Person:William Smith (1117)

Personal History

William Henry Leland Smith (1824-1889)

Citation: William H. L. Smith papers (Collection 0614), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. William Henry Leland Smith (1824 - 1889 age 65)

Biographical/Historical note:
William Henry Leland Smith was born in Lowell, Vermont, on November 16, 1824, to Henry and Maria (Leland) Smith. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1845, and received his law degree from Harvard University in 1848. He practiced law in Boston from 1848 to 1860 (age 36). He became the first mayor of Corry, Pennsylvania, in the mid 1860s, and died in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on December 29, 1889 at the age of 65. He was the manager of the Corry plant of the Downer Kerosene Oil Company in the 1860s (age 36 on).

Smith was also involved in legal matters regarding the patent of Luther Atwood for a “better processing for extracting oils” from bio and shale materials. He also managed the estates of Mary (Wright) Brown (1844) and Samuel R. Philbrick (1856-1863). Smith also entered in some copartnerships with members of the Downer Kerosene Oil Company, but these projects failed and had to be legally dissolved. The Corry plant and other companies boomed in western Pennsylvania in the 1860s, as oil was discovered in the region, and by the beginning of the next century, the United States had become the world's largest oil producer. The Smith papers are housed in five boxes and span the years 1836 through 1869 age 45. (Doing what until death at 65?)

Via his grand-nephew, Joseph Murdock and research by Joe's grandson, Lucius B. Donkle III

William H. L. Smith played a significant role in the life of his cousin, Eugene Wright, in Corry, Pennsylvania. As described in the "Smith Papers" above and other sources referenced under Eugene Wright 1825-1875 (suicide age 50), Smith became a business partner with Samuel Downer and they created the Downer Oil Works in Corry, Pennsylvania, where Eugene lived. They either employed or partnered with Eugene whereby he became a very significant member of the Corry community. Per family legend and some evidence (ref Eugene Wright bio), Eugene rode the oil boom of the 1860's with his cousin and partner but it all came crashing down around 1870 when J.D. Rockefeller and his new Standard Oil Co. forced them out of business quite likely resulting in his suicide in 1875. This time frame would also explain why the "Smith Papers" ended in 1869, about the time Rockefeller was starting his major anti-competitive expansion practices.

W.H.L. Smith returned to Boston around 1870 and, after Eugene committed suicide in 1875, he was the guardian and benefactor for Eugene's daughter, Helen Janette "Mocco" Wright (b. 1864). It is known that he paid for her 2-year college education at the Normal (teachers) School in Fredonia, NY. Judging from photos of her as a young child after her mother's death in childbirth, she was raised with means at least until her father's suicide when she was age 9. As explained in Eugene's bio, it is curious that Eugene had a significant life insurance policy that paid its proceeds to WHL Smith, not to his widow. This could create speculation about the relationship between Smith and his cousin's daughter.

Eugene Wright and WHL Smith are cousins through their mutual grandparents Hezekiah Smith and Mary "Polly" (Rice) Smith (married 17 Aug 1794).

• Henry Smith (b. abt. 1793) and Maria Leland had William HL Smith (b. 1824).
  
• Mary E. Smith (b. 1795) and Anthony Wright had Eugene Wright (b. 1825).

In 1866 William HL Smith was one of three Dartmouth alumni who founded the Boston Yacht Club because they sought a venue for yacht racing that would provide "that spirit of comradeship, of courtesy and chivalry, of sympathetic joy in a common sport". Boston Yacht Club website - History

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Find A Grave: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA, in Find A Grave
   Wiliam Henry Leland Smith.

   WILLIAM H. L. SMITH
   NOV. 16, 1824 - DEC. 29, 1889
   ESTHER W. SMITH
   MAY 4, 1830 - APRIL 9, 1904

2. ↑ Massachusetts, United States. Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915
   [1].

   Deaths Registered in the City of Boston for the Year eighteen hundred and eighty-nine.
   No.: 10150
   Date of Death: Dec. 29 [1889]
   Name: William H. L. Smith
   Sex: M
   Condition: M
   Age: 65 y. 1 m. 13 d. [birth calculates to about 16 Nov 1824]
   Cause: Cancer of Liver
   Place of Death: 40 Mill St.
   Occupation: None
   Place of Birth: Lowell, Vt.
   Parents: Henry / Maria
   Birthplaces of Parents: Sudbury Mass. / --- Vt.
   [Note: Also, see [[2] Undertaker's Return - Boston].]

3.   Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States. 1860 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration Publication M693)
   7.
4.   Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States. 1870 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration Publication M593)
   line 21.
5. ↑ Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration Publication T9)
   line 29.