William A. Smith
William A. Smith, proprietor of saw-mill, tub and bucket manufacturer and lumber dealer, Mantua, was born April 13, 1832, in Litchfield, Litchfield Co., Conn., son of Minus and Emma (Blakeman) Smith, who came to Ravenna Township, this county, in 1833, thence removed to the northeast part of Shalersville, where Mr. Smith operated a saw-mill for about twelve years. Our subject, the second in a family of five children, was married, September 4, 1861, to Martha, daughter of Seth and Nancy (Perkins) Sanford, who were the parents of four children: Mary J., married to H. S. Granger (they reside in Phillips County, Kan.); Sarah, wife of S. L. Peck, in Elkader, Iowa; Mrs. Smith; and Delos C., a soldier under Garfield, serving in Company A, Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and who was wounded, from the effects of which he died at forty years of age. The Sanfords are of English origin, and trace their genealogy back through ten generations. The grandfather of Mrs. Smith enlisted when sixteen years of age in the war of 1812, and at his death, when ninety-three years of age, he was buried with military honors befitting the last soldier of that struggle. Mrs. Smith is carrying on a millinery and fancy notion trade in one of the finest business houses in the village, in the Smith & Bowen Block, which she built in 1883. Our subject and wife have no children of their own, but have adopted a daughter named Clara.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885