S. S. Smith Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 354-355

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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S. S. SMITH is one of the wide-awake and progressive citizens that 
Canada has furnished to the United States. Though born across the 
border, he is thoroughly American in thought and feeling, and his 
patriotism and sincere love for the stars and stripes was manifest by 
his service in the Civil war. His career is identified with Jackson 
township, Sanborn county, South Dakota, where he has acquired a 
competence and where he is an honored and respected citizen. 

Mr. Smith was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1840, and is a son of John B. 
Smith, a native of Long Island, New York, who was murdered before our 
subject was born. The father was engaged in' merchandising and also 
owned and operated a sawmill and flour mill. Our subject was reared 
upon a farm in Canada until seventeen years of age when he came to the 
United States and worked as a farm hand until after the Civil war broke 
out. In 1862, he enlisted in Company H, Twentieth Wisconsin Volunteer 
Infantry, which was assigned to the Thirteenth Army Corps, and 
participated in many battles and skirmishes with the army of the west. 
He took part in the siege of Vicksburg, the Red river expedition, the 
battle of Mobile and the capture of Fort Morgan, Fort Blakely and 
Spanish Fort, where his hearing was almost totally destroyed. At the 
close of the war he was honorably discharged in July, 1865. Practically 
he never attended school in his life and the greater part of his 
education was acquired in the United States service. 

After being mustered out, Mr. Smith resumed farming in Wisconsin, where 
he remained seven years, and then went to Minnesota, where he worked in 
the lumber woods and at farming. He was also in the employ of a machine 
firm for about twelve years, keeping books and buying and selling 
wheat, stock, etc., for them until his hearing gave way almost 
entirely. In 1870 he came to Sanborn county, South Dakota, and located 
on sections 4 and 9, and after erecting thereon a shanty, 12 x 14 feet, 
commenced to break and cultivate his land. When he settled there, there 
was only one house between his farm and Huron, the nearest railroad 
station, and here he began life with a capital of just twenty dollars. 
He is now the owner, however, of a fine farm of two hundred acres, of 
which one hundred and five acres are under a high state of cultivation, 
and the buildings, which are all painted and in good condition, consist 
of a small but comfortable residence, a large barn, 32 x 40 feet, with 
a nine foot-basement, corn-cribs, granaries, etc. The place is also 
adorned with forest and plum trees which add greatly to its attractive 
appearance. In days gone by Mr. Smith raised as high as three thousand 
bushels of grain, and though he is still successfully engaged in 
general farming, he has upon his place a general repair shop, where he 
does all kinds of repairing for his neighbors, being a first class 
mechanic, able to do almost anything in that line. 

In 1888, Mr. Smith was out in a blizzard for about three hours, and his 
face was badly frozen, but he found his way in safety. In the course of 
his life he has met with several serious accidents, breaking both legs, 
one arm, and one finger at three different times, but he is still quite 
active and well preserved for one of his years. During his early life 
in Dakota, he did considerable trapping and one winter lived in a tent 
and boarded himself on about ninety-eight cents per week, while he 
trapped one thousand muskrats, forty beaver, eighty-two mink, three 
wolves, two wild cats and a few other smaller animals. Socially he 
affiliates with the Grand Army of the Republic, and politically is a 
stanch Republican. Though not a prohibitionist he is strictly temperate 
and his life in many respects-is well worthy of emulation.