My Genealogy Hound

HON. HIRAM SMITH, ex-member of the General Assembly of New York and a highly respected citizen of Jamestown, is a son of Rodney B. and Achsah (Blodgett) Smith, and was born in the town of Hanover, Chautauqua county. New York, October 25, 1819. His paternal grandfather, Isaac Smith, of English descent, was a native of Massachusetts and removed, in 1802, to the town of Gorham, Ontario county. Eight years later he came to Sheridan and soon afterwards removed to Hanover, this county. He was a farmer, served in the war of 1812 and participated in the disaster at Buffalo. The forced march home from that city induced a fever which resulted in his death. He married a Miss Morton and had nine children: Henry, Hiram, Matilda, Rodney B., Roxanna, Esther, Atilla, Benjamin and one whose name is forgotten.

Rodney B. Smith, the third son, and father of Hon. Hiram Smith, was born February 3, 1799, in Whately, Hampden county, Mass., and died at “Smith's Mills,” in May, 1873, aged seventy-four years. At fifteen years of age he volunteered to take his eldest brother Henry's place in the army and was in the battles of Chippewa, Black Rock and Williamsville. Henry, who was but eighteen years of age, returned from the army to care for his seven younger brothers and sisters, who were orphaned within one year by the death of both father and mother. Rodney B. Smith, after the war of 1812, engaged in business with good success. In 1824 he became a sub-contractor under Thompson & Bird, for the construction of the Black Rock dam, in connection with the Erie canal, and afterwards was a contractor on the canal until its completion. He then returned to this county, where he purchased a small mill of his brother and enlarged it into what is now known as Smith's Mills. He also erected a distillery, tannery and store, and for thirty years was actively engaged in these different lines of business. He was a member for several years of the Methodist Episcopal church and a useful citizen of the community in which he resided, but for the last thirty years of his life he became entirely liberal in his
theological ideas. He married Achsah Blodgett, and to them were born seven sons and seven daughters, of whom four are living: Hon. Hiram; Lyman B., a lawyer of Buffalo; Myron, an officer of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry during the late war, and now engaged in farming in Kansas; and Byron, who resides on the homestead.

Hiram Smith was reared on a farm and thoroughly trained to an active business life. He received his education at Fredonia academy, and at an early age entered into the general business of milling, distilling, merchandising and farming at “Smith's Mills.” During the late civil war he entered the Federal service, was appointed by President Lincoln as a United States quartermaster, and at the end of nearly four years' active service was honorably mustered out with the rank of major. After the war Major Smith went to St. Louis, where he was engaged in business one year. In 1867 he returned to Jamestown, where he embarked in merchandising, which he followed during 1867. Three years later he engaged in his present prosperous and extensive life and fire insurance business.

September 10, 1844, he married Melissa P. Love, daughter of Major George Love, of Forestville. They are the parents of two children: Mary, wife of Mason M. Skiff, a graduate of Union college, and now commissioner of public works; and Major George R., who graduated from West Point Military academy in 1875, afterwards married Corinne Barrett, granddaughter of Major Samuel Barrett, of Jamestown, and is now stationed with United States troops at Leavenworth, Kansas, having been appointed paymaster in the United States army by President Arthur in 1882.

In political opinion Hiram Smith was a democrat until 1856, after which he affiliated with the Republican party until 1872. In 1859 and 1860 he was elected as a member of the New York Legislature from the Second Assembly District of Chautauqua county, and served in that body as chairman of the committee on roads and bridges, besides being a member of the committee on railroads, revision of towns and counties, and several other important committees. He received the nomination of the Democratic party for Congress in 1884, but was not successful, as at that time the republicans had a majority of ten thousand votes in the Thirty-fourth Congressional District. Mr. Smith is regarded as one of the reliable business men and substantial citizens of Jamestown. In 1890 Mr. Smith was the democratic nominee for Congress in the Thirty-fourth Congressional District.