- A. HYATT SMITH. The history of A. Hyatt SMITH, Janesville's
first mayor, is closely identified
- with the history of Wisconsin's incipient railroad system.
He was born in New York City, February 5, 1814, the son of Maurice
and May (REYNOLDS) SMITH, natives of Westchester County, N.Y.
His grandfathers were both among the unfortunate "Sugar
House prisoners." In 1826 his father resumed his old business
of merchandising in New York, but died suddenly in 1828, in the
fifty-eighth year of his age, leaving a family of six children.
A seventh was born about a month after his decease. On the
death of her husband, Mrs. SMITH removed to the neighborhood
of Auburn, where her father's family resided, while our subject
remained in the city with his guardian, James SMITH, a relative
and a lawyer of eminence, who, having settled the question of
his ward's profession, held to the theory that the place to make
a lawyer was in a lawyer's office, and at the age of fourteen,
the name of A. Hyatt SMITH was registered with the Clerk of the
Supreme Court as a student-at-law. He completed his education
at Mount Pleasant Seminary, and was admitted to practice in the
city courts in the summer of 1835, and to the Supreme Court of
the State in 1836, and immediately entered upon a large and lucrative
practice in partnership with his former preceptor. Six years'
work so impaired his health that he was advised that the only
way to save his life was to move away from the sea-coast. Accordingly,
in 1842, he resolved to move to Wisconsin, which he had previously
visited on business, and on the 22d of November, arrived in Janesville,
and being informed that the land on the west side of the river
was for sale, purchased it with a view to the improvement of
the water-power, taking several other parties into the transaction
to gain monetary aid in making the improvement.
- On the 1st of April, 1843, the Territorial Legislature granted
a charter to A. Hyatt SMITH,
- William H. H. BAILEY and Charles STEVENS, conferring the
right to dam Rock River, and utilize the power thus derived.
Both of these last-named gentlemen, however, withdrew, and he
subsequently associated with himself James McCLURG, of Western
New York, Martin O. WALKER, of Chicago, and J. B. DOE, of Janesville,
and on the 6th of January, 1846, commenced the construction of
a mill, the largest then west of the lakes, which commenced operating
in the following summer, and gave Janesville its first substantial
impetus.
- In the summer of 1847 Mr. SMITH, although a Democrat, was
elected to the first convention to
- frame a State constitution, to represent a constituency,
which, up to that time, had been largely Whig, and succeeded
in preparing a report which was unanimously recommended by the
committee and adopted by the convention. During the same year
he was appointed Attorney General of the Territory, and held
the office until after the State was admitted into the Union.
In 1848, he was appointed United States Attorney by President
Polk, and held the office until the accession of the Taylor administration.
On the organization of the city of Janesville, in 1853, he was
elected its first Mayor, and in 1857, he was elected to the same
position, against his will. In 1851, while absent from the country
in England, he came within two votes of receiving the Democratic
nomination for Governor, without his knowledge or consent; and
again, in 1853, he stood for a long time within two votes of
a nomination for the same office, but withdrew in favor of Barstow,
who was elected. He was for many years Regent of the State University
at Madison, having been elected from year to year by the Legislature
without regard to party. Previous to coming West, in 1836, he
was appointed Commissioner of Deeds in the city of New York and
served as such for several years.
- In 1847 he organized a company to build a plank road from
Milwaukee to Janesville, and
- endeavored to induce the people of Milwaukee to unite with
him in organizing under a railroad charter which he then controlled,
but the hostility became so bitter, personal and local as to
be absolutely intolerable, and after about six years of hard
work - the best years of his life given to the public without
any profit, but at a sacrifice of several hundred thousand dollars
of his private fortune - he did what he has not since ceased
to regret, resigned, and let his franchises fall into the hands
of Wall Street speculators. He was the owner of landed property
in Janesville and Chicago, valued at over $1,000,000, most of
which was sacrificed in these and other complications growing
out of his railroad transactions. He lost largely, also, in
the Chicago fire of 1871.
- Mr. SMITH has been for many years a leading member of the
congregation of Trinity Church,
- Janesville. In politics, he has always been Democratic;
his first vote was cast for Martin Van Buren, and he was an earnest
politician long before he was a voter. On the 4th of April,
1838, he was married in St. Paul's Church, New York, by the Rev.
Martin EASTBURN, to Miss Ann Margaret Cooper KELLY, a native
of Philadelphia and daughter of Philip KELLY. He still occupies
the family homestead on Bluff street, east side of the river,
having retired in part, though not wholly, from active business
affairs. His wife died a few years ago. He has two daughters
and a son living out of a family of a family of eight children.
-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 414-415.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|