In the book's own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1843
From An illustrated history of Jackson County, Minnesota (1910)
JOHN T. SMITH (1871), president of the Minnesota Fibre company and manager of that company's tow mill at Heron Lake, is the oldest resident of that village and a man in whom both the village and county take pride. He came to Heron Tjike before the railroad was builded and when the site was raw prairie land. For thirty-eight years his home has been in the village he helped to found, and none has taken a more active part in the business life and in public enterprises than has Mr. Smith, so closely identified is he with the interests of the town that when one thinks of Heron Lake one thinks of John T. Smith.
[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]
As printed in An illustrated history of Jackson County, Minnesota (1910). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Their biographies name John T. Smith: Louis F. Lammers (b. 1829)
The printed record stops around 1910. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.