Montgomery County TN Archives Biographies.....Smith, Valentine W. 1834 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com October 26, 2005, 2:28 pm

Author: Will T. Hale

   VALENTINE W. SMITH. One of the oldest business men of Clarksville is

Valentine W. Smith, who has been connected with the drug trade here for the

greater part of sixty years, and few men of the state can point to a longer or

more honorable record.



   In the generation to which Mr. Smith belongs there are six members of the

family still living, and their average age is seventy-eight. It is a hardy race

and its men and women have been worthy citizens of Tennessee for nearly a century.



   Montgomery county was the birthplace of all the members of this longlived

family, and Valentine W. Smith was born on November 30, 1834, a son of James N.

and Nancy A. (Allen) Smith. John Smith, the grandfather, was born in Virginia

about the time of the Revolution, and came over the mountains to Tennessee about

the close of the second war with Great Britain. The maternal grandfather,

Valentine Allen, was born in North Carolina, and was also an early settler in

the northern part of Tennessee, where he spent the rest of his life.



   James N. Smith, the father, was born in Virginia in December, 1798, while his

wife was born in North Carolina in 1800. Coming to Tennessee while a youth, he

spent the rest of his career in Montgomery county, where he was known as a

successful grower of corn and tobacco and a good home maker. During the Indian

hostilities which disturbed this middle west he served under General Jackson. In

politics he was first a Whig and then a Democrat, and he and his wife were

members of the Methodist church. He died in 1874, and his wife passed away just

ten years later. They were the parents of eleven children, Valentine being the

fifth, and six are living at this writing.



   In the Montgomery county of the forties and fifties Valentine W. Smith had

his youthful environment, with the country schools for his education and the

home farm for the development of a vigorous body. When he was eighteen he began

learning the drug business, and for sixty years that has been his regular line

of business. After a few years of experience he bought a store of his own, and

the Clarksville residents of half a century have known and patronized Smith, the

druggist.



  In 1859 he married Miss Mary Leigh, a daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Leigh.

Her father was born in Tennessee and was a substantial citizen. The six children

of Mr. and Mrs. Smith are: M. A., a resident of Clarksville; James F., in the

drug business at Livermore, Kentucky; Annie B., at home; Addie E., at home;

Fannie M., at home; and Valentine H., who is associated with his father in the

drug business. The deceased wife and mother was a member of Cumberland

Presbyterian church.



   Mr. Smith is a member of the Methodist church, and he is a chapter and Knight

Templar Mason. As a respected business man he has several times been called upon

for public service, having held the offices of constable and magistrate, and for

one term he was tobacco inspector. His politics is Democratic.



Additional Comments:
From:



A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in

commerce, industry and modern activities

by Will T. Hale

Chicago:  Lewis Pub. Co.,  1913



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