JOHN SMITH
Mr. Smith was born in Casco, Wisconsin, on the 16th of June, 1863, a son of John M. and Kate (Larkin) Smith, both of whom were natives of Ireland. The father came to the United States with a brother when he was but a child, settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In his youth he learned the stone mason's trade, to which he devoted many years of his life. He passed away at the age of seventy years, while his wife died at the age of sixty-seven years. She also came to the new world in childhood with her parents and in Wisconsin became the wife of John M. Smith.
John Smith, whose name introduces this review, was reared upon the old homestead farm in Wisconsin, his father being an agriculturist as well as a stone mason. He therefore early became familiar with all duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He received but a limited education in the country schools of his district and at the age of fourteen years he went into the lumber woods of Wisconsin, since which time he has been dependent upon his own resources. Although young, he was rugged of constitution and he spent several months at the heavy work in the logging camps, after which he entered upon an apprenticeship to the blacksmith's trade and when still in his teens had become a skilled workman in iron. In 1884 he entered into partnership with John Huntamar and opened a blacksmith and horseshoeing shop. A year and a half later his partner withdrew from the firm and Mr. Smith was joined by others in the organization of the firm of Tierney, Smith & Company. This new company embarked in a wider field, taking over the manufacture of wagons and carriages as well as blacksmithing and horseshoeing. Two years later Mr. Smith sold his interest in the business, desiring to try his fortune in the west.
It was in 1888 that he crossed the continent to become a resident of Walla Walla and here he entered the employ of E. F. Michael, of Laporte, Indiana, as a salesman of agricultural implements in Utah, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and California. He sold goods for the Laporte house throughout these six states and remained in that position until 1893, when he resigned and embarked in business on his own account, entering into partnership with H. V. Fuller. They opened an agricultural implement warehouse in Walla Walla under the style of Fuller & Smith. This undertaking proved profitable from the beginning and after a year Mr. Smith purchased the interest of his partner in the business, which he conducted alone for a year. He then opened a branch store in Waitsburg, Washington, and in 1900 he bought out the firm of McComber & McCann, hardware dealers of Waitsburg. The hardware store was then consolidated with his implement business and the new venture was incorporated under the firm name of the John Smith Hardware Company, with Mr. Smith as the president. In order to accommodate the enlarged business he erected a brick block, seventy by one hundred and twenty feet, the finest business block in Waitsburg. In 1901 the John Smith Company of Walla Walla was incorporated, with Mr. Smith as the president, and in 1903 the Smith-Allen Hardware Company of Milton, Oregon, was organized and incorporated, Mr. Smith also becoming the president of the last named company. His interests and activities in connection with the hardware and implement business are thus extensive and important, his ramifying trade interests covering a broad territory. He carefully and wisely selects his stock, is reasonable in his prices, straightforward in his dealings and has ever recognized the fact that satisfied patrons are the best advertisement. He also has extensive land holdings in southeastern Washington and he is a heavy stockholder in the Tariff Silver Mine of British Columbia. He likewise has other property holdings. He was one of the organizers of the Interstate Building & Loan Association, the name of which was changed in 1916 to the Walla Walla Savings & Loan Association. Since its organization he has served on the loaning committee and also as one of its directors and has filled the office of vice president. During the fifteen years of its existence the company has made but two foreclosures. Efficiency has ever been his slogan and has constituted the foundation upon which he has built his success. He possesses an aggressive nature and his vocabulary knows no such word as fail. By keen attention to business, by careful management and by ready discrimination he has built up interests of large and profitable proportions which are the merited reward of his labors and which have placed him in the ranks of the foremost business men of the Inland Empire.
In 1887 Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Darrow, of Madison, South Dakota, who died the following year. On the 12th of October, 1897, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Mary E. Vaile, a daughter of Rufus and Minerva Vaile, who were among the early settlers of Walla Walla. To this marriage there have been born seven children, five of whom survive, namely; Frank M., Mary Catherine, Edward Ralph, Helen B. and Bernice Elizabeth. Mr. Smith has three times been the victim of fires, each of which started on adjoining property and once almost a block away. These conflagrations swept away about forty thousand dollars worth of his property. The most disastrous of these occurred in 1902, when his barn burned and two of his children, John, four years of age, and Zera, less than three years old, were playing there and were burned to death.
It is a recognized fact in this day and age of the world that it is almost as essential to play well as to work well. In other words there must be recreation to act as a balance wheel to intense business activity lest commercialism should result in an undue development out of all proportion to other things. Fraternities provide the outlet for many men and Mr. Smith is among the active members of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Ancient Order of Foresters. For almost thirty years he has also been a director and once served as president of the Pacific Northwest Hardware & Implement Association and has the unusual distinction of having never missed a meeting of the board of directors. He votes with the republican party, to which he has always given his support since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He takes an active interest in all public affairs but has never been an aspirant for office, and if asked the reason would probably answer that he has never had the time. Mrs. Smith has been a prominent member of the Walla Walla Shakespeare Club for ten years and has filled all of the offices in that organization, serving as its secretary for three terms. She is also a member of a committee of the Red Cross and is very active in its work. In early life she engaged in teaching for about eight years, having taught nine months of school when she celebrated the seventeenth anniversary of her birth. She taught for some time in the mountains of Oregon, near the Washington state line, and has also taught in this state. In church affiliation Mr. and Mrs. Smith are Catholics, loyal to the teachings of their denomination. He has justly won the proud American title of a self-made man, for he started out in life empty-handed when a youth of fourteen and his boyhood was a period of earnest and unremitting labor. In fact he has led a most strenuous life and activity and diligence have been the crowning points in his career, winning for him the prosperity which he now enjoys.
BERTON DELANY.