Mason County, West Virginia Biography of William F. SMITH This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 322 WILLIAM F. SMITH, vice president and general manager of the Kanawha Dock Company at Point Pleasant, Mason County, and also of the Point Pleasant Dry Dock Company, has been a potent force in the development of these sub- stantial and important industrial corporations. The Ka- nawha Dock Company was organized in 1902, and is in- corporated with a capital of $75,000. The company owns modern docks and sawmills, and has the best of facilities for the building and repairing of all types of vessels ply- ing the rivers of this section of the Union. John W. Hub- bard, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is president of the com- pany; Mr. Smith has been its vice president and general manager since June, 1918; and C. E. Lawhead, formerly connected with the Merchants National Bank of this city, is its secretary and treasurer. The Point Pleasant Dry Dock Company was organized in December, 1909, the gen- eral equipment of its plant having been purchased from the Pittsburgh Coal Company, which had constructed its dry dock at Pittsburgh in 1884. The officers of the Point Pleasant Dry Dock Company are identical with those of the Kanawha Dock Company. The dry-dock company met with a financial loss of fully $200,000 when its property was swept away by the steamer Otto Marmett on the 14th of January, 1918, this steamer having been carried down the river by the floating ice, and from a total of twenty-one pieces the Point Pleasant Dry Dock Company recovered only its dry dock: its floating sawmills, tow boats, gas, steam and timber boats all being destroyed. The dry dock was recovered below Cincinnati, Ohio, and forty-two feet had to be cut off the dock in order to return it to Point Pleasant. The dock is now 56 by 219 feet in dimensions and can accommodate nearly all types of river craft, and is of the most approved modern type, so that its operative fa- cilities insure the best of service. This is the best dry- dock plant between Pittsburgh and New Orleans, and plays an important part in connection with the navigation inter- ests of the Kanawha, Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In re- habilitating the plant after the disaster mentioned above a large expenditure of money was entailed, including the pur- chasing of the property of the Kanawha Dock Company. The company now has a river frontage extending two city blocks, and on the land is a sawmill and four dwelling houses for employes. The company also leases from the state 600 feet of frontage on the Kanawha River and 800 feet on the Ohio River. This leased frontage covers the site of the Tu-endie-wie Park, in which is erected the monu- ment commemorating the battle which occurred at Point Pleasant on the 10th of October, 1774. The two companies with which Mr. Smith is thus identified employ an average force of more than 100 men, and the two enterprises are the ones of major importance in connection with the gen- eral prosperity of Point Pleasant, which depends largely upon the river traffic for its business and civic stability. Mr. Hubbard, president of these two corporations, is pres- ident also of the Cincinnati & Louisville Packet Line, be- sides being interested in several other important enterprises in West Virginia and other states, his residence being at Pittsburgh. Mr. Smith was reared in the City of Pittsburgh, and there he had been associated with the operation of docks for eighteen years prior to coming to Point Pleasant. As a young man he had been employed on steamboats in the coal trade plying between Ohio River points and the City of New Orleans. Since establishing himself at Point Pleasant he here built the steamer W. F. Smith, which is now owned by the LaBelle Steel Company of Portsmouth, Ohio. Mr. Smith has been concerned with river navigation activities for fully forty years. He is the owner of his attractive home property at Point Pleasant, and is here a stockholder in the Home Building Company, of which he was the principal organizer, besides which he is one of the original stockholders in the Marietta Manufacturing Company at Point Pleasant, West Virginia. In 1881 was recorded the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss Susan M. Deem, of Point Pleasant, and in the same year he had charge of bringing the Ashland docks to Point Pleas- ant. He had the management of the docks at this place one year and for the following two years was similarly engaged at Evansville, Indiana. He then returned to Pittsburgh, where he remained until 1909, since which year he has main- tained his home at Point Pleasant, where both his eldest and youngest children were born. William Russell, the eld- est of the children, is associated with his father's business activities. The maiden name of his wife was Belva Blagg. Henry Sidney likewise is connected with the business of his father. Bessie Virginia is the wife of Roy Condee, of San Diego, California. The younger children are Raymond Hartley, Susie, Howard Finley and John Hubbard.