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IRN,
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
FF UNCLE SAM should
ever call the roll of all
his children, the chances
are that more people
would respond to “Smith"
than any other family
name. They'd outnumber
the prolific Browns and Williamses
by about two to one and the only
slightly less prolific Joneses and
Johnsons by about three to one.
Now, since Smith is such a very
common name, it naturally follows
that one who bears it has to be con-
siderably above the average to lend
distinction to it and to be outstand-
ing among his fellowmen. The
fact is that there have been plenty
of just such men, as witness the
fact that one standard encyclopoe-
dia of American blography contains
the names of no less than 202
Smiths who have been famous
enough to be included in its list of
notables and another 230
such names,
From the earliest days of Ameri-
can history the Smiths have played
an important part in making that
history. For it was the doughty
Capt. John Smith, an English ad-
venturer, who led the little band
of colonists to the shores of Vir
ginia in 1607 and at Jamestown
founded the first permanent Eng.
lish settlement’ in America, a settle
ment destined to grow
that was to give a
first President.
contains
nto a colony
new nation its
Although we think of Smith pri
as a soldier, the fact Is that
Vas a treatise on
a model of its
“A Sea-mans
An Acclidence, The
Experience necessary
or those that
to Sea,” published in
sea-man,
It was not only the first
book on seamanship, na
book
the last
nith was the founder
every
d in
seamanship
HX) years,
Englis
i is
should be one of immortals
ened the Declarati n of In
nice and thus bog
‘athers of tho
Smith
emigrant to
> grew up to
leader he agitation
for freedom from itish rule. He
wrote an “On the
tional Power of Great B
the Colonies in America
said to have given
become a
essay Constitu
tain Over
which Is
“the first strong
impulse to the patriot cause in the
colony of Pennsylvania.”
America’s official national an
them. as everybody knows. . js *
Star-Spangled Be
The
ner.” jut there
Is another song, an unofficial
tional hymn."
triotic occasions quite as much as
is Key's stirring eon
written by a Smit
Francis Smith was
which Is sung on pa-
was
CAPT. JOHN SMITH
he was born In Boston In 1808.
While a student at Andover theo-
logical seminary he wrote the words
of the song beginning “My Coun-
try, "Tis of Thee” and on July 4,
1832, this song, to which has been
given the simple title of “Amer.
ica,” was sung for the first time at
# children’s celebration in the Park
Street church in Boston.
lefore attending the Andover
seminary to prepare himself for his
lifework as a Baptist minister,
Smith had been graduated from
Harvard in 1829, In the same class
with Oliver Wendell Holmes, And
it was Holmes who, In his class re.
union poem, “The Boys,” told in
these words how this Smith had
lent distinction to that common.
place name,
“And there's a nice youngster of
excellent pith:
Fate tried to conceal him by nam.
ing him Smith!
But he chanted a song for the brave
and the free—
Just read on his medal, ‘My coun
try, of thee"
A Smith was the founder of the
first permanent English colony in
America; a Smith was one of the
signers of the Declaration of In.
dependence, a Smith wrote our “na.
tional hymn” In line with those
facts, it would be appropriate if a
Smith were elected President of the
United States. But so far, no one
of that name ever has been Chlef
Executive. But that doesn't mean
that a Smith never has aspired to
the Presidency. On the contrary,
no less than four of them have,
Perhaps you think that Alfred
Emanuel Smith, who won the Dem-
ocratic nomination but lost the
election in 1028, was the first and
only one of the name who ever
made a bid for occupancy of the
White House. jut he wasn't,
Eighty-four years before New
York's famous governor had shied
his equally famous “Brown Derby”
into the Presidential ring, a native
of Vermont, was an active candidate
for the high office,
He was Joseph Smith, founder of
the Mormon religion in New York
in 1830, who was driven by per
secution first to Ohlo, then to Mis
sourl, and finally to Illinois, where
the “City of was estab
lished at Nauvoo, Soon he had such
a large following that both the
Whigs and the Democrats began
bidding for Mormon support and
Smith having delusions of
grandeur as to his political power.
In 1844 he took the bold step of
condemning both parties
and candidacy for
the Presidency of the United States
Saints”
began
publicly
announcing his
SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH
ime at Josep!
an eye toward
Sinith
party
x frites
futo
for the
Gerritt Smith,
Presidency, He was
a New Yorker des
tined for ire fame as I
thropist, but in those dass an
abolitionist. He organ
eriy party at Arcade,
and in 1848 and
its eandid
had three othe inim o fame—as
John
ied with money
Hkfated attempt to
a backer of
gh ol
he sup;
whom
for Brown's
i free the slaves,
as the man who, with Horace Gree
ley, at the close of the Civil war,
signed the bail bond of Jefferson
Davis, and as the man whose hene
factions, duridz his lifetime, totaled
close to £85.000.000,
The next Smith who aspired to be
a President was Green
native of Kentucky
the Mexican war,
elected to the Kentucky legislature
and at the Civil
war became a colonel in the Unlon
army in which he rose to the rank
of brigadier general. Elected to
congress while still in the field. he
resigned from the army, and while
serving In congress was appointed
second territorial governor of Mon
tana by President Johnson. After
three years in that office he resigned
to enter the Baptist ministry, and
in 1876 he was the first candidate
of the Prohibition party for Presi.
dent. Thus half a century before
Alfred E, Smith was a “wet” eandl
date for that position, Green Clay
Smith was a “dry” candidate. and
both to the same result—defeat!
The same fate befell the only
Smith who was ever a candidate
for Vice President. He was Wil
liam Smith, a native of North Caro-
lina who emigrated to South Caro
lina at an early age, became a law.
yer andyserved In various state of.
fices and In the United States sen.
ate. In 1820 Smith received Geor
gia's seven electoral votes for Vice
President, which was approximate.
ly 160 short of enough to elect him.
Eight years later he tried again,
This time he did a little better. He
got 23 electoral votes but one of
the only slightly less prolific John.
sons got the job-Richard M. John.
son of Kentucky, Twice Smith
was offered the appointment of as
sociate Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States, but
both times he declined, thereby de.
priving the Smith family of its two
known chances of being represented
in that august body,
Although no Smith has ever yet
been President or Vice President,
more than one has been an aid to
Presidents by serving In thelr cab.
inets. They began away back in
one
who
was
Smith, a
served In
outbreak of the
1801 when Samuel Smith, a Pennsyl-
vanian, was secretary of the navy
for a short time under President
Jefferson, serving without eom-
pensation, He was succeeded in
that post by his brother, Robert
Smith, who had a rather remark-
able record as a cabinet officer in
that he held no less than three port-
follos—secretary of the navy from
1802 to 1805 and attorney general
from March to December, 1800,
both under Jefferson, and secretary
of state from 1800 to 1811 under
Madison,
Next came Caleb Blood Smith of
Indiana who was Lincoln's secre
tary of the Interior from 1801 to
1863, then Hoke Smith of Georgia
who held the same portfollo under
Cleveland from 1803 to 1808. An-
other member of the family, Charles
Emory Smith, was postmaster
general under McKinley from 1808
to 1001 and held over In that posl
tion under Roosevelt until 1902.
An exploring trip through the
many pages devoted to the Smiths
in any encyclopedia of blography re
any number of Interesting
and women of this fa y
name, There was Charles Henry
Smith, the Georgian, who made his
pen name of “Bill Arp” famous
with his humorous stories of the
Confederacy, There was that earlier
humorist, Seba 8 h i
from Malne,
Downing of
veals
men
w ho, as
Downingviile”
adviser
self appointed
dent Andrew Jackson, and
making some
y from t
Just one
the Texas I
named *“Denf
PREACHER SMITH
petuates the fame of Erastus
Smith, a native of New York, whe
lived in Mississippl as a boy, then
went to Texas while it was still the
Lone Star republic, and became one
of the heroes of the Battle of San
Jacinto. It was he who, upon the
orders of Gen, 8am Houston, burned
Vince's bridge, the only avenue of
escape for the vanquished in that
battle, whoever it might be, then
dashed up on a foam-covered hors
shouting, “I have cut down Vinee
bridge. Now fight for your live
and remember the Alamo!”
There Is no such memorial
though there should be) for J
diah Strong Smith, a New Yorker
who was much more deserving of
the title of “The Pathfinder” than
was Gen, John CG, Fremont, A mem-
ber of the famous Ashley-Henry
expedition of 1823 and one of the
founders of the Rocky
Fur company, he was not only the
first American to
later became the Oregon Trail, but
his wanderings and his
ing exploits In the western wilder
ness made him truly one of the great
est explorers of his day.
High up in the pine-clad
Hills of South Dakota stands a shaft
of white stone which marks
place where lenry Weston Smith
with
in $20 bills
king of the Denver
When he went to
fhe big
inderworld
Alaska he be
man of Skagway, but
methods soon got
There was talk
nte methods to rid the town
ut Frank Reid, an en-
saved them the trouble.
bluff Reid. but
A bullet
end to this
last
Cane
ito trouble,
~oany' tried to
Reid caoniar
from his gun put an
most famous bad man of the
frontier
Another Smith, but very different
from Soapy's kind, life In
the wild days of the old frontier He
Smith,
lost his
was Thomas J
River Tom™ Smith. a quiet,
mild-spoken young man, but one of
the bravest who ever upheld the law
in the West,
utation for himself as marshal of
the town of Kit Carson, Colo.. when
it was “end of steel”
gas Pacific,
known as
“Gireen
famous Wild Bill Hickok,
match,
Inst—murdered by
whom he tried to arrest peaceably,
deputy sherilf “ran out” on him.
One other Smith is deserving of
mention before this article Is con
cluded. He was John T. Smith, fa.
mous in the early days of Missouri
ns a duelist and land speculator, but
the thing which most distinguished
hm was the way in which he lent
distinction to that name. He real:
ized that there are many John T.
Smiths, so in order to make his dif.
ferent from the rest, he began sign.
ing himself John Smith T. and John
Smith T. he was known to the day
of his death,
As to other Smiths who lent dis
tinction to the name-—well, there
ure several hundred of them listed
In the encyclopedias of blography
to which the reader of this article
is respectfolly referred,
© by Western Newspaper Union.
{
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burials at from 10 to 2,000 yen,
For the lowest price a plain white
pire
wood hearse in Shinto gtyle will be
provided, Its driver and his assist.
ant will wear cutnw ay coats, and the
company guarantees that they will
be men of dignified expression, Fore
mal clothes will be lent to the mourn
ers. A enrriage with red lining will
convey the priests to
and the mourners
automobiles,
For funerals costing 50 yen and
upward a woman attendant will be
added, also printed letters of thanks,
flowers and a number of uniformed
funeral attendants.
the ceremony
will be taken in
= —
—
Whose
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When Little Gir
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