Person:Oliver Smith (15)

O. W. SMITH, one of the most successful agriculturists in Montgomery townsh ip, is not only a shrewd and prosperous man of business, but he has identi fied himself with various movements tending to the public welfare, and th us made his influence a power for good.

He is a son of H. E. and Hannah (Bates) Smith, and was born March 12, 185 0, in Scott Twp Sandusky CO, where he attended the "Earl Schoolh ouse" in boyhood, with John Long as one of his first teachers. There has b een a vast improvement in educational methods in the rural districts sin ce that time, and no man is more ready to forward the movement than he. H is early years were passed at the old homestead. On June 19, 1871, he w as married in Fostoria OH, to Miss Elizabeth Riley, daughter of Thomas Ri ley, an Englishman by birth, and a leading agriculturist of Jackson townsh ip, Seneca CO, who left at his death an estate of 240 acres. Mr. Smi th took his young bride home for a short time, and then worked one year f or Daniel Earl, a farmer in his native township. The next two years he spe nt upon the farm of Rufus Gossard, of Greensburg, Sandusky CO, now Tin ney. In 1874 he purchased seventy-five acres in Wood CO, in Section 3 4, Montgomery Twp paying $700 down, and incurring a debt of $2,10 0. The only buildings were a log house and barn, and the land was sad ly in need of tiling and ditching, and he promptly went to work to impro ve the place, which is now one of the best of its size in this section. Wi th the exception of two years of work upon his father's

874 - WOOD CO OH. farm, he has lived at this place ever since. His residence is tasteful a nd comfortable, and his other buildings are models, the scale-house bei ng notably fine. He also owns three dwelling-houses in Risingsun, and h as given another to his eldest daughter. His children are five in numbe r, and the three older ones are married and live at Risingsun: Bertha is t he wife of James Meeker; Blanche married Walter Clay, and Jennie married L eRoy Stahl. The other two, Eldredge and Eskil, are at home. Mr. and Mrs. S mith are leading members and liberal supporters of the Radical U. B. Churc h, in which he is a trustee. Politically he was at one time a Democrat, b ut he now votes the Prohibition ticket; he is no office-seeker, and has de clined offers of minor positions more than once.

1. ↑ Jon Jay Shultz. Jon Jay Shultz, Recipient: Kristina Kuhn Krumm, Address: 605 CenterfieldDr, Maumee, OH, 43537, Author E-mail: jonjay2000 at buckeye-exp.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Death Registration, Record Type: microfilmed certificates
   certificate #26235.
3. ↑ Tombstone, Record Type: Photograph of tombstone by Deb Cameron, Subject:grave marker.
4. ↑ 6pm widowed at the time of his death. He died from mitral regurgitation(heart failure). Informant on his certificate was Roy Stahl, ofRisingsun
5. ↑ with wife, Elizabeth