Carey W. Smith Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1619-1620 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	CAREY W. SMITH, who is cashier of the First National Bank of 
Volga, Brookings county, was born in Parkersburg, Butler county, Iowa, 
on the 21st of March, 1869, and is a son of Henry and Emily (Marston) 
Smith, both of whom were born and reared in Cattaraugus county, New 
York, being representatives of old and honored families of the Empire 
state. Soon after their marriage they came to the west and located in 
Clayton county, Iowa, where Mr. Smith took up one hundred and sixty 
acres of government land, to whose cultivation he gave his attention for 
a few years and then removed to Butler county and purchased land near 
Parkersburg, where he continued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits 
for a score of years. In 1881 he came to South Dakota and purchased a 
farm in Lake county, near Madison, in which attractive little city he is 
now living retired, having sold his farm a number of years ago. Of their 
four children one died at the age of nine years and of the other three 
we enter the following data: Eugene L. is a grain buyer at Bryant, 
Hamlin county; Ida M. is the wife of Henry J. Hopley, of Bryant; and 
Carey W. is the immediate subject of this sketch. 

	Carey W. Smith received his early educational training near 
Parkersburg, Iowa, where he attended the public schools until he had 
attained the age of thirteen years, when he accompanied his parents on 
their removal to South Dakota, completing his studies in the public 
schools of Madison, Lake county, and then, in 1883, entering the State 
Normal School, in that place, where he was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1888, having in the meanwhile been a successful teacher in the 
country schools of Lake county. After his graduation he was in turn 
principal of the schools at Hudson, Wentworth and Bryant, continuing to 
follow the pedagogic profession for four years, and proving a valuable 
factor in the educational field. In 1892 he was matriculated in Cornell 
College, at Mount Vernon, Iowa, where he completed the scientific 
course, being graduated as a member of the class of 1895 and receiving 
the degree of Bachelor of Science. In the spring of the following year 
Mr. Smith came to Volga and became bookkeeper in the Bank of Volga, of 
which he was soon afterward chosen cashier, and was also elected 
secretary of the Equitable Loan and Trust Company, retaining these 
positions for the ensuing six years. When the First National Bank was 
organized, in the spring of 1902, he was elected cashier of the new 
institution, and has thus presided over its counting room from the 
start, while he has gained a high reputation for his executive and 
administrative ability and has done much to further the interests of the 
bank, which is capitalized for twenty-five thousand dollars and which is 
one of the solid financial institutions of Brookings county. In January, 
1904, the Equitable Loan and Trust Company was reorganized with Mr. 
Smith as president. Mr. Smith is the owner of five hundred and eighty 
acres of land in Brookings county, three hundred and twenty acres in 
McPherson county, one hundred and sixty acres in Clark county, one 
hundred and sixty acres in Grove county, three hundred and twenty acres 
in Nebraska, and one hundred and sixty acres in McLean county, North 
Dakota, and is making the best of improvements on the property, whose 
value is constantly increasing. For the past three years he has given no 
little attention to dealing in real estate, and his investments have 
invariably been judicious, while he has unbounded confidence in the 
still more splendid future in store for South Dakota. He was two hundred 
dollars in debt when he came to Volga, and it stands to his credit that 
he has gained so distinctive success. He is the owner of one of the 
finest homes in Volga, his attractive and modern residence having been 
erected at a cost of over two thousand dollars. In politics he gives his 
allegiance to the Prohibition party, so far as national issues are 
involved, and fraternally he is affiliated with the local lodges of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Modern Woodmen of America. Both he 
and his wife are accomplished musicians, and as vocalists they are much 
in demand in connection with social and public entertainments, as well 
as in connection with church work. Mrs. Smith was engaged as a vocalist 
in connection with evangelical work in various states prior to her 
marriage, and is the possessor of a soprano voice of excellent timbre 
and range and also of thorough cultivation. Mr. Smith is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church and his wife of the Baptist church, but as 
neither of these denominations have organizations in Volga they attend 
the Presbyterian church and take an active part in various departments 
of its work. He is a teacher in the Sunday school, of which he is 
superintendent at the time of this writing, while he is also president 
of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. Both he and his 
wife are members of the choir. 

	On the 10th of April, 1899, Mr. Smith was united in marriage to 
Miss Caroline (Porter) Runk, of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, where she was 
born and reared, being a daughter of Edward Winfield and Margaret 
(Gillmen) Runk, Mr. and Mrs. Smith have a winsome little daughter, 
Dorothy, who was born on the 24th of March, 1900.