Samuel H. Smith and Jay C. Smith
Biography
Biography
SAMUEL H. SMITH was numbered among the pioneer farmers and citizens of Erie county, and the Smith homestead near the town of Castalia which he improved and where he lived and labored for so many years is now the home and property of his son, Jay C. Smith, who is proving a worthy successor to his father. Samuel H. Smith was born about the year of 1808, and in about 1823 he emigrated with his father, also named Samuel, to Huron county, Ohio, the journey having been accomplished with an ox team, and they located at Venice. The senior Mr. Smith was a surveyor, and in Huron county he soon secured employment in surveying roads and town sites, and also did a large amount of work in that line for the government. After a time he went to Texas, where he was employed in his profession by the government, and he continued the work of surveying for a number of years, or until he settled at Jasper, Ohio, where he acquired some 50,000 acres of land. He died at the age of eighty-five years.
Samuel H. Smith in his early manhood worked in the flour mill which his father had erected in Venice, and which was the first mill of the kind built there, and he continued with his father until his marriage to Miss Rachel Mac, at that time locating on the farm which had reverted to his wife through her mother and which was located near Castalia in Erie county. He spent the remainder of his life on this tract of 110 acres, transforming it in the meantime from unimproved forest land to one of the highly-cultivated farms of the community. During the winter months, however, he went to Louisiana, where he had acquired over 3,000 acres of land, a part of which was farmed by his sons and the remainder he rented. Of the children born to Samuel H. and Rachel Smith, three grew to years of maturity, two daughters and a son.
Jay C. Smith. the only son in that family, at the age of eighteen years, enlisted in Company M. First Ohio Heavy Artillery, in 1863, for service in the Civil war, and he served until the close of the struggle. Following his discharge in 1865 he returned to Castalia but after a short time went to Louisiana to take charge of his father's land and he remained there for two years, returning then to Erie county and settling on the Smith homestead near Castalia. In addition to his general farming he has been for many years extensively engaged in buying and selling horses, shipping many of his animals to the South, but his principal market are the Eastern cities. He is a stanch Republican in his political affiliations, as was also his father, but neither ever desired the honors or emoluments of public office.
During his residence in the South Jay C. Smith married Alice Sewell, a native daughter of Louisiana, and the three children of that union are James, Floyd and Jay B. Floyd enlisted with Company B and served throughout the Spanish-American war, and the son Jay is now a member of the standing army. The first wife dying, Mr. Smith married for his second wife in 1891 Miss May Palmer, a daughter of Vanderlyn and Orfie (Savage) Palmer, and their three children are Flossy, George and Mary.
Source: History of the Western Reserve, vol. III, pp. 1561-1562.
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Samuel H. Smith in his early manhood worked in the flour mill which his father had erected in Venice, and which was the first mill of the kind built there, and he continued with his father until his marriage to Miss Rachel Mac, at that time locating on the farm which had reverted to his wife through her mother and which was located near Castalia in Erie county. He spent the remainder of his life on this tract of 110 acres, transforming it in the meantime from unimproved forest land to one of the highly-cultivated farms of the community. During the winter months, however, he went to Louisiana, where he had acquired over 3,000 acres of land, a part of which was farmed by his sons and the remainder he rented. Of the children born to Samuel H. and Rachel Smith, three grew to years of maturity, two daughters and a son.
Jay C. Smith. the only son in that family, at the age of eighteen years, enlisted in Company M. First Ohio Heavy Artillery, in 1863, for service in the Civil war, and he served until the close of the struggle. Following his discharge in 1865 he returned to Castalia but after a short time went to Louisiana to take charge of his father's land and he remained there for two years, returning then to Erie county and settling on the Smith homestead near Castalia. In addition to his general farming he has been for many years extensively engaged in buying and selling horses, shipping many of his animals to the South, but his principal market are the Eastern cities. He is a stanch Republican in his political affiliations, as was also his father, but neither ever desired the honors or emoluments of public office.
During his residence in the South Jay C. Smith married Alice Sewell, a native daughter of Louisiana, and the three children of that union are James, Floyd and Jay B. Floyd enlisted with Company B and served throughout the Spanish-American war, and the son Jay is now a member of the standing army. The first wife dying, Mr. Smith married for his second wife in 1891 Miss May Palmer, a daughter of Vanderlyn and Orfie (Savage) Palmer, and their three children are Flossy, George and Mary.
Source: History of the Western Reserve, vol. III, pp. 1561-1562.
Back to: Biographies
Transcribed from the old Huron County OHGenWeb site
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