BIOGRAPHY: William M. SMITH, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 476
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WILLIAM M. SMITH, the efficient superintendent of the Mitchell Coal and Coke 
company, of Gallitzin, this county, is a son of Daniel and Sarah (Brutsman) 
Smith, and was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania November 4, 1850. His 
father, Daniel Smith, was born at Chestnut Hill, near Philadelphia, about 1811, 
and died at Plains, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, in 1876, aged sixty-five 
years. He had been a resident of Plains since some time in 1840, where he 
followed the pursuits of a farmer. He was identified with the Presbyterian 
church, of which he was a member, and formerly belonged to the old State 
militia. The mother of our subject, who was Sarah Brutsman, was a native of 
Monroe county, Pennsylvania, and died in that county in 1888, at the age of 
sixty-two years. Her marriage with Daniel Smith resulted in the birth of twelve 
children.
     William M. Smith was reared and educated in Luzerne, his native county. His 
education was received in the common school, and as a boy he was employed in the 
coal mines of Luzerne county. From the spring of 1862 until the fall of 1865 he 
was engaged as a driver on the old Pennsylvania canal, on both the north and 
east branches; in 1863 his route reached to the city of Baltimore. In 1866 he 
returned to the coal mines of Luzerne county, where he was employed until 1886. 
He first had charge of a mining-car, then the mining-pump; later he had charge 
of the stock, and finally had charge of the engine outside of the mine. On June 
22, 1886, he accepted his present position, superintendent of what was then the 
Gallitzin Coal and Coke company, but now known as the Mitchell Coal and Coke 
company. He has one hundred and seventy-two acres under his supervision, and 
employs three hundred and fifty men and boys. By his former broad experience in 
every phase of the mining business he is especially fitted for the responsible 
position which he now so successfully fills.
     Mr. Smith attends and contributes liberally to the Presbyterian church, and 
fraternally is a member of Valley Lodge, No. 499, F. and A. M., of Pittston, 
Pennsylvania, and while at Plains, Luzerne county, was a member of the school 
board.
     In 1872 he married Miss Alice Dickson, and their marriage has resulted in 
the birth of the following children: James A., Mary, Frank, William, John, 
Ethel, Ruth, Clara, who died in Gallitzin in December, 1891, aged nine years, 
and Alice, who died in 1876, aged twenty two months.
     Mrs. Smith is a daughter of John Dickson, and was born in county Durham, 
England, whence she emigrated with her parents to the United States in 1869, 
three years prior to her marriage. Her father, John Dickson, was killed in 1869 
by a boiler explosion in a colliery, in which both he and William Smith, our 
subject, were employed. Her mother died in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Both Mr. and 
Mrs. Dickson were faithful members of the Episcopal church.