My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE E. SMITH. This influential business man of St. Joseph is a dealer in real estate and also devotes especial attention to loans and collections. He is highly respected among the people of this city by the Lake, and, being a thoroughly practical man in all departments of his business, he enjoys a steadily growing prosperity, which is the result of merit. St. Joseph is progressing rapidly to a front rank among the cities of Michigan, and its real estate is constantly increasing in value. As the natural result, the business in which Mr. Smith is engaged has assumed proportions hitherto undreamed of, and has attained an importance which in former years it did not possess.

Mr. Smith is a native of Connecticut and traces his ancestry through a long line of worthy and brave men to Old England, whence at an early period in the settlement of the United States his progenitors emigrated hither and established homes for their families. Josiah Smith, the grandfather of our subject, was born in Connecticut and did valiant service during the period of the Revolutionary War. Josiah Smith, Jr., father of our subject, was also a native of the Nutmeg State, and died in January, 1883. The mother of our subject was Betsey, a daughter of Daniel Lockwood and a native of Connecticut.

At Stamford, Fairfield County, Conn., George E. Smith was born on the 24th of March, 1838. His boyhood was uneventfully spent in his father’s home, and much of his time was given to his studies, which he carried on in the common schools and later at a private boarding-school. Upon leaving school, he aided his father in the farm work and continued thus occupied for ten years. It had always been his desire to travel and gain the broad information which comes from contact with people of other countries. As soon, therefore, as he was able to do so, he left home and traveled extensively throughout the United States, Cuba and Canada.

Coming to St. Joseph in August, 1861, Mr. Smith opened a grocery and hardware store, and conducted a prosperous business for twelve months. That peaceful occupation was broken in upon by his enlistment, in August, 1862, as a member of Company B, Seventh Michigan Cavalry, in which he served as Quartermaster-Sergeant about two years. He participated in many of the hard-fought engagements of the Civil War, and among the battles in which he took active part may be mentioned those of Gettysburg, Hagerstown, Coal Harbor, the Wilderness, Cedar Creek, and numerous other engagements of minor importance, though not less hazardous to life. At the battle of Cedar Creek he was wounded and again in the Wilderness, but fortunately his injuries did not prove serious, and in June, 1864, he was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant and assigned to Company A, same regiment. At the expiration of his term of enlistment, in 1866, he was mustered out at Jackson, Mich., with an honorable record as a soldier.

Returning to St. Joseph, Mr. Smith engaged in merchandising for a number of years, and at the same time operated a sawmill and dealt in lumber. He was also interested in the manufacture of fruit baskets, an enterprise which he conducted until 1891 and then sold out. Through these varied industries, he accumulated a competency and, what is better, the reputation of being an honorable man in business and fair in his dealings with all. In his political sympathies, he is outspoken in his preferences and pronounced in his support of the Democratic party. He was elected President of St. Joseph Council one year and was Councilman several times. He was a member of the Board of Education for ten years. Fraternally, he is connected with Occidental Lodge No. 56, F. & A. M. The pleasant residence of Mr. Smith is located on Broad Street, and is presided over by his wife, a lady who possesses many charms of character. She is the daughter of Warren and Sarah E. (Lagley) Chapman, residents of St. Joseph, and has made her home in this city since a child, where in maidenhood she was known as Belle Chapman. She was born in New Market, Rockingham Co., N. H. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Smith was celebrated December 16, 1868, and has been blessed by the birth of two children: Olive C., who graduated, the youngest of her class of nine, in the St. Joseph High School, and also graduated from the Benton Harbor College, after which she attended Wellesley College for two years; and Warren Chapman, who after leaving High School at St. Joseph spent a year at the Agricultural College at Lansing. Mrs. Smith is a member of the Universalist Church.