Ellis M. Smith Biography


	This biography appears on pages 793-794 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				ELLIS M. SMITH. 

	The name of Ellis M. Smith, vice president of the Woonsocket 
State Bank, is an honored one in financial circles in Sanborn county. 
He has proven himself capable of solving intricate financial problems 
and of guiding banking interests so that they will prove of large 
benefit to the community as well as a source of profit to stockholders. 
He was born in Eldora, Hardin county, Iowa, on the 31st of March, 1857. 
His father, Samuel Smith, a native of Pennsylvania, became one of the 
pioneer settlers of Iowa and died in Eldora at the age of eighty six 
years. He conducted a general mercantile business during his active 
career and became a well known and honored business man and citizen of 
Eldora. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Ann Bland, was also 
a native of Pennsylvania. 

	Ellis M. Smith, the youngest in a family of thirteen children, 
acquired his education in the public schools of Eldora, passing through 
consecutive grades to the high school. In 1873 he became connected with 
the drug trade, learning the business and afterward conducting a store 
for three and one-half years in Iowa on his own account. In the fall of 
1883 he removed to Woonsocket, where he established a drug store of 
which he remained proprietor for a quarter of a century. He made this a 
well appointed establishment, carrying a large dine, while his business 
methods commended him to the confidence and support of the general 
public. In 1906, however, he turned his attention to banking and 
established the Woonsocket State Bank, of which he served as president 
until 1915, when it was merged with the Merchants Bank under the title 
of the Woonsocket State Bank, of which Mr. Smith became the vice 
president. He has made large investments in land in this state and is 
the owner of much valuable property. 

	On the 17th of October, 1883, Mr. Smith was united in marriage to 
Miss Elizabeth J. Greer, a daughter of J. M. and Margaret (Ewert) 
Greer, of Ontario, Canada. Mrs. Smith is very active in the work of the 
Presbyterian church. Our subject and his wife have one daughter, 
Blanche E., the wife of B. W. Baer, who is now serving as county judge 
of Sanborn county and by whom she has three children—Ross Melvern, 
Donald Smith and Charles Wallace. 

	Fraternally Mr. Smith is a Modern Woodman. His political 
allegiance is given the democratic party and for eight years he served 
as a member of the city council of Woonsocket. In 1901 he was elected 
to the state senate and served a term of two years and in 1912 he was 
again elected for a term of two years. He was a member of various 
important committees, proved an able working member on the floor of the 
senate and was connected with much important constructive legislation. 
He attends and supports the Presbyterian church and he enjoys the 
pleasure that comes through fishing, motoring and driving good horses. 
Along those lines he finds his recreation when important business 
interests can be so arranged as to have him leisure. His success is due 
to hard work and close application and he may truly be called a self-
made man, for he started out in life empty-handed, possessing as his 
capital only the qualities of industry and determination with which 
nature endowed him. It is a well known fact that progress is a 
cumulative process and he has advanced step by step where favoring 
opportunity has pointed out the way. Character and ability have brought 
him to the front and he is now one of the leading men of his community.