BIO: R. L. Smith, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2011.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

                             CHAPTER LIII.

                            NEWTON TOWNSHIP.

524  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

  R. L. SMITH, of Oakville, is a son of David Smith and a great-
grandson of Baltzer Smith who came from Germany about the middle of the 
last century, and settled in Lancaster County, where he was married and 
had a family of twelve children.  Of this numerous family William, 
grandfather of our subject, alone survives.  The family is somewhat 
remarkable for the advanced age to which some of its members attain.  
Baltzer Smith died when eighty-six years old, and several of his 
descendants lived to be over ninety.  William, grandfather of R. L., 
was born July 1, 1806, near Oakville.  In the fall of 1830 he was 
married to Miss Susan Forehop, who died in 1879, and April 6, 1880, he 
married Rebecca, widow of Thomas Heffelfinger, of Frankfort Township.  
His children are all by the first wife.  One died in infancy.  The 
others are Samuel, David, William, Mary, Susan and Elizabeth.  The 
elder Smith bought his father's farm in 1839, and lived on it for 
twenty-eight years after that, when he removed to Oakville, where he 
now lives.  David, father of R. L., cropped his father's farm for seven 
years, and then bought it from him in 1873, and has since lived in 
Oakville.  R. L. is the only child.  He is studying medicine in the 
office of Dr. Israel Betz, of Oakville, and is intending to enter the 
profession as soon as practicable.  He is a studious and capable young 
man.