My Genealogy Hound

JAMES SMITH. A history of Buffalo county, containing biographical mention of her prosperous farmers would be incomplete without the name of James Smith. He is the son of Robert and Nancy (Crawford) Smith, both natives of Ireland, who came to America, in 1827, to make their future home. Robert Smith first located at Paterson, N. J., remaining ten years; thence he moved to York State, where he remained three years, and from there to Monroe county, Mich., in 1840, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1865. Just previous to death he called his children to his bedside and his parting counsel was for all to live a Christian life. When he had finished speaking he gently and peacefully fell asleep. Mr. Smith was a consistent and much beloved member of the Congregational church and was strongly opposed to secret orders. In the community in which he lived he was always highly esteemed for his upright and honorable dealing, and his word was considered as good as his note. His occupation was farming, but in Paterson, N. J., he was engaged in weaving. He bore the reputation of being a good financier and was very prosperous in all his work. In politics he was a republican. Mrs. Nancy (Crawford) Smith was born in 1797, and was also an active member of the Congregational church for years. She was a kind and affectionate mother, with a heart full of sympathy for persons in poverty or distress. She survived her husband twenty-one years, and departed this life in 1886, well prepared to enter the “Heavenly Rest.” She bore eight children, six of whom still live to mourn her loss — Jane (deceased), James, John, who lives in Los Angeles, Cal.; Robert, who lives on a homestead in Michigan; Thomas, Sarah (Mrs. Graham), Nancy (deceased), Martha (Mrs. Kimball), living on Indiana avenue, Chicago.

James Smith, the subject, was born April 15, 1823, in New Jersey. He remained with his parents on the farm until twenty-one years of age. He then went to Toledo, Ohio, and in 1883 migrated to Nebraska, settling on section 19, township 9, range 18 west. He now owns five hundred and sixty acres of good land, due to industry, but his prosperity has not caused him to forget the “Giver of all good,” and he stands an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church, ever ready to respond to the calls of charity. He has been blessed with two children to bring cheer to his declining years — Julia Augusta, a graduate of the Toledo high school and a teacher for several terms, but now at home with her father, and James Joshua, also at home.