Biography of J. Hamilton Smith

	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, 1898. Pages 399-400

	Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit 
	purposes. All other rights reserved. 


J HAMILTON SMITH, the postmaster at Castlewood, was born in the city of 
Toronto, Canada, April 4, 1845. His father, Henry D. Smith, was born in 
Oakville, Ontario, March 17, 1824. His early life was spent on a farm 
but in later years he was engaged in lumbering. He is now living in the 
city of Hamilton, Canada, where he has retired from active business 
life. He married Elner Thompson in the year 1843. She, too, was born in 
Oakville, Canada, her natal day being March 26, 1826. She died June 19, 
1870. Six children were born to them, four sons and two daughters, of 
whom the subject of this sketch is the eldest.

	J. Hamilton Smith lived with his parents until October, 1865. 
While in Canada he was engaged in farming and lumbering, but upon his 
arrival in Saginaw, Michigan, he at once devoted his entire attention to 
lumbering, and was in business at that place about six years, after 
which he continued the same business at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, until 
1878. He then moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and soon after secured a 
position as overseer with the Ohio Falls Car Manufacturing Company, at 
Jeffersonville, Indiana, just across from Louisville, but continued to 
live in Louisville until April 5, 1882. July 7, of that year, he removed 
to Watertown, South Dakota, and made that his home until September 16, 
moving on that day to Castlewood, and is to-day the oldest settler still 
living in the city. He at once entered into the lumbering business, and 
the following year put in a line of farm machinery. In 1887 he sold out 
his lumber interest and in 1894 he sold out his stock of machinery. In 
1892 he began farming and now owns a fine farm of three hundred and 
twenty acres of land in Dempster township, and is farming nine hundred 
acres.

	Mr. Smith married Mary Garvey, a native of Wisconsin, November 24, 
1878, at Stevens Point, of that state. Mrs. Smith was born March 8, 
1847. Our subject has been a lifelong Republican. He was appointed 
postmaster at Castlewood, January 12, 1897, and took charge of the 
office on the 1st of the following July. He has also been trustee of 
school district No. 2 for nine years. He is a member of the Episcopal 
church and also of the order of Knight Templars and encampment of Odd 
Fellows. Mr. Smith has been very successful in all of his various 
undertakings since he arrived in South Dakota. He is a man of sterling 
business qualifications and a progressive and wide-awake citizen, always 
ready to assist in anything which tends in anyway to benefit the 
community in which he lives. He is a man of strong character, broad 
ideas, and has a large circle of warm friends.