BIO:  Henry Smith, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Shrewsbury Township, Pg 182

HENRY SMITH, farmer, was born in Shrewsbury Township, May 9, 1836.  His parents, Henry and 
Catharine (Hill) Smith, came from Germany to America, bringing five children with them, and 
having born to them four more in York County.  The family consisted of four sons and five 
daughters, of whom Henry, Jr., was next to the youngest.  At the age of fifteen years he began 
working for himself, and October 13, 1864, he was married, in Shrewsbury, to Leah Heindel, 
daughter of George Heindel, and had four children, one of whom, William Monroe, was born April 
12, 1867, and died at the age of eight months.  The living are:  Leander James, born January 
27, 1865; Emanuel Edwin, born March 19, 1868; and Emma May, born May 5, 1877.  Mr. Smith is a 
deacon in the Lutheran Church, and Mrs. Smith is a member of the Reformed Church.  He owns and 
resides on the homestead of his parents, a nice farm of eighty-five acres of well-cultivated 
land.  In 1883, he purchased the grist-mill, known as the Shafer Mill, but rents it out.  He is 
also engaged in running a steam thrasher.  In 1873-74, he was supervisor of his township, and 
was one of the organizers of the New Freedom Building Association, and was twice elected to the 
board of managers, but refused to serve.  The Smith family all follow farming, one brother in 
Baltimore, one in Illinois and one in York County.  His father died at the age of eighty years 
and his mother at the age of seventy-four years.