Berkeley County, West Virginia    Biography of Charles G. SMITH

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@earthlink.net>, March 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 20

CHARLES G. SMITH was in the railroad service, later in
the public utility business, but is best known in the City
of Martinsburg, his home, as a merchant, being proprietor
of one of the larger mercantile concerns there.

He was born at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a son of
Joseph Cheston Smith and grandson of David and Maria
(Spangler) Smith. His family connections have been in
Maryland and West Virginia since pioneer times. The
family history is an interesting one, including a number of
prominent characters, and it is told in more complete detail
in the individual sketch of Harry Fenton Smith, a cousin
of Charles G., and also a resident of Berkeley County.

Joseph Cheston Smith, father of the Martinsburg mer-
chant, was reared and educated at Frederick, Maryland. As
a young man he came to Virginia, and during the war be-
tween the states was in the United States service, in the
Quartermaster's Department. After the war he returned to
his father's farm, on which Anteitem Station is now located,
farmed there for a few years and in 1871 located at Mar-
tinsburg, where he was in the employ of the Baltimore &
Ohio Railroad Company, and continued in that service for
about forty years. He died at Harpers Ferry in 1916. His
wife was Louisa Spangler, a native of Harpers Ferry. Her
father, Emanuel Spangler, was born in Scotland and one of
three brothers to come to America. His brother John settled
at Martinsburg. Emanuel Spangler was an expert mechanic.
Prior to the beginning of the Civil war he was an employe
at the Government Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, making locks
for guns. After the arsenal was burned he was transferred
to the arsenal in Bridesburg, a suburb of Philadelphia.
At the close of the Civil war he returned to Harpers Ferry
and lived there until his death. Emanuel Spangler married
Elizabeth Russell, a native of England. Her brother was
at one time prominently associated with Oberlin College at
Oberlin, Ohio.

Charles G. Smith was the oldest of three children. His
brother Harry S. became an electrical engineer, and in that
capacity went to South Africa, where he died. The only
daughter, Emma Brent, married Rev. John Sneidikar.

0. G. Smith was educated in Martinsburg, and at the
age of sixteen entered the employ of the Cumberland Valley
Railroad Company as a messenger boy and as an apprentice
to learn telegraphy. During this period his salary was $6
a month. After a year he was made joint city ticket agent
and manager of the telegraph office, and was in the service
of the railroad for a period of ten years. After resigning
he assisted in organizing the Edison Electric Illuminating
Company, and was manager of that important public utility
for five years. When he retired he bought a mercantile
business formerly conducted by his father-in-law, consisting
of a stock of general merchandise on North Queen Street.
He had been in the business only a short time when he ex-
panded his enterprise by purchasing the commissary of the
Standard Stone and Lime Company's Quarry and also the
commissary of the Crawford Woolen Company and another
general store on South Queen Street. To this growing and
flourishing business he has given strict attention and has
made an unqualified success as a merchant. He is also a
director in the old National Bank and chairman of its
executive committee, also a director of the Berkeley Woolen
Company of Martinsburg, West Virginia.

In 1906 Mr. Smith built the substantial residence now
occupied by his family on South Queen Street. At the age
of twenty-four he married Miss Minnie Belle Bowers, a na-
tive of Martinsburg and daughter of John A. and Lucy
(Orem) Bowers. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have one son, Charles
Granville, Jr., and their only daughter died in infancy.
They are members of the Trinity Episcopal Church, of which
he is a vestryman. He is affiliated with Robert White Lodge
No. 67, A. F. and A. M., has been an official in the lodge
for thirteen years, and is a member of Washington Lodge
No. 1, Knights of Pythias, and of Martinsburg Lodge No.
778, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is also
a member of the Martinsburg Rotary Club.