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From: Archives <>
Subject: Tn-Montgomery Co. Bios (Smith)
Date: 26 Oct 2005 14:28:59 -0000


Montgomery County TN Archives Biographies.....Smith, Valentine W. 1834 -
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher October 26, 2005, 2:28 pm

Author: Will T. Hale

VALENTINE W. SMITH. One of the oldest business men of Clarksville is
Valentine W. Smith, who has been connected with the drug trade here for the
greater part of sixty years, and few men of the state can point to a longer or
more honorable record.

In the generation to which Mr. Smith belongs there are six members of the
family still living, and their average age is seventy-eight. It is a hardy race
and its men and women have been worthy citizens of Tennessee for nearly a century.

Montgomery county was the birthplace of all the members of this longlived
family, and Valentine W. Smith was born on November 30, 1834, a son of James N.
and Nancy A. (Allen) Smith. John Smith, the grandfather, was born in Virginia
about the time of the Revolution, and came over the mountains to Tennessee about
the close of the second war with Great Britain. The maternal grandfather,
Valentine Allen, was born in North Carolina, and was also an early settler in
the northern part of Tennessee, where he spent the rest of his life.

James N. Smith, the father, was born in Virginia in December, 1798, while his
wife was born in North Carolina in 1800. Coming to Tennessee while a youth, he
spent the rest of his career in Montgomery county, where he was known as a
successful grower of corn and tobacco and a good home maker. During the Indian
hostilities which disturbed this middle west he served under General Jackson. In
politics he was first a Whig and then a Democrat, and he and his wife were
members of the Methodist church. He died in 1874, and his wife passed away just
ten years later. They were the parents of eleven children, Valentine being the
fifth, and six are living at this writing.

In the Montgomery county of the forties and fifties Valentine W. Smith had
his youthful environment, with the country schools for his education and the
home farm for the development of a vigorous body. When he was eighteen he began
learning the drug business, and for sixty years that has been his regular line
of business. After a few years of experience he bought a store of his own, and
the Clarksville residents of half a century have known and patronized Smith, the
druggist.

In 1859 he married Miss Mary Leigh, a daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Leigh.
Her father was born in Tennessee and was a substantial citizen. The six children
of Mr. and Mrs. Smith are: M. A., a resident of Clarksville; James F., in the
drug business at Livermore, Kentucky; Annie B., at home; Addie E., at home;
Fannie M., at home; and Valentine H., who is associated with his father in the
drug business. The deceased wife and mother was a member of Cumberland
Presbyterian church.

Mr. Smith is a member of the Methodist church, and he is a chapter and Knight
Templar Mason. As a respected business man he has several times been called upon
for public service, having held the offices of constable and magistrate, and for
one term he was tobacco inspector. His politics is Democratic.


Additional Comments:
From:

A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in
commerce, industry and modern activities
by Will T. Hale
Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1913


File at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tn/montgomery/bios/smith191nbs.txt

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