Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Smith, Henry Benjamin 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 9:36 am

Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County

HENRY BENJAMIN SMITH. The family represented by this well-known citizen of 
Joliet was founded in America by Thomas Smith, a weaver of Ramsey, England, 
who came to the United States prior to 1635 and settled in Ipswich, Mass. 
During 1635 he removed to Newbury, Mass. His second son and third child, 
James, was born September 10, 1645, and during the colonial wars held the 
office of lieutenant in the army. The eighth child born of his marriage to 
Sarah Coker was Benjamin, who was born August 21, 1681, and who married Mrs. 
Hannah Sooms. Their third child, Benjamin, was born August 9, 1712, and 
married Dorothy Ballard, of Andover, Mass. The second child born of their 
marriage was Benjamin, whose birth occurred October 15, 1736. By his union 
with Johanna Lund, the second child was Benjamin, born June 2, 1765. The 
latter, when a mere boy, enlisted in the colonial army and served in the first 
war with England. While in the army he carried a flint-lock gun, which he had 
made himself and which is now in the possession of the subject of this sketch. 
He married Edy Adams and their oldest child, Benjamin, born March 26, 1791, 
married Alma Maranda Strong, April 26, 1826. The next generation was 
represented by Henry Sumner Smith, our subject's father, who was born August 
3, 1832, in Rutland, Vt. Reared on his father's farm, he left home to learn 
the machinist's trade, and this occupation he followed for a short time. When 
gold was discovered in California and the news reached his far-away eastern 
home, he, with the enthusiasm of youth, determined to seek his fortune on the 
Pacific shore. Taking passage on a sailing vessel, he went around the Horn and 
finally reached his destination. He engaged in mining both in California and 
Nevada. Finding, however, that mining was not very congenial nor profitable, 
he returned to San Francisco and engaged in the iron manufacturing business. 
The firm of Prendergast & Smith became one of the largest of its kind in the 
west, and their products, especially their marine and stationary engines, had 
a large sale throughout the country. In public affairs he was for years a 
leading figure in San Francisco, being a local Republican leader, and at one 
time he was his party's candidate for congress. He was also one of the most 
prominent Masons in California and held official positions of great 
responsibility in the fraternity. He died in San Francisco November 12, 1878, 
when forty-six years of age. August 18, 1861, occurred the marriage of Henry 
Sumner Smith to Clara Record, who was born near Bath, Me., and died in San 
Francisco, Cal., December 4, 1875. They were the parents of six children. 
Henry Benjamin, the oldest of the family, was born in San Francisco October 6, 
1862. His education was acquired principally in the California Military 
Academy at Oakland. Upon leaving school he came to Joliet to make his home 
with his uncle, Horace S. Smith, who, at that time, was general superintendent 
of the Joliet Steel Company. For a time he studied in the Bloomington (Ill.) 
high school. He entered the machine shop of the Joliet Steel Company as an 
apprentice to the trade, serving for four years, and afterward continuing the 
trade. In 1889 he was made assistant superintendent of the rod mill under 
William Garrett, the inventor and builder of the same. When the works were 
shutdown, in 1893, he was appointed safety inspector and claim adjuster for 
the company a position that he has since held. He was secretary of the Sun 
Printing Company, job printers and publishers of the Joliet Daily Sun, which 
later was sold to the Joliet Republican Printing Company. At the organization 
of the Royal Oil Company he was appointed president and continued as such 
until the works were sold to the American Oil Company. In Bloomington, Ill., 
February 1, 1894, Mr. Smith married Miss Lucy Delia Luce, daughter of Dr. 
Albert Hull and Lucinda (Dawson) Luce. Her great-grandfather Luce brought his 
family to America and settled in Wayne County, N. Y., where her grandfather, 
Joseph Luce, was born and reared. Her father, a pioneer physician of McLean 
County, Ill., first practiced in Leroy, but soon removed to Bloomington, where 
he remained a popular physician and esteemed citizen until his death in 1885. 
He was the first president of the McLean County Medical Association. His wife, 
who was born in Bloomington Township, McLean County, in 1826, is now making 
her home with Mrs. Smith. She is a descendant of Revolutionary forefathers. 
Her father, John Henry Dawson, and a Mr. Hendricks, were the two first white 
settlers in McLean County, and he became the owner of large tracts of land, 
but his last days were spent in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he died a very aged 
man. He served under the famous leader William Henry Harrison during the war 
of 1812, and it was while in the army that he had his first glimpse of western 
life, and he was so pleased with the prospects that he determined to locate in 
Illinois. Mrs. Smith was given excellent advantages when a girl and is a 
graduate of the Chicago Female College. In religion she is of the Episcopalian 
belief and attends Christ Church. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Smith is 
named Horace Benjamin, and was born November 18, 1895. He represents the tenth 
generation—in direct descent, and is the seventh to bear the name "Benjamin." 
The connection of Mr. Smith with military matters dates from 1883. He then 
enlisted as a private in Company B, Fourth Illinois Infantry. The next year he 
was appointed regimental quartermaster-sergeant. In July, 1886, Governor 
Oglesby commissioned him first lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment, and later he 
was appointed quartermaster in the Third Regiment. By a special act of the 
legislature the quartermaster was given the rank and title of captain, which 
he has since held. May 7, 1898, he enlisted in the Third Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, which he accompanied to Chickamauga National Park, Ga., thence to 
Newport News and from there to Porto Rico, where he participated in the island 
campaign in the war with Spain. He was mustered out at Joliet with the 
regiment, after an honorable and official service, January 24, 1899.

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/smith1087gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/

File size: 7.0 Kb