Yolo County CA Archives Biographies.....Smith, John J. 1857 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com January 18, 2006, 6:37 pm

Author: Tom Gregory (1913)

JOHN J. SMITH

    The proprietor of Alfa-Dune ranch in the Capay valley traces his lineage to
an old and honored family of Ireland, whose first representative in America,
Charles Smyth, first saw the light of day at Belfast in County Antrim. During
the early part of the nineteenth century he crossed the ocean to Canada in
company with a brother and settled near Kingston, where his son, John, passed
the greater part of his life. The spelling of the name was changed to its
present form during comparatively recent years. Genealogical records show a
Scotch lineage through some of the ancestors and the evidence of Scotch blood
has been manifest in the traits of every generation, for they have been
honorable in business, religious in temperament and frugal in expenditures. At
the same time a considerable proportion of the family have possessed the wit and
keen sense of humor characteristic of the Irish race.

    Concerning the maternal ancestors of John J. Smith little is known except
that his mother bore the name of Malissa Williams and was reared in Canada,
where she became the wife of John Smith. Their son, who was given the name of
the father, was born on the home farm at Mud Lake in Canada, near the city of
Kingston, December 30, 1857. During boyhood he lived with his grandmother in the
then unsettled wilderness of Michigan, where he received a common-school
education. Two scholarships were offered him, one in Adrian (Mich.) College and
the other in a western institution, but he felt the need of earning a livelihood
and so was obliged to learn by later reading the facts and lessons ordinarily
accompanying a collegiate education. A brief experience in a carriage and wagon
shop was followed by an apprenticeship to the trade of a carpenter and joiner,
which occupation he afterward occasionally followed.

    At the age of seventeen years Mr. Smith bought forty acres of wild land in
Tuscola county, Mich. The purchase was made on a minor's contract, same to
mature when he had reached the age of twenty-one years. The payment of the land
occupied his attention closely during the next five years and meanwhile he had
found a devoted helper in his bride. April 18, 1877, in Tuscola county, Mich.,
he married Miss Mary Mallory, member of a pioneer family of that county and a
daughter of Nelson Mallory, well-known among the citizens of Ellington. She was
one of a large family and, although frail in health, had been trained to a
thorough knowledge of housekeeping, so that she was able to assist her young
husband in his early efforts toward independence. Nine children were born of the
union and of the five daughters all but one are married. The presence of a
number of bright grandchildren indicates that there is not the slightest
tendency to race suicide. The large family were lovingly reared and cared for by
the affectionate mother and notwithstanding her delicate health she was
constantly laboring for the welfare of home and loved ones, until in 1891 she
was stricken suddenly with paralysis and passed away at the old Nebraska home.
One hundred and forty miles west of Omaha, in the locality where much of her
happy life had been passed, she was laid to rest in the old cemetery where many
of her old-time friends repose in eternal sleep.

   While still a resident of Michigan John J. Smith cast his first presidential
vote for James A. Garfield. A short time afterward he sold his forty acres at an
excellent price for those days and removed to Nebraska, where he bought several
hundred acres and engaged extensively in general farming. Soon he became one of
the leading men of his locality. One of his most important tasks in life was
that of assisting in the founding and early management of Gibbon Collegiate
Institute at Gibbon, Neb., a pleasant and congenial duty that occupied his time
during the early '80s, but that was relinquished upon removal to California. In
the hope of benefiting his health he came to California in 1887 and accepted the
pastorate of the United Brethren Church in Yolo county, becoming a pioneer of
Esparto when that village was first started. After he had filled the place four
years and had been appointed for the fifth year he resigned to return to
Nebraska, where the home was broken up by the death of his wife.

    When only seventeen years of age Mr. Smith was led to consider the serious
question of his personal responsibility to his God and the result was that he
became a member of the Methodist Protestant Church in Michigan. Later he and his
wife transferred their membership to the United Brethren in Christ and for
twenty-five years he was a minister in that denomination, eventually retiring
from the ministry owing to failing vision and shattered nerves. In political
views he has been independent, voting as his close study of public questions
leads him to decide. His uncompromising enmity to the saloons has led him into
the prohibition cause and at one time he was a leading worker with the Good
Templars. In his busy life he has had no leisure to get "office hungry." His
connection with public affairs he has aimed to make simply that of the
public-spirited citizen. He states that on one occasion he took "the speedway
with Congressman Kinkade in the 'Big Sixth' district of Nebraska at the time of
the Roosevelt landslide, but my 'dry' convictions would not let me go by
'water,' so he broke into Congress and left me out on dry land with my face to
the skies." His present high standing as the owner of Alfa-Dune ranch at Brooks
in the Capay valley and as a specialist in the raising of horses and cattle and
as the successful proprietor of important dairy and alfalfa interests has not
come by accident, but is the result of unremitting toil. With tireless energy he
arises each morning at four o'clock and superintends the care of the fine herd
of milch cows. All through the day he is busy on the ranch, and finally, when
all are at rest and the hum of daytime activity has given way to the peace of
night, he takes up his beloved books or enjoys the leisure time for writing in
the interests of some of his public activities.

    The present wife of Mr. Smith was born in California and is a daughter of
John and Mary A. (Shaffer) Winter, natives of Wurtemberg, Germany. When eighteen
years of age John Winter immigrated to the United States and settled at Detroit,
Mich., where he worked at the blacksmith's trade. During 1855 he came to
California via Panama and after a brief sojourn in the mines of Amador county he
began to till the soil of Sacramento county. In the city of Sacramento in 1863
he married Miss Shaffer, who had crossed the ocean from Germany in 1861 and
after two years in Michigan had proceeded to California by way of Panama. After
their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Winter settled at Antelope in Sacramento county.
From there in 1871 they removed to the Capay valley in Yolo county and settled
on a farm, where Mr. Winter engaged in general farming and stock-raising until
his death in 1887. His widow survived him for a considerable period, her death
occurring in 1901. Nine sons remain of the family and all live in different
parts of California, the most of them being farmers and quite successful. The
only daughter, Mary, is the wife of J. J. Smith and lives at Alfa-Dune ranch in
the Capay valley. To the residents of Yolo county there is no need of any
characterization with reference to the Winter family and were it left to the
members of the family, with their unassuming modesty, no words of theirs would
demand recognition of their ability and unwavering honesty. Their lives and acts
are like an open book, to be known and read of all men. The splendid qualities
of mind and soul noticeable in the parents are reflected in each one of the
children. A very manifest and dominant characteristic in the entire family is
their intense eagerness to have something to do and to do that "something"
modestly, persistently and always successfully. Whatever the quality be that
makes a family unassuming and modest, that quality is possessed by the Winter
family in great measure and it is one explanation for their great popularity in
the communities of which they severally form an influential factor.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]


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