- D. P. SMITH, of the firm of SMITH & GATELEY, dealers
in coal, wood and ice, Janesville, was
- born in Forestville, Chautauqua Co., N.Y., March 29, 1842,
a son of Benjamin R. and Harriet (PAGE) SMITH. His father was
a merchant in Buffalo, N.Y., and died there in 1875, aged fifty-six
years. His mother is living in Watertown, Wis.
- Young SMITH was educated at the public and private schools
at Watertown, Wis., and at
- Wauwatosa Academy near Milwaukee. He left school at the
age of fourteen and was employed for nearly a year upon the survey
of the Milwaukee & Watertown Railroad. At the age of fifteen
he went into the Bay State Machine Works at Milwaukee, a manufactory
of steam engines and machinery, to learn the machinist's trade,
but the company owning the establishment failed about a year
later, and he secured employment on the Milwaukee & Watertown
Railroad as a fireman, and was employed on various railroads
until August, 1862. On the 29th of that month he enlisted at
Chicago in Company A, of the Marine Artillery, and served in
the war of the States until the regiment was mustered out of
service Jan. 25, 1863. Later he served in the Quartermaster's
department until April, 1863, when he returned to Chicago and
entered the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad
Company, with which he continued as engineer and conductor till
the spring of 1876.
- At the date last mentioned he embarked in the crockery trade
on West Milwaukee Street,
- Janesville. The following year he sold out to engage in
the manufacture of the HARRIS & SMITH Safety Lamp and barbed
wire, in partnership with James HARRIS, under the firm name of
HARRIS & SMITH. In 1885 he disposed of his interest in this
enterprise to Mr. HARRIS, and did not resume active business
until November, 1888, when he entered into partnership with John
H. GATELEY, under the firm name of SMITH & GATELEY, in the
coal, wood and ice trade. The firm does an extensive business
and has two large yards - one east of the river on the Chicago,
Milwaukee & ST. Paul Railroad, the other west of the river
on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. There is an office
at each yard, but the principal office of the firm is in the
First National Bank building. Messrs. SMITH & GATELEY have
established branch yards at the following points about Janesville;
Lima, Milton Junction, Shopiere, Afton, Hanover, Footville, Evansville
and Jefferson. The nucleus of this large business was established
by Mr. GATELEY several years ago, but it has lately increased
with a rapidity far out of proportion with the increase of a
similar period at any earlier stage of its history.
- Mr. SMITH was married in September, 1865, to Mary I. SHUMWAY,
of Wauwatosa, Wis.,
- daughter of Hon. P. J. SHUMWAY, who was a member of the first
Wisconsin State Legislative Assembly, and was returned to represent
his district in that body at a later date, and who, at his death
, was under-Sheriff of Milwaukee County. Mr. and Mrs. SMITH
have five children, named as follows: Mary H., D. P., Jr., Harriet,
Charles G. and May. Two sons died in infancy.
- Politically, Mr. SMITH is a Republican. He cast his first
Presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln
- at his second election in 1864. He represented his ward
in the common council of the city of Janesville two years, his
term having expired in 1889, and received the last Republican
nomination to the mayoralty of the city and was defeated at the
polls by a majority of only 124 votes. Personally, he is very
popular with all classes, and few men in Janesville have a larger
circle of friends than he. Liberal and helpful to a great degree
he is ever ready to aid any measure for public improvements or
for the manifest benefit of any large number of his fellow citizens.
With his family he attends the services of the Congregational
Church. Still in the prime of life having scarcely reached middle
age, enterprising, popular, far-seeing, there are those who predict
for him a useful and successful future.
-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 772-773.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|