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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
W. T. SMITH, a farmer and stock-raiser on section 31 of that portion of Scott Township now attached to Jefferson, owns 290 acres of valuable land, with good buildings and other fine improvements. He was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1845, and is a son of Robert and Jane Smith, his father being a native of Pennsylvania and his mother of Ohio. Shortly after the birth of W. T., the family moved to Iowa and first located in Jones County, where they lived until the spring of 1846, when they moved to Mahaska County, and located on section 32, Scott Township, where the father of the subject of our sketch entered a claim of 160 acres of land, which he improved and cultivated until his death, which occurred March 8, 1868, at the age of sixty years. When a young man, Robert Smith followed teaming and freighting over the mountains in Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Presbyterian Church. The mother still lives, making her home with her son, W. T. She was born in 1814, and became the mother of seven children, two only of whom are now living: Margaret J., the wife of Philip Kitterman, of Monroe County, Iowa, and W. T., the subject of this sketch. On the 24th day of March, 1864, our subject enlisted in the 33d Iowa Infantry, and served as a Union soldier eighteen months, participating in the battles at Jenkin's Ferry and Spanish Fort. He returned home Aug. 15, 1865, and began farming on the old homestead, which business he has since continued to follow. He was married, April 1, 1868, to Miss Nancy L. Locke, a native of Smith County, Va., a daughter of James A. and Melinda Locke, both natives of the same State. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are the parents of six children: Freddie, born Jan. 30, 1869, died in infancy; James Scott, born March 14, 1870; Nora, born Sept. 5, 1873, died Oct. 28, 1882, at the age of nine years; John Francis, born Jan. 15, 1879, died Oct. 30, 1882, aged three years and nine months; Cora, born April 20, 1883; Lena, born July 1,1885, died in infancy. Mr. Smith is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and of the R. A. M. In politics he is liberal, his views tending toward those of the Greenback party.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy