Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/427

 SMITH

SMITH

SMITH, Jane Luella Dowd, author, was born in Sheffield, Mass., June 16, 1847; daughter of Almeron and Emily (Curtiss) Dowd ; grand-daugh- ter of Luther and Mina (Field) Dowd, and of Abijah and Betsey (Stevenson) Curtiss, and a descendant of Henry Doude, Guilford, Conn., lGo9, and of Thomas Curtiss, Wethersfield, Conn., 1633. Five of her ancestors, Thomas Stevenson, Jonathan Curtiss, Ricliard Jacob, Timothy Field, and Ebenezer Dowd, were officers in the Revolu- tionary army. She attended South Egremont (Mass.) academy ; was graduated from the Nor- mal school, at Westfield, Mass., 1866, and from the Temple Grove seminar}', Saratoga Springs, N.Y., 1868, and was the principal of tlie high school in Soutliampton, Mass., 1868; of the academy at South Egremont, 1872-76, and of the high schools at Sheffield, Mass., and Stamford, Conn., 1877-81, and in 1884, respectively. Slie was married, May 18, 1875, to Henry Hadley Smith, M.D., residing in Sheffield until 1886, and thereafter in Hudson, N.Y. She became inter- ested in temperance, Sunday-school, and equal suffrage work, and under the name of Luella D. Smith, wrote many children's stories, for the National Temperance Publication house. She is the author of : Wayside Leaves, verse (1879) ; Wind Flowers (1887) ; Floivers from Foreign Fields (ISdo) ; The Value of the Church (1898); and Thirteen Temperance Theses, and Two Trilogies (1901).

SMITH, Jeremiah, governor of New Hamp- shire, was born in Peterborough, N.H., Nov. 29, 1759 ; son of William and Elizabeth (Morison) Smith, and grandson of John and Margaret (Wal- Londonderry, N.H. He en- tered Harvard college in 1777 ; served for two months in the patriot army, imder General Stark, being present at the battle of Bennington, where he was slightly wounded, and afterward completed his soph- omore year, at Harvard, and Jueens (Rutgers) college. New Jersey, in 1780. He was admitted to the bar in 1786, and began practice in Peterborough. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1788-90 ; a delegate to the state constitutional convention, 1791-93, and a representative in the 2d-5th con- gresses, 1791-97, resigning his seat in 1797, his term being completed by Peleg Sprague. He re- moved to Exeter, N.H., in 1797 ; was district at- torney for New Hampshire, 1798-1801 ; judge of probate for Rockingham county, 1800-1801, and in February, 1801, was appointed by President Adams, judge of the U.S. circuit court, but the court was soon after abolished. He served as a justice of the superior court of the state, 1801-

was graduated at

03; as chief justice, 1803-09 and 1813-16; as governor of New Hampshire, 1809, and was a presidential elector-at-large for New Hampshire in the same year. He retired from the practice of his profession in 1830, and removed to Dover, N.H., in 1843. He was twice married ; first, March 8, 1797, to Elizabeth, daugliter of Alexander Ross, of Bladensburg, Md., and sec- ondly, Sept. 30, 1831, to Elizabeth, daughter of William Dale, of Dover, N.H. Judge Smith re- ceived the honorary degree of LL.D. from Dart- mouth in 1804, and from Harvard in 1807, and also that of sergeant-at-law, conferred upon him by Judge Story in 1813. He was a trustee and treasurer of Phillips Exeter academy ; president of the Exeter bank for nearly forty years, and a member of the New Hampshire Historical soci- ety. He is the autlior of a eulogy on General Washington (1800) ; a biographical sketch of Judge Caleb Ellis (1816), and of Charles Henry Bell, in Bell's "Bench and Bar of New Hamp- shire," and of various orations, arguments and decisions. His life was written by the Rev. John H. Morison, D.D. (1845). Judge Smith died in Dover, N. H., Sept. 21, 1842.

SMITH, John, explorer, was born in Willough- by, Linconshire, Eng.; receiving baptism in the Parish church, Jan. 6, 1579, O.S.; son of George and Alice Smith, tenants of Lord Willoughby. He was apprenticed to a trade in 1595, but ran away and fought under Lord Willoughby in the Netherlands. Later he served under Baron Kesell against the Turks and was given a patent of nobility and a pension by the Prince of Transyl- vania for his valor in defeating the Turks. He was taken prisoner and sent as a slave to Con- stantinople, but finally escaped to Russia. He returned to England after taking part in the Bar- bary war of 1605, and joined the expedition to Virginia under Captains Christopher Newport, Bartholomew Gosnold and John Ratcliffe for the purpose of colonization. The expedition set sail Dec. 15, 1606, arriving at Old Point Comfort, Va., April 20, 1607. Smith was made a councillor of the colony ; accompanied Captain Newport on an expedition to discover the source of the James river, that .set out May 23, 1607, and on their return they found the colony harassed by the Indians, but through the counsels of Smith, the defences were strengthened and food procured. He became the most prominent man in the colony ; fortified Jamestown against the Indians, and made extensive explorations in search of food. While on a voyage up the James he was taken prisoner by the Chief Powhatan and sen- tenced to death, but owing to the intervention of Pocahontas, the chief's daughter, he was set free. On his return to Jamestown he found the colony reduced to forty men. In 1608 Smith engaged in