E. C. Smith
E. C. Smith, hardware merchant, Garrettsville, was born October 19, 1829, in Hart's Grove, Ashtabula County, Ohio. His father, Norman Smith, was born in 1801 in Sherburne, Vt, and came to Parkman, Ohio, in 1818, and later to Nelson Township, this county, where he died in 1850. His wife, the mother of our subject, was Sallie M. Hickok, born in New York State, and who came to Ohio in 1820. She is now living in Manchester, Ill., with a daughter. She is the mother of the following children: E. C.; M. H., a physician in Manchester, Ill.; Maria L., wife of H. C. Crawford, and living at Troy, Ohio; Ellen, wife of S. C. Bates, in Clinton, Iowa; Mary A., widow of James Guthrie; George D., residing in Garrettsville; Sarah, wife of Jefferson McConnell, i-esiding in Manchester, Ill. Our subject, who was educated in the country schools and township academy, began teaching when twenty years old at $16 per month. He farmed for a while, and later clerked in a drug store at Garrettsville. January 27, 1852, he, in company with Ebenezer Earl and others, went to the gold mines in California, remaining there five years. He was married, August 27, 1857, to Marion B. McClintock, born July 4, 1829, in Trumbull County, Ohio, daughter of William McClintock, born in Whitehall, N. Y., in 1793, and Chloe (Ferry) McClintock, born in 1798 in Brookfield, Orange Co., Vt., and came with her parents to Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1814. They came to this county in 1832, settling in Garrettsville, where they died, the father August 7, 1873, and the mother June 17, 1878. They were members of the Baptist Church. The father had been a teamster in the war of 1812. They were parents of nine children, of whom six are now living: Polly, Sallie, Marion B., Helen, John C. and William W. In 1858 Mr. Smith engaged in the hardware business in Garrettsville under the firm name of Barber & Smith, and has been very successful. He began his career in life with a willing heart and strong hands, and of the large amount of property which he possesses in hardware, mines, bank stock, etc., he is certainly the artificer. He has served as Mayor and Councilman of Garrettsville, and has been put forward at times by his friends for the Legislature, a position he may yet covet, and one he would surely fill with honor to himself and credit to his constituents. He has been Vice President of the First National Bank of Garrettsville since 1870, and is also a Director in the same. In politics he is a Republican. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., and is a K. T. Portage County has but few, if any, more substantial, upright and honest citizens than him whose name heads this biography, and whose portrait appears elsewhere.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885