Homer J. Smith Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 903-904

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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HOMER J. SMITH, a native of Oswego county, New York, who was born May 
11, 1831, is one of the prosperous farmers of Brown county, and was an 
early settler of Riverside township. 

The father of our subject, Charles Smith, was of English descent, his 
grandfather being born in England. The grandfather of our subject, 
William Smith, came to America during Revolutionary times. The mother 
of our subject, who bore the maiden name of Lucy King, was born and 
raised in Onondaga county, New York, and her family have been Americans 
for many generations. On her mother's side, Hoyt by name, the ancestors 
are traceable to 1632, and the mother of General Sherman was from this 
family. The parents of our subject reared a family of ten children, 
eight sons and two daughters, and of those now living six are over 
sixty years of age, and two have almost reached that age. 

Our subject attended the country and village schools, and moved with 
his parents to Michigan at the age of eighteen years, where he attended 
the Michigan Central College, at Spring Arbor. He earned his expenses 
at carpenter work, receiving twenty-five cents for three hours work, 
and while attending the college it was moved to Hillsdale, Michigan. He 
taught school during his college vacations, and then after leaving 
school returned to his home and paid the indebtedness on his father's 
farm, and assumed the management of the estate. After two years he 
disposed of the property and purchased another farm in the same county, 
where he remained six years, and in 1858 traded this farm for one near 
Bloomer Centre, and resided on that farm twenty years. He enlisted in 
Company E, First Engineers and Mechanics Regiment, under Colonel Ennis, 
in September, 1861, and leaving Michigan in the winter went to 
Louisville, Kentucky, and was engaged in building bridges. His colonel 
had charge of the railroad from Nashville, through Chattanooga, to 
Atlanta, Georgia. After three years and two months service, a year and 
a half of which he was a sufferer from dysentery, our subject went to 
the oil region in Pennsylvania, and after one year returned to his farm 
in Michigan. 

He went to Brown county, South Dakota, in the fall of 1882, and filed a 
soldier's claim on the southeast quarter of section 4, township 124, 
range 61, and the following spring moved his family to the new home, 
together with his personal effects. He had a car and a half of goods, 
including five horses, a wagon, yoke of cattle and two cows, and had 
about one thousand dollars in money. He erected a 10 x 24 dwelling, and 
the first barn which he used three years was half dugout and half sod. 
He raised one thousand six hundred bushels of wheat the first crop, and 
has prospered. He now owns one hundred and sixty acres of land, and has 
given his son, Arthur, another tract of one hundred and sixty acres. He 
cultivates most all of his farm, and has a complete set of excellent 
farm buildings. 

Our subject was married in 1853, to Miss Rosella Wheelock, who was born 
and raised in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Smith's father, Alden Wheelock, was of 
English descent, and was a farmer by occupation. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith 
six children have been born, as follows: Edmund F., deceased; Lilly L., 
deceased; Bertie, deceased; Emma; Arthur; and Stella. The children were 
all born in Michigan, and are well educated, and able to take a high 
social place in the community. The son is a prosperous farmer, and both 
of the daughters are teachers, the youngest, Stella, having great 
musical ability, and is a graduate of the LaCrosse Musical School. Mr. 
Smith is a man of broad mind, and although formerly a church member 
does not now identify himself with any particular denomination, 
believing all should be united in their Christian work. He takes an 
active interest in public affairs, and was the Populist nominee for 
state representative in 1890, and has attended numerous state and 
county conventions. He is widely and favorably known throughout that 
section, as a man of much worth in the community.