- EDWARD H. SMITH, who has been a resident of Edgerton, Wis.,
nearly half a century, is a
- native of Grafton, Mass., and was born January 31, 1829,
the son of Henry and Eliza (STONE) SMITH. Edward grew up on
his father's farm and attended school in the old red school house
ten weeks of each year. After leaving school he went to Westburn,
Mass., and learned the watchmaker's trade with Mr. Moses WOOD,
and worked at his trade in Massachusetts till 1851. In 1855
he went to Fort Wayne, Ind., but in March of the following year
removed to Madison, Wis., where he spent two and a half years.
Settling at Edgerton in July, 1858, he was engaged in watch
repairing at the beginning of the Civil war. In October, 1861,
he enlisted in Company H, Thirteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer
Infantry and served four years and three months.
- Mr. SMITH was the first to open a jewelry store at Edgerton,
and is the only survivor of those
- who lost by the fire of forty years ago.
- In political sentiment Mr. SMITH is a Republican. He voted
for John P. Hall, the abolitionist, in
- 1852; in 1856 supported John C. Fremont, the first Republican
nominee for the presidency. From 1869 to 1887 Mr. SMITH was
engaged in farming, but in the year last named was made police
justice of Edgerton, and has held that important office ever
since, enjoying the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens.
- Mr. SMITH is a member of the Masonic Order and has filled
all the chairs but the master chair
- of his lodge. In religious faith he was reared a Unitarian,
and is liberal in his opinions.
- In 1850 Mr. SMITH married Sarah ARNOLD, a native of Massachusetts,
who died in 1878 at
- the age of forty-six years. Eight children were born to
them, of whom the first, Henry, the third, Elizabeth, and the
eighth, Rosa, are deceased. Those living are Eleanor, who is
married to Mr. J. C. NICHOLS of Grafton, Mass.; Jessie, who is
the wife of Mr. Edward H. DAVIDSON of Elizabeth, N.J.; Benjamin
F., who lives in Minnesota; Lulu, who is married to Mr. Willard
LEARN of Edgerton, and Glenn, who lives at home.
-
- Taken from "Rock County, Wis." by William Fiske
Brown, (c)1908, pp. 1053-1054.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|