My Genealogy Hound

D. H. SMITH, who conducts the largest retail and wholesale establishment in central Missouri, is classed among the most prosperous merchants of Sedalia and has been identified with her upbuilding from the time of his first settlement here, in 1866. He was one of the organizers of the Crystal Ice Company in 1883, which has a capital of $50,000 and of which concern he has been Secretary and Treasurer since its organization. He was also one of the promoters of the Warsaw Branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, being Vice-President of the same for years. As Treasurer of the Sedalia School Board, during his term of nine years, his financial ability had ample opportunity to be displayed, and by the help of a few others he managed to reduce the debt, guaranteeing a part of it himself, and brought it through the panic of 1873.

Mr. Smith was born in New Carlisle, Clarke County, Ohio, October 27, 1835. His father, David J. Smith, was born in Scotland in 1795, and in 1810 went on a trip to Ohio as a member of the Government Survey Corps, which corps established the boundary line between Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. He took a contract and built the first brick storehouse for the Government in Detroit, and also built the first one on Mackinaw, both being forts at that time. In May, 1827, he married and settled in New Carlisle, where he first engaged in merchandising, and later conducted a large farm near that village. His death occurred in 1878, aged eighty-three years. He was a member of the Christian Church, and politically was first a Whig and later a Republican, with strong anti-slavery principles. His wife, formerly Sallie Cory, is now in her eighty-seventh year, in the enjoyment of good health, and is living on the old homestead. She is a daughter of Elnathan Cory and wife, who was formerly a Miss Jennings, and a direct descendant of Sir Francis Drake of England. Elnathan Cory owned land in various parts of northwestern Ohio, and when he died in 1845, in his seventy-second year, his real estate was appraised at $144,000, and his personal at $50,000. With his young wife he moved to the Buckeye State, making the journey with an ox-team. He had only $100 in his possession, and this he used in payment of eighty acres of land. In raising and dealing in livestock he was very successful, and in this industry made his fortune. The parents of our subject lived to celebrate their golden wedding in May, 1877.

D. H. Smith, who was reared on a farm, received his higher education in Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio. In 1859 he started on a trip westward into Missouri, and for two years engaged in selling fruit trees. In October, 1862, he entered the Commissary Department, where he remained for three years, most of which time he was in the Army of the Potomac. In January, 1866, he came to Sedalia and started in the hardware business in an old frame building on the site of his present establishment. In 1870 he removed to Smith’s Hall, where he remained for eight years, and then built the three-story building at the corner of Ohio and Main Streets, where he remained for sixteen years. In July, 1894, he moved into his new storehouse, which was completed in sixty-eight days from the time it was started. The building is of brick, 46x100 feet in dimensions, and comprises two stories and basement.

Mr. Smith keeps three traveling men on the road, his sales being chiefly in Missouri, Kansas and the Indian Territory. In order to facilitate shipping he has a side track from the Missouri, Kansas & Texas to the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

Among Mr. Smith’s real-estate ventures is a valuable farm of four hundred and seven acres adjoining the city, which is well stocked and on which he erected a substantial barn at a cost of $4 000, the finest in the state. He also has a farm of five hundred and ten acres, located four miles southwest of Sedalia. The Smith & Potter Addition comprises fifty acres, besides which our subject is the owner of Smith’s Addition, in the southern part of the city, a one-third interest in South Park Addition, forty-six acres in southwestern Sedalia, and property in Texas and elsewhere. Mr. Smith has been connected with several building and loan associations and is a stock-holder in the Third National Bank. When he became a member of the School Board the debt of the same amounted to $57,500, and during his nine years’ service, eight years of which he was Treasurer of the board, the debt was reduced to $35,000, and this refunded at a lower rate of interest.

Mr. Smith, as special agent of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, when it was in the receivers’ hands, made many very large contracts for said receivers, aggregating over $1,500,000.

In 1887 he was selected one of five trustees to represent his mother in the settlement of the estate of Judge D. J. Cory, of Findlay, Ohio. In that capacity he made the remarkable sale of six hundred and forty acres of land for $90,000. This land was part of a farm of nine hundred and sixty acres situated in Wood County, Ohio, which was appraised at $58,600. From the sale of the entire nine hundred and sixty acres the sum of $140,000 was realized.

The first marriage of Mr. Smith was celebrated in Greenville, Ohio, in 1862. The lady of his choice was Laura, daughter of John Potter, a merchant. Mrs. Smith was born in Greenville, and died in February, 1880, leaving four children, of whom Harry and George died when eleven and nine years of age, respectively. Gertrude was educated at Wellesley (Mass.) College, and Jessie at Glendale, Ohio. In Vicksburg, Miss., in 1884, Mr. Smith and Mrs. Kate (Barnett) Harrison were united in marriage. Her father, Richard Barnett, a native of Virginia, was an able attorney and was Circuit Judge in Vicksburg for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have one child, Harry B. They occupy a pleasant home at the corner of Broadway and Ohio Street, which was built by our subject. Both are members of Calvary Episcopal Church.

Politically Mr. Smith is a Republican. Socially he is Past Worshipful Master of Granite Lodge and Past Eminent Commander of St. Omer Commandery, K. T. He also belongs to the Ararat Shrine of Kansas City. He is a charter member of all the Masonic bodies to which he belongs.