Monongalia County, West Virginia Biography of J. F. SMITH ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , May 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 148-149 J. F. SMITH. An interesting example of reclamation work resulting in restored and built up soil, an attractive home and a substantial addition to the agricultural re- sources of Monongalia County, is found in the dairy farm of J. F. Smith, two miles east of Morgantown, in the Mor- gantown District on the Kingwood Pike. Mr. Smith is in every sense a practical man of affairs, though he also recognizes the value of a broad and com- prehensive view as to the lines and methods of progress. He was born in Marion County, West Virginia, January 11, 1872, son of Levi Smith, who lost his life in a coal mine, though he was not a miner. J. F. Smith was only a child when his father died. His mother, Lizzie Lowe, daughter of William Lowe, of Grant District, Monongalia County, was born there and is the last survivor of the Lowe family in the county. She now lives with a son in Morgantown. J. F. Smith when about ten years of age moved to Mor- gantown, grew up there, acquired a common school educa- tion, and learned the butcher's trade with his brother, H. L. Smith. That trade was his business and vocation until in 1903 he bought his present farm. This farm com- prises 205 acres of the old George Dorsey farm, which in ante-bellum days was a great plantation worked by slave labor. Several generations of cultivation had decidedly im- poverished the soil, and the land was in a state of depletion when Mr. Smith bought it. For several years he used the land chiefly for grazing cattle, feeding for the export trade, but for the past seven years has conducted it as a model dairy farm. He has a herd of from thirty-five to forty cows and contributes about seventy gallons of milk daily to city patrons at Morgantown. His farm is also underlaid by the Pittsburg vein of coal, and the coal rights have been sold to operators. May 18, 1896, Mr. Smith married Virginia Wells. She was born at South Park, Monongalia County, March 9, 1877, daughter of William J. and Rebecca (Garrett) Wells, being the youngest of their three children and the only one born in West Virginia. The other two, John, now of Mor- gantown, and Margaret, wife of Frank Jeffers, who died at the age of forty-two, being natives of Washington County, Pennsylvania, near Brownsville, where her parents were also born. On coming to Monongalia County her father bought the old DeMain farm, now included in South Park. He died July 12, 1896, at the age of seventy-six. Her mother died April 20, 1916, at the age of seventy-three. Mrs. Smith's father was one of the extensive sheep growers of this section. In company with his brother John and with "California" J. Morris, Mr. Wells had gone to Cali- fornia as a forty-niner, but was shipwrecked on the voyage, and after reaching the Pacific Coast was called home on account of his mother's death and then took charge of the homestead farm. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have four children: Jeannette E., Ralph J., Mary Virginia and William Page, all living at home. Jeannette is the wife of G. D. Hastings. During his ownership and operation of eighteen years Mr. Smith has actually transformed his farm so far as the productive side is concerned and also to a large degree its home facilities. He has treated the soil liberally with lime- stone, and this has rejuvenated the land in connection with careful cultivation. He has remodeled the house, and alto- gether the Smith home is one of the very desirable ones in the rural section of Monongalia County.