and died in 1899 at the old home in Vermilion Township.
His mother was born in New York State in 1859 and died
at the Vermilion Township farm in 1892, when in the
prime of life. These parents were married in
Vermilion Township, and were quiet, industrious people
who worked hard to improve their sixty acres of land,
and left it to their son as a very valuable property.
During his lifetime the father put up a good set of farm
buildings, including a substantial nine-room two-story
house. He was a man who took an active interest in
local affairs and was a democrat. Charles Smith
was a son of Hiram Smith, who came from the East
to Ohio and married in this State Miss Hardy.
They spent their last years in Florence Township of Erie
County. At the time of his death Hiram Smith
was eighty-three years of age. He had been
affiliated with the republican party for a number of
years. Miss Anna Smith, mother of Court
C., was an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Her father, Mr. Nixon, was born in
New York State and enlisted at Lewiston for service in
the Civil war. He was captured and thrown into a
Southern prison, and died while there from exposure and
suffering, being then in the prime of his years.
He left a widow with two daughters, the elder being
Anna Smith, and the younger being Jennie, now
the wife of James Jones, living in Cleveland.
With Mrs. Jones lives her mother, who married for
a second time John McDowell. Mrs. Dowell
is now past eighty-six years of age, still vigorous in
spite of her years, and a devout Methodist.
Court C. Smith is the older of two children, his
brother Glenn having died at the age of ten
months and Mr. Smith naturally succeeded to the
ownership of the old homestead in Vermilion Township on
the death of his parents. He grew up in that
community, attained a substantial education in the local
schools, and for the past fifteen years has been an
active farmer.
In 1904 in Vermilion Township he married Miss Myrtle
Risden. She was born in Nebraska June 5, 1886,
but was reared and educated in Vermilion Township, being
a daughter of Almor G. Risden, a well known
Vermilion Township citizen. In politics Court
C. Smith votes an independent ticket.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County,
Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 1139 |
| |
FRED D. SMITH. One
of the well to do families of Erie County is represented
by Fred D. Smith, who formerly made his special
success as a nurseryman and who now owns and conducts a
fine farm situated on rural route No. 2 out of the
Village of Vermilion.
For near a century of time the members of Mr.
Smith's family have been identified with the
development and progress of this section of Northern
Ohio. Fred D. Smith himself was born in
Vermilion Township Sept. 15, 1858, a son of Alfred
and Julia (Poyer) Smith. Alfred Smith was born
in Cattaraugus County, New York, in 1825, a son of
Dr. and Anna (Bratton) Smith These
grandparents were both natives of Bennington, Vermont,
where the grandfather was born about 1786 or 1787.
On both sides there were ancestors who had borne a
gallant part as soldiers on the American side in the
Revolution. Doctor Smith and wife after
their marriage moved to Northeastern New York.
While there he enlisted and served in the War of 1812.
The nineteenth century, was still young and everything
west of the Alleghenies was new country when the
Smith family finally moved from Western New York to
Ashtabula, Ohio. Still later by a few years they
made another move and this time established a permanent
home in Vermilion Township of Erie County. Here
Doctor Smith spent the rest of his days and passed
away in 1872, while his widow survived until 1876.
She was in many ways a remarkable woman, had keen
intelligence and a wit, and maintained her faculties at
full up to the age of ninety. The grandfather was
first a whig and later a republican in politics.
Alfred Smith was a young man when he came to
Erie County, and grew up in Vermilion Township. He
came to be well known through his business as a stock
and horse trader. He bought large numbers of
horses in Ohio to take to the lumber camps in the
northern woods of Michigan. He also bought cattle
on an extended scale, and continued trading,
dealing and shipping livestock all his active career.
He was well known in two states. His death
occurred in 1870. In politics he was a republican.
His wife, who was the daughter of Tilly and Mary
(Curtis) Boyer, was born in 1836 and died in 1893.
Her parents were born in Connecticut, and after their
marriage settled in Erie County. Tilly Poyer
was three times married, and died in very advanced life.
To the marriage of Alfred Smith and wife were
born three children, the oldest being Fred D.
Belle is the wife of Horace Ball, and they
now reside at West Vermilion in Vermilion Township, and
have a son, Herman a young man of twenty-four.
Lewis, the only brother of Fred, lives in
the Village of Vermilion and by his marriage to
Nellie Goldsmith has three sons, Alfred, Warren
and Sterling.
Fred D. Smith was reared and educated in Vermilion
Township. As a boy he attended the local schools,
had practical lessons at home in the value of steady
industry and in good habits and honorable principles.
He took up farming as his active vocation and for many
years he was engaged in the nursery business, and
supplied the young stock for a great many fine orchards
in this part of Ohio. His home farm comprises
about sixty acres located on the Bartow Ridge Road.
In that locality he has lived for the past twenty-five
years, and is one of the older and more successful
citizens of that community. He has a good home,
has a family, and a great many friends in Vermilion and
other townships of Erie County.
Mr. Smith was married in this township to Ida
Roberts. She was born in Florence Township in
1863, and died at her home in Vermilion Township Dec. 5,
1905. Her father, Marcus Roberts, who
married a Miss Hardy, came from the State of
Connecticut and was one of the earlier settlers of Erie
County. She died in Florence Township about
twenty-eight years ago. Mr. Smith has one
son, Marcus R., who is now seventeen years of age
and is in the third year of the Vermilion High School.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County,
Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 1078 |
| |
HENRY W. SMITH.
Among the old and honored families of Erie County of
German origin must be mentioned that of which Henry
W. Smith is a prominent representative. He and
others of the name have been identified with
agricultural and industrial development many years and
in numerous ways have made their influence felt to the
advantage of the locality.
For thirty-three years Henry W. Smith has been a
general farmer in Berlin Township, his farm being
bounded by two of the well-traveled thoroughfares of
that township. He has lived there since 1882, and
owns ninety acres of fine land, well watered by Chappell
Creek. Nearly all of it is in cultivation, and its
crops are mainly wheat, corn and oats, and he keeps some
graded live stock, horses, cattle, hogs and sheep.
He has a special distinction among Erie County farmers
as an extensive and scientific grower of ginseng and
golden seal, and for several years has made this a very
profitable feature of his business. His land seems
particularly well adapted for these specific crops.
While the building improvements on his land are quite
old, they are kept in the best of repair, and altogether
he has one of the valuable estates of Berlin Township.
The family located in Erie County in the early half of
the nineteenth century. Henry W. Smith was
born in Vermilion Township Oct. 16, 1850, a son of
John and Louisa (Cook) Smith. Both parents
were natives of Germany, his father born at Blockheim in
1825, while his mother was born in 1828. They were
still children when brought by their respective families
to the United States. Both families made the
journey in sailing vessels, starting from Bremen and
landing at Baltimore. The Smiths and the
Cooks came on west to Erie County, and arrived here
in time to share in the pioneer development.
Grandfather John Smith died in Erie County
when quite an old man, and the same was true of
Grandfather Henry Cook. Both
families were members of the Reformed Church, and in
politics practically all in the successive generations
have been democrats. John Smith and
Louisa Cook both grew up in Erie County,
and after their marriage started out with
eighty-five acres of wild land in Vermilion Township.
This was the scene of their continued activities for
many years, in the course of which their land was
transformed into a fertile and productive farm.
John Smith died on that farm in 1899 and his wife
passed away in 1912. They were Reformed Church
people and he a democrat. Of their twelve
children, three died young, while all the others reached
maturity and five are now living and have children of
their own.
The oldest in the family, Henry W. Smith, grew
to manhood on the old farm, and had to work hard even
when a schoolboy. During several terms of his
school attendance his duties required that he haul a
cord of wood to Vermilion, three miles away from his
home, each morning before taking his books and walking
to school, and the same task had to be repeated after
school hours in the evening.
In the spring of 1882, a few weeks before removing to
his present farm, Mr. Smith married Eva
C. Fischer. She was born in Brownhelm Township
of Lorain County, Mar.10, 1853, but when she was still a
child her parents removed to Erie County and she was
reared and educated in Berlin Township. Her
parents were Henry and Catherine (Reiber) Fischer,
both natives of Germany, and coming to this country when
quite young, with their respective parents, both the
Fischers and Reibers settling in Lorain
County. Mrs. Smith's parents were
farmers in that county and later in Berlin Township,
where her father died at the age of sixty-five.
Her mother is still living in the township and preserves
her vigorous mentality and physical health, though, at
the venerable age of eighty-seven. The Fischers
were likewise active members of the German Reformed
Church, and Mr. Fischer was a democrat in
politics.
Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Smith
took up the work of improvement on the farm which has
been mentioned, and where they have lived steadily and
prosperingly for upwards of thirty-five years. All
their children were born on the farm, and a brief record
of this younger generation is as follows: Alvina
is now the wife of Philip Sprankal, a farmer in
Berlin Township, and they have a daughter named Eva
C. Catherine, the second child, is the wife of
Arthur J. Soult, residing in Norwalk, Huron
County, and they have a daughter Catherine.
Henry W., Jr., now twenty-four, received his
education, as did the other children, in the graded
schools, and is now associated with his brother Nicholas
in the ownership and management of a farm of eighty
acres in Berlin township, and are both, progressive and
enterprising young men, still unmarried. Louisa
died when five years and six months old. The son
Nicholas, next in age, has been mentioned.
Eva C., Marjorie and John A. are
still young and living with their parents. Mr.
Smith and his older sons are democrats, and
nearly all members of the family are active in Florence
Grange No. 1844 of the Patrons of Husbandry.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County,
Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 671 |
| |
JAY C. SMITH.
Of all the multifarious occupations of mankind, probably
the most indispensable is that of agriculture, for upon
the farmer all other classes of society depend in large
measure. The extent of the obligation is not
always recognized by those in other walks of life, nor
do they appreciate at its full value the extent of
theoretical and practical knowledge required to pursue
this calling successfully at the present day. The
fact, however, that colleges arc established all over
the country for teaching this important science should
be conclusive evidence to everyone that the cultivation
of the soil, with its related branches of dairying and stockraising, is much more than a matter of mere manual
labor. To have attained rank among the successful
and prosperous farmers of any up to date American
community implies the possession of qualities that would
compel success in many other important callings. A
conspicuous example of this kind is the subject of this
memoir. Jay C. Smith, proprietor of the
well known Smith farm in Margaretta Township,
Erie County, Ohio. Mr. Smith was
born in this township, Nov. 8, 1844, a son of Samuel
H. and Rachel (Mack) Smith. His paternal
grandfather was a pioneer settler here and resided in
the township many years, following the occupation of a
surveyor. He was a Master Mason and a prominent
member of Mount Vernon (Ohio) Lodge. About 1852 he
went to Texas, where he found a wide field to exercise
his professional skill, doing a large amount of
surveying in the neighborhood of Houston. Although
he died during the Civil war period, he had by that time
acquired a large amount of land, at his death owning
something like 50,000 acres in that vicinity.
Samuel H. Smith, son of Samuel and father
of Jay C., spent the entire active period of his
life in Margaretta Township, this county, operating the
farm now owned by his son. Jay. In early
years, when he settled here with his parents, the land
was heavily timbered and deer and other wild game were
plentiful in the forest. To him in large measure
devolved the pioneer task of clearing the farm, and many
years of arduous labor were necessary before the rank
forest growth gave way to the smiling, fruitful fields
of today. But our pioneer forefathers were never
lacking in either courage or energy and in course of
time the beneficial change was effected. A man of
much force of character, Samuel H. Smith was well
and favorably known both in Erie and adjoining counties.
He was strongly opposed to slavery, and after the
formation of the republican party he became one of its
most stanch
supporters. To the cultivation of the soil he
added the raising of stock, carrying on both branches of
farm work with prosperous results. He died in
1871, honored and respected by all who knew him.
His wife, Rachel Mack Smith, was a native of Erie
County, Ohio. Of their children the subject of
this memoir is now the only survivor.
Jay C. Smith, who was his parents' only son,
acquired his literary education in the public schools of
Margaretta Township, this county, and the Sandusky High
School, at the same time acquiring a practical knowledge
of farm life and work. In June, 1863, when a young
man not yet nineteen years of age, he enlisted as a
private in Company M, First Ohio Heavy Artillery, under
Capt. Henry J. Bly, who subsequently became the
father of the famous Nellie Bly,
journalist and war correspondent, now or recently
following her vocation on European battlefields.
After two years service in Kentucky, Tennessee and North
Carolina, during which time he saw plenty of good
fighting and took part in many a long and weary march,
he was honorably discharged in 1865, after the close of
the war, and returned home to Castalia, Ohio, his
present place of residence. Here he took up farm
work, including dairying and stock-raising, and applied
himself with the energy of his forefathers to achieve
success in his chosen calling. How well he has
done so is known to every inhabitant of Margaretta and
and the neighboring townships. His farm contains
some 400 acres of excellent land, and considerable
portion being highly cultivated and the rest utilized
for grazing purposes, as he makes a specialty of
raising thoroughbred Holstein cattle. In this
branch of his work, as in all the rest, he has been
highly successful and his name figures among those of
prominent stockmen in this part of the state. For
over a quarter of a century he has furnished the milk
for the State Soldiers' Home, near Sandusky. A
public-spirited citizen, Mr. Smith is
always ready to lend his aid and influence to any plan
for the improvement of local conditions and the general
welfare of the community. He is a prominent member
of the Grand Army Post at Castalia.
Mr. Smith was first married to Miss
Alice Sewell, of Louisiana, of which union
there were three children, all sons, namely: James,
Jr., residing in Castalia; Jay B., who is a
member of the heavy artillery, United States army, and
is now stationed at Boston, Massachusetts, and Floyd
S., a resident of Castalia, who is a veteran of the
Spanish-American war. Mr. Smith
married for his second wife May O. Palmer, of
Castalia, Ohio, daughter of V. Palmer, an
esteemed resident of this town. By this union also
there have been three children, as follows:
Flossie, wife of Carl Ketter, of
Sandusky, Ohio; Mary, a student in a ladies'
college at Nashville, Tennessee, and George L.,
of Castalia, who is carrier on a rural mail route
connected with that postoffice. The members of
Mr. Smith's family are typical
representatives of the best American citizenship, who do
credit to their upbringing, and are respected and
esteemed wherever they reside.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County,
Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 926 |
| |
ULYSSES G. SMITH.
The proprietor of the Huron Roller Mills, which are
thoroughly modern in equipment and control a substantial
and representative trade, has literally grown up in the
line of industrial enterprise to which he is thus giving
his attention, and it is needless to say that he is
admirably fortified in both technical knowledge and in
practical experience. Mr. Smith not only
holds prestige as one of the prominent and successful
representatives of the milling business in Erie County
and as one of the progressive and influential citizens
of the thriving little City of Huron, but he is also a
man whose buoyant and genial nature and sterling
attributes of character have won for him and impregnable
vantage-place in popular confidence and esteem, his
coterie of staunch friends being virtually limited only
by that of his acquaintances.
The Huron Roller Mills do a general milling business
and the principal brand of flour produced is designated
the "Sweet Home," its superior excellence having gained
to it a wide and appreciative demand throughout Erie and
adjoining counties, the product being distinctively
staple and standard. The mills were established
about the year 1866, by the firm of Barker & Slack,
and after the property passed from the control of this
firm is changed hands several times before it came into
the possession of the present owner. This pioneer
flouring mill, originally equipped with the old-time
buhrs, has not fallen behind in the progress of the
milling industry, as it has been remodeled from time to
time and was finally supplied with the best mechanical
facilities and accessories that are now in evidence and
that give it high standard. Mr. Smith first
became identified with the operations of these nulls in
1892, and since 1903 he has been the sole proprietor,
many improvements having been made since he assumed
control. Power is supplied by an excellent steam
plant, and the facilities are such as to obtain the best
results in the grinding not only of wheat but also of
corn, buckwheat, etc., the capacity of the plant being
for the aggregate output of fifty barrels a day.
Mr. Smith has stated that he gained his initial
experience in the milling business when he was but seven
years old, and his long association with this line of
enterprise makes him an authority in all details of the
same.
Ulysses Grant Smith was born at Lexington,
Richland County, Ohio, on the 16th of July, 1863, but
moved from there when a mere child and acquired his
early education in the common schools of Liberty
Township, Hancock County, Ohio, the while he
incidentally became familiar with the activities of this
father's flour mill, as already intimated in a preceding
paragraph, the entire active career of his father having
been given to the milling business. Mr. Smith
has been personally concerned with his present line of
industrial enterprise for the long period of thirty-six
years, and from the time he completed his practical term
of apprenticeship he has never been found absent from
his station of business for a total period of more than
three or four months, his energy, ability and close
application having been the conservators of his success
and advancement and there having been no time at which
he could not readily find employment. As a young
man Mr. Smith was associated with his father in
the operation of the Carland Mills at Findlay, this
state, and later they assumed control of the mill at
Bloomdale, Wood County, Ohio, from which place he came
to Birmingham, Erie County, where the subject of this
review was operator of a mill until his removal to
Huron, in 1892. He and his father met with
considerable loss through a flood which did great damage
to the mill which they were operating at Findlay, but
both have proved that courage and continued industry
will win out in the face of obstacles and financial
depression, and it may consistently be said of Mr.
Smith that he has never faltered in purpose and
never permitted himself to think of defeat or continued
misfortune within the realm of possibility.
Leander C. Smith, father of him whose name
introduces this review, was born in Wayne County, Ohio,
in the year 1835, a member of a family that settled in
that county in an early day. As a youth he was
engaged in teaching school about seven years, and when
the Civil war was precipitated on the nation he tendered
his service in defense of the Union by enlisting in a
regiment that was recruited largely in his native
county. After ninety days of service he was
granted an honorable discharge, by reason of physical
disability. Thereafter he remained for a time on
the farm of one of his brothers, and later he found
employment as a general mechanic, at McComb, Hancock
County, his natural mechanical ability having made him
an effective artisan at the trade of cabinetmaker and
engineer and having finally enabled him to become a
proficient exponent of the milling business, with which
he continued to be closely identified for fully twenty
years.
In Wayne County was solemnized the marriage of
Leander C. Smith to Miss Fannie George,
daughter of Isaac George, the maiden name of
whose wife was Gault, both parents having been
born and reared in Pennsylvania and having early
established their home on a farm in Wayne County, Ohio;
they later removed to Wood county, where the mother died
at the age of sixty-six years and where the father
passed away at the patriarchal age of ninety-two years,
both having been zealous church folk of the highest
integrity and honor. Leander C. Smith died
at the age of seventy-two years, as the result of an
accident; in an attack of vertigo he fell from a porch,
his head striking a rock and the skull being crushed, so
that he died about two hours later, his widow surviving
him about four months and dying when about sixty-eight
years of age. They became the parents of seven
children, all of whom are still living and all of whom
are married and have children. Mr. Smith
was a staunch republican and was a man of broad views
and superior intellectuality.
At Ashmont, Erie County, was solemnized the marriage of
Ulysses G. Smith to Miss Clara Bryant, who
was born in Indiana but who was reared to adult age in
Erie County, Ohio, where she acquired her education in
the public schools and where her parents continued to
reside until her death. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
have two children, Helen A. who is, in 1915, a
member of the sophomore class in the Huron High School
and who is developing exceptional talent as a pianist,
and Paul, who was born in 1906, and is attending
the public schools.
Mr. Smith accords unfaltering allegiance to the
cause of the republican party, takes a lively interest
in public affairs of a local order and has served two
years as a member of the City Council of Huron. He
was formerly in active affiliation with the Knights of
Pythias, and he and his family attend and support the
Presbyterian Church.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County,
Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 828 |
| |
WILLIAM J. SMITH.
In the fine little City of Huron Mr. Smith has
built up a large and substantial business as a dealer in
produce, and he has made a specialty of the buying and
shipping of potatoes, a product for which this favored
section of the Buckeye State has gained high reputation.
Mr. Smith takes justifiable pride in his
ancestral history and is a scion of a family that was
early founded in the State of Virginia, where his
paternal grandparents passed their entire lives and
where his father was born and reared, the name having
been closely and successfully linked with agricultural
enterprise in the historic Old Dominion. The
grandparents of Mr. Smith attained to venerable
age, both were consistent members of the Baptist Church,
and they were residents of Cumberland County, Virginia,
at the time of their death.
James Smith, father of the subject of this
review, was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, in the
early part of the nineteenth century, and his death
occurred in the year 1855. He was a successful
planter and was the owner of a number of slaves, these
having been given by him to his brother Charles,
as he had become convinced that within ten years all
slaves would be given liberty, a prophecy that came true
within the decade after his death. He personally
held much antipathy to the institution of slavery but in
a degree was constrained by the customs of his native
state, within whose gracious borders he continued to
reside until the close of this life. His widow,
Mrs. Lacy Smith, came to Ohio after his death and
passed the closing years of his life in the home of her
son Robert, in Medina County, where she died at
the venerable age of eighty-four years of age, her
earnest religious faith having been that of the Baptist
Church. She became the mother of seven children,
all of whom attained to years of maturity, the eldest of
the number having been Rev. Charles Smith, who
became a clergyman of the Methodist Church and who was a
resident of Kentucky at the time of his death, one son
and one daughter surviving him. Robert,
whose wife is deceased, is still one of the substantial
farmers of Medina County, and with him resides his
brother John who is a bachelor. William
J., of this Sketch, was the next in order of birth;
Dr. Edward Smith became a successful physician
and was a resident of Berea, Ohio, at the time of his
death, several children surviving him. Nancy
who is the widow of Frank Peek, resides at Milan,
Erie County, and has one son and one daughter.
Mary is the wife of Charles Brasse, of Lorain
County, and they have one daughter.
William J. Smith was born on the old home place
in Cumberland County, Virginia. There he was
reared to the age of nineteen years, and such were the
conditions and exigencies of time and place that he
received in his youth practically no definite school
advantages, but his alert mentality and broad and varied
experience in later years having enabled him effectually
to overcome this educational handicap.
In 1866, the year following the close of the Civil war,
Mr. Smith provided a covered army wagon and a
team of horses, and with this primitive vehicle he
transported his mother and most of his brothers and
sisters to Ohio, the journey having covered a period of
twenty-seven days and the family having encamped at
night by the wayside, while en route to the new home.
Arriving at Union Corners, Erie County, the sons soon
obtained a home for the family at Page's Corner, and
later William obtained a position in the employ
of Deacon Scott, under whose direction he
acquired his first specific educational training, which
was later supplemented by his attending school at Berea,
Cuyahoga County. For many days he carried his
books about with him when possible, and by his assiduous
application in otherwise leisure moments he finally
acquired a fair degree of scholastic training.
Since the year 1868 Mr. Smith has been a grower
of potatoes, and in the initial stage of his enterprise
along this line he paid two cents a pound for the famous
old Early Rose variety of potatoes, his first crop
having brought forth a splendid increase and netted him
an appreciable profit. He finally extended his
operations by engaging in the buying and shipping of
potatoes, and with this branch of commercial enterprise
he has been successfully identified for many years, so
that he naturally pays due respect to the humble tuber
which has in a sense been the basis of his prosperity.
His operations have been of extensive order and he has
gained throughout this section of Ohio the familiar and
significant sobriquet of "Potato Smith," a distinction
to which he has never objected in the least.
Mr. Smith handles each year an average of 100 cars
of potatoes, the product being purchased in Erie and
adjoining counties and then shipped to the leading
markets. Mr. Smith maintains counties and
then shipped to the leading markets. Mr. Smith
maintains his home at Huron, and is known and honored as
one of the steadfast and reliable business men of the
older generation in Erie County, where his circle of
friends is limited only by that of his acquaintance.
Mr. Smith is an stalwart and well fortified
advocate of the principles of the republican party,
takes a loyal interest in public affairs of a local
order and is now serving his second term as trustee of
Huron Township. He is an ardent temperance man and
his example is well worthy of emulation, for he has
never taken a drink of spirituous liquor and never
chewed or smoked tobacco. He is one of the most
genial, optimistic and companionable of men, and a more
loyal friend has never called for the township of
others. He and his family hold membership in the
Presbyterian Church.
In the City of Sandusky, this county, was solemnized
the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss Louise
Woodward, who was there born and reared and who is a
daughter of Edward R. and Jane (Stapleton) Woodward,
who were early settlers of that city, where they
continued to reside until their death, Mr. Woodward
having been for many years in charge of the oil
department of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern
Railroad at that point. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
have four sons, all of whom have conferred honor on the
name which they bear: Edward G., who is
successfully established in business at Madison, Lake
County, is married but has no children; William J.
is identified with the sand industry at Sandusky, is
married but has no children; Harvey W., who
remains at the parental home, is associated with his
father in the produce business and is an enterprising
and popular young business man of his native county;
Andrew is engaged in the grocery business at Huron,
where he has a finely equipped store and caters to a
representative trade; he married Miss Vera H. Hart
of this city, and they have a daughter, Vera May.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County,
Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 1022 |
NOTES:
.
|
