BIOGRAPHIES:  John Henry SMITH, Fairchild, Eau Claire Co., WI 

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Nance Sampson, Eau Claire Co. WIGenWeb CC on 16 October 2004
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** Posted for informational purposes only - poster is not related to the 
subject of this biography and has no further information.

John Henry Smith, one of the pioneers of western Wisconsin, who is
now retired and resides in Fairchild, Eau Claire county, was born
near Columbus, Bartholomew county, Indiana, September 11, 1832, the
son of Adam C. and Cynthia Ann Smith, natives of Scotland and pioneer
settlers of Bartholomew county where they lived until 1835.  They
then moved to Illinois, locating on the East side of the Illinois
river ten miles above Peoria, and there purchased 80 acres of land
which they improved an brought to a good state of cultivation and
there made their home until 1854, when they sold out and moved to
Vernon county, Wisconsin, and homesteaded a quarter section of land. 
Here they set to work to clear and subdue the land and establish the
family home where the father died in 1880.  Of five children born to
Mr. and Mrs. Smith, four grew to maturity:  John H., William T.,
Annie E., who first married Daniel Smalley and taking for her second
husband George Norris, both of whom were veterans of the Civil War,
and James M.

John Henry grew to manhood in Illinois, receiving his education in
the common schools of that state and the graded schools of Kokomo,
Ind.  He came to Vernon county with his parents in 1854 and on July
21, 1863, located on Scott's creek, Jackson county, within half a
mile of what is now the village of Fairchild.  There he purchased a
farm of 80 acres, 40 of which he improved and there resided for five
years when he disposed of his place and re-purchased 40 acres, one
and a quarter miles east, of which he improved 20 acres and here made
his home until 1906, when he retired and moved to the village of
Fairchild, where he has since resided.  A man fond of out-door life
and adventure, a large part of Mr. Smith's early life, after he
became seventeen years of age, was spent in hunting and trapping in
Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin.

On September 15, 1853, he married Rachel Gravley, daughter of
William and Lydia (Higgs) Gravley, of Clarksville, Va., and to them
four children were born, Mary J., who married James Sires, is
deceased; Sarah A., married Frelland Engalls; Ella and Lena A., wife
of Thomas Wilson.  Mr. Smith was a soldier in the Civil War, having
enlisted July 31, 1862, in Company B, 20th Regiment, Wisconsin
Volunteer Infantry, as a private, and took part in the battle of
Prairie Grove, Ark., where he was wounded.  He was also in several
skirmishes in all of which he received three gun shot wounds, and on
account of disability, was honorably discharged at Springfield, Mo.,
June 15, 1863, and has since made his home in Jackson and Eau Claire
counties.  Mr. Smith is the inventor of a patent potato machine which
peels and washes the tubers ready for use.  He is also an inventor of
a patent barrel hoop which does away with rivets.  Mr. Smith is now
82 years old, but his eyesight is perfect, and he can shoot with a
rifle as accurately as in early life.

-Transcribed from the "History of Eau Claire County Wisconsin,
1914," pages 867-868.

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