Henry W. Smith Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1152-1155 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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				HENRY W. SMITH. 

	Henry W. Smith, of West Sioux Falls, Minnehaha county, was born 
in Bavaria, Germany, January 3, 1844, a son of John Peter and Margaret 
(Grampp) Smith. The family came to the United States in 1857, settling 
in Livingston county, Illinois, where the father carried on general 
agricultural pursuits until his death. The mother has also passed away. 

	Henry W. Smith pursued his early education in the public schools 
but put aside his textbooks ill order to enter the army at the age of 
eighteen years. He joined Company H, Seventy seventh Illinois Infantry, 
in the fall of 1862 and continued with that command until the war was 
over, serving as a noncommissioned officer. He was taken prisoner and 
was confined at Camp Fort, Texas, for thirteen months and a half, 
during which he suffered many hardships incident to life in the 
southern prisons. He was wounded at Vicksburg. He participated in all 
of the engagements of the Vicksburg campaign, also in the famous Red 
river expedition under General Banks, and was taken prisoner at Sabine 
Crossroads, in Louisiana. He received his honorable discharge in 1865 
and with a most creditable military record returned to his home. 

	It was not long after this that Mr. Smith was married, the lady 
of his choice being Miss Catherine Weisenmiller, a daughter of Jacob 
Weisenmiller, the ceremony taking place on the 14th of February, 1867. 
They became the parents of thirteen children, and the wife and mother 
passed away in 1887. In 1890 Mr. Smith was married again, his second 
union being with Ada Wadsworth, by whom he had seven children. She died 
in the year 1900. 

	Following his first marriage Mr. Smith engaged in farming in 
Illinois until the spring of 1872, when he came to South Dakota and 
homesteaded in Wayne township, Minnehaha county, acquiring a quarter 
section where the old packing house now stands. He met all of the 
hardships of pioneer life in a district where the work of civilization 
had advanced to so slight a degree that the early settlers had to 
depend almost entirely upon their own efforts for everything which they 
secured. It was also an arduous task to break the sod and till the 
fields upon prairies which had hitherto never known the plow. His 
oldest son now lives on the old homestead while he resides at his 
suburban home at West Sioux Falls. However, with the assistance of his 
two younger sons he still engages in farming and stock raising to some 
extent. 

	Mr. Smith maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades 
through his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic. He was a 
member of the territorial legislature in 1885, elected upon the 
republican ticket, and in 1898 was chosen county auditor of Minnehaha 
county on the peoples party ticket, which position he filled for two 
terms of two years each. He was also the candidate of the peoples party 
for congressman to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John R. 
Gamble. He has always been deeply interested in all movements looking 
to the betterment of farming and farm life and was for a time president 
of the State Farmers Alliance He belongs to the Baptist church and the 
moral forces of his life have made his an honorable and honored career.