Judge George H. Smith Vol 2 page 216 SPRAGUE'S
JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY

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Judge George H. Smith


Another of Maine's prominent and worthy citizens,
who had been from the first number a subscriber to
the journal and had couragement regarding it,
written us letters of appreciation, died at his home
in Presque isle, Maine, June 15, 1914. Two of the
bright and genial newspaper men of Maine are Virgil
G. Eaton, editor-in-chief of the Bangor News, and
Sam Connor of the Lewiston Journal. Mr. Connor had
for many years been a warm friend of both Mr. Eaton
and the late Judge Smith, and he refers in the
Lewiston journal of a recent date to both and to the
touching tribute of Mr. Eaton for his old friend as
follows: "Death, a few days ago, brought to a close
an earthly friendship which has lasted for many
years and undoubtedly will be resumed in the future
life, when judge George H. Smith of Presque Isle
passed away, after a brief illness, of heart
disease. This friendship was between the judge and
Virgil G. Eaton of Brewer, the veteran newspaper man
of Maine and editor of the Bangor News. It began a
good many years ago and grew closer and firmer as
each passed those milestones known to us as
birthdays. "It was their delight to sit down
together and talk over the affairs of life. judge
Smith had a quaint conception of things and an
equally quaint way of expressing himself. These
joint debates and story telling sessions which they
held were always a great pleasure to their friends,
who were well satisfied to play the part of
listeners. Living, as they did, many miles apart,
these occasions were not often, so their friendship
had been kept up by correspondence. It is to be
regretted that these letters could not have been
saved and made into a book. It would have been a
readable volume; a book in which laughs would have
predominated and gloom hard to find. In all
probability the last letter which judge Smith ever
wrote was to 'his friend Eaton. It told him of his
illness and that he was gaining. It was, no doubt,
in response to one from the Brewer man, in which
that gentleman had told of not being well, for the
writer knows that about that time Mr. Eaton, was in
poor health, though, it is a pleasure to state, he
is again well and able to grind out copy.

"Because of this long friendship and intimate
knowledge of the man it remained, and was fitting it
should be so, for Mr. Eaton to pay the sweetest
tribute to the judge which has been written of him.
Mr. Eaton, in an editorial in the Bangor News, says:

'Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better
days; None knew thee but to love thee, None named
thee but to praise.'

'Judge Smith' fully described him to all residents
of Maine. Of course there were other judge Smiths in
different parts of Maine. judge Smith of Dover,
Maine, Hon. Bertram L. Smith of Patten (who should
be a judge), our own Bangor friend, the late Reuel
Smith-many other illustrious Smiths; but judge
George H. Smith of Presque Isle, Maine, was the one
person to whom the simple title of 'Judge Smith'
fully applied in Maine.

"All people -of Maine, regardless of parties and
religious beliefs, deeply mourn his untimely decease
at Presque Isle last Monday. He had suffered an ill
turn a few days previously and had been sent to bed
by his Presque Isle physicians. He recovered
rapidly, how-ever, and the previous Saturday had
written the editorial writer for this paper that he
was emerging nicely from the dark woods of sickness,
and was making ready at once to go to the Eastern
Maine General hospital for a permanent recovery.

"How he was born in Newburg, Maine, June 23, 1853,
attended Hampden academy during his youth, moved to
Aroostook county, studied law, was admitted to
Aroostook county bar, admitted to partnership with
the late judge Louis C. Stearns of Caribou (later of
Bangor and Hampden) ; how he dissolved partnership
and began the practice of law in Presque Isle; how
he served for eight years as judge of probate for
Aroostook county; how he was sent for term after
term as republican representative to the Maine
Legislature; how he became a power in Maine
republican politics; how he might have been sent to
the Maine Senate from Aroostook county; how he
secured a normal school for Presque Isle from the
Maine Legislature, and how, later on, he also
secured an appropria-tion from the Legislature for
an, Aroostook experimental farm; 'how he sent his
sickly wife to New Mexico for the curing of her
tubercular ailment, and how he went thither himself
for her greater comforting; how later she returned
to Presque Isle to (lie; how he served for eight
years as official reporter of decisions of the Maine
supreme judicial court, and how he was always
faithful to every trust which was imposed upon him;
how he accomplished all this and died when he was on
the eve of his 61st year-no Maine man has fought
more nobly or won more victories than this true-blue
native -of Newburg, Maine.

To summarize, no living or dead man in Maine had a
more outspoken and faithful friend than was the late
George H. Smith."