Tucker County, West Virginia Biography of CHARLES D. SMITH This file 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. 536 Tucker CHARLES D. SMITH has been engaged in the practice of law at Parsons, judicial center of Tucker County, for a period of twenty years, and has gained prestige as one of the able and representative members of the bar of this part of the state. Prior to coming to Parsons he had been engaged in practice at Terra Alta, Preston County, about two years. Mr. Smith was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, near the Frederick County line, and the date of his nativity was June 21, 1870. He was reared in the Village of Hyatts- town, and his discipline in the public schools was supple- mented by a course in the Maryland State Normal School in the City of Baltimore. After leaving this institution in 1891 he became a teacher in the rural schools of Howard County, Maryland, and he continued his effective service in the pedagogic profession seven years, during about five of which he was principal of the schools at Oakland, besides having taught in summer normal schools. His final work as a teacher was at Kensington, Maryland, and in 1900 he was graduated in the law department of George Washing- ton University at Washington, D. C. After thus receiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws he held for a short interval a position as bookkeeper in the Garrett National Bank at Oakland, Maryland, but before the close of the year he located at Terra Alta, West Virginia, where he continued in the practice of law until his removal to Parsons, as noted in the opening paragraph of this sketch. His practice has included connection with numerous cases of important order, both civil and criminal, and he is known as a strong and resourceful trial lawyer. Upon coming to Tucker County he was made assistant prosecuting attorney under William G. Gonley, with whom he was associated in law practice and who later became attorney general of the state. Mr. Smith became acting prosecuting attorney of the county to fill out the term of Mr. Conley when the latter retired. In 1904 he was elected prosecuting attorney. He was re-elected in 1908, and retired at the end of his second term. In 1916 he was again called to this office, in which he thus served a third term. He effected, as prosecutor for the county, the first conviction for murder in the first degree ever recorded in Tucker County. In the World war period Mr. Smith was ex-officio advisor of the selective-service board of the county, besides serving as Government appeal agent for the county and as advisor of the food administrator of the county. His wife was actively identified with the women's auxiliary war work and did much to advance the service of the Red Cross. Mr. Smith is a republican in polities and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. June 29, 1904, recorded the marriage of Mr. Smith and Miss Edith Townshend, who was born at Oakland, Mary- land, a daughter of Singleton L. and Elizabeth (Jones) Townshend, the father having long been a leading merchant at Oakland. Mrs. Smith received excellent educational advantages, including those of private schools and of the Brier Bend Seminary at Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have three children: Edith Dorsey, Arra Townshend and Mary Rawlings.