Samuel B. Smith

As printed in 1897

AMUEL B. SMITH, president of the city council of Dayton, was born in Troy, Ohio, September 4, 1836, and is a son of Thomas J. S. and Jane (Bacon) Smith, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Ohio. His maternal grandfather, Henry Bacon, was one of the early settlers of Ohio, was a leading lawyer, and a man of great prominence in public affairs. Thomas J. S. Smith was for many years an eminent lawyer of Dayton, and died in 1868. He removed to Dayton from Troy when his son, Samuel B., was quite young.

The greater part of the life of Samuel B. Smith has been spent in Dayton. He read law in the office of his father, and in 1860 was admitted to the bar. At the beginning of the late war he entered the Federal service as first lieutenant of the Eleventh regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry, and later was promoted captain, and finally major, of the Ninety third Ohio, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. After being mustered out of service Mr. Smith returned to Dayton, and in 1866 entered regularly upon the practice of the law, in which he continued until he was appointed assistant adjutant-general of Ohio on January 12, 1880, a position he held until March 2, 1881, when he was promoted adjutant-general, and as such served until January, 1884. After retiring from the adjutant-general’s office, Gen. Smith removed to Miami county, and there spent a number of years engaged in the stone-quarry business, returning to Dayton in 1892. For many years Gen. Smith was interested in the construction and extension of railroads. He was at different periods president and vice-president of the Dayton, Covington & Toledo Railroad company. A number of years ago he represented his ward in the Dayton city council, and in the spring of 1895 he was again elected to that body, and in the following year he was chosen president of the same. Mr. Smith is a member of the Masonic fraternity, of the G. A. R. and of the Loyal Legion, being a charter member of the Ohio commandery of the latter. On June 13, 1871, he was married to Eliza J. Stoddard, only daughter of the late Henry Stoddard, of Dayton. To this union two sons have been born — J. McLain Smith and Fowler Stoddard Smith.

As printed in Centennial portrait and biographical record of the city of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, together with the biographi (1897). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.