Biographical Sketch of Alfred Percival SMITH (b. 1863); Philadelphia Co., PA Contributed to the PAGenWeb Archives by Diana Smith [christillavalley@comcast.net] Copyright. All Rights Reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ********************************************************* "Philadelphia, A History of the City and its People; A Record of 225 Years" Publisher: S. H. Clark; Philadelphia; 1912. Vol. 3, page 413 Author, Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer ALFRED PERCIVAL SMITH Alfred Percival Smith, attorney at law, was born in Philadelphia July 11, 1863, a son of Alfred and Cornelia Stanley (Allen) Smith. His father, now deceased, was a leather merchant and later in life a stockbroker and banker, and was prominently identified with the development and consolidation of many of the traction companies in the city of Philadelphia. The earliest representative of the Smith family to remain permanently in America was Balthazar Schmidt, who was born in 1693 at Geroldshausen near Wurzburg in Bavaria. His mother was a daughter of the late Samuel Percival Allen, of Geneseo and Rochester, New York. Through her paternal great-great-grandfather, John Percival, of Sandwich, Massachusetts, she established her descent from the Mayflower Pilgrims. After haying attended the Germantown Academy, Alfred Percival Smith entered Haverford College and was graduated from that institution in 1884 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In September of that year he entered Harvard College and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts as a member of the class of 1885. The following year was occupied with post-graduate work at Harvard in course for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. In the autumn of 1886 he entered the law office of Hon. Wayne MacVeagh and George Tucker Bispham, Esq., of Philadelphia as a student at law. At the same time he matriculated in the law department of the University of Pennsylvania and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in June, 1888. Upon motion of his preceptor, Mr. Bispham, he was thereafter admitted as a practicing member of the bar in the courts of common pleas and the orphans' court of Philadelphia and in the supreme court of Pennsylvania. He was also admitted as a practicing attorney in the United States courts. Since 1888 Mr. Smith has been continuously engaged in the practice of his profession, largely connected with real estate, the settlement of estates and corporate matters. From choice he restricts his practice to civil interests and has never had an associate or partner. He has always been an active member of the Law Academy of Philadelphia and of the Law Association of Philadelphia, in which association he has served for many years as a member of its committee on legal biography. He is a charter member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and was for a long time secretary of its committee on legal biography. It was a part of the work of that committee to establish the first law museum in the United States, which was opened in the Law School building of the University of Pennsylvania, on "John Marshall day," February 4, 1901, and is still maintained. Mr. Smith is also a member of the American Bar Association and attended the universal congress of lawyers and jurists held in St. Louis, Missouri, in September, 1904, as a delegate at large. The vital themes which constitute the basic elements of the great political and economic questions of the country have been of real concern to Mr. Smith, and occasionally he has taken an active interest in the politics of his city. He has served as treasurer of the Rudolph Blankenburg Club almost from its inception and is a member of the City Club of Philadelphia. He has shown a great devotion to Haverford College, his first alma mater, by presenting to that institution the Haverford Union building, which is devoted to the religious and social life of the students and alumni of Haverford College. He also founded a combination scholarship for graduate study of Haverford men at Harvard. Mr. Smith is an active member, with the office of ruling elder, of the Arch Street Presbyterian church. He is also a member of the provisional session of the First Italian Presbyterian church of Philadelphia. The collection of books, plans, pictures, portraits and other material of a historical character has been a constant pursuit, and Mr. Smith is possessed of a keen interest in genealogy, history and numismatics. He has made a wide study of the history relating to the Lutheran, Reformed and Presbyterian churches. For a time he was the solicitor for the Presbyterian Historical Society and he is now a member of its executive council and curator in charge of its museum. He is a life member of the Pennsylvania- German Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the German Society of Pennsylvania, the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Societe de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Francais. To show an active and helpful interest along many lines which tend to promote intellectual and moral activity, Mr. Smith holds membership in the following associations and societies—the Public Education Association of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Roycrofters, the City History Society of Philadelphia, the Hazard Union, the Haverford Union, the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, the Presbyterian Social Union of Philadelphia, the National Geographic Society, the American academy of Political and Social Science, the Site and Relic Society of Germantown, the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, the Deutches Pioneer-Verein von Philadelphia, and the Netherlands Society of Philadelphia, he having served as one of the vice presidents of the last named society. On February 4, 1890, Mr. Smith was married to Elizabeth Wandell David, the youngest daughter of the late William M. David of Philadelphia and his wife Elizabeth Wandell David. 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