Alameda
County
Biographies
LEWIS
CASS SMITH
LEWIS CASS SMITH. The Smith family, now represented in Alameda
county by Lewis Cass Smith, a rancher and stockman near Alvarado, Washington
township, has had as a member one of the most prominent and enterprising men of
the pioneer days of the state, namely, Henry Clay Smith. He was the first emigrant of the family, and
one of the earliest settlers of the state, crossing the plains with Hastings,
the explorer, in 1845, with four other people.
He was only nineteen years old at the time and had run away from his
home in Michigan, where he was reared to that age. He remained at Sutter’s Fort for about a
year, when he went to Mission San Jose, and made his home with and worked for
Don Vallejo, a prominent Spanish settler.
Later he secured the land upon which the town of Alvarado now stands,
and there engaged in raising vegetables on an extensive scale, in two years
making a fortune. He soon established
and conducted a store at Mission San Jose, and in 1851 was elected to the state
legislature, when he secured the organization of Alameda county and the
location of the county seat at Alvarado, the town that he had laid out upon his
land. In time the county seat was
removed to Oakland. Mr. Smith
continued to raise garden vegetables, but shortly found no sale for his produce
and that, combined with other circumstances, brought a complete failure of his
fortunes. The shock of this misfortune
shortened his life, and he died in Livermore at the age of fifty-three years, a
poor man, while at one time he had been worth $1,000,000. Notwithstanding the fall of his own private
fortune, Mr. Smith was one of the most potent factors in the upbuilding
and development of the resources of Alameda county, and great credit is paid
his memory for his efforts in behalf of the community.
The first settler in America of the
Smith family was David Smith, who emigrated from his native shores of Ireland
in the colonial days of our country, and eventually became a prominent surgeon
in the Colonial army. His son,
Timothy S. Smith, a native of New York state, followed his patriotic
example and was a major in the war of 1812.
In time he became an early settler in the wilds of Michigan and was
appointed governor of the western part of the territory by Governor Cass, where
he had charge of the Indians. He was a
prominent figure in the affairs of the state, and at one time was well off
financially, although he met with reverses late in life. Of his two sons, Henry Clay was born in Ohio,
and Lewis Cass was born in St. Joseph, Mich., August 15, 1829. The latter was about twenty-one years old
when his brother Henry brought the family to California by way of the Isthmus
of Panama, and upon his arrival he managed a vegetable store in Stockton in the
interests of his brother. He continued
so employed for one season when his brother failed in business, after which he
located in the mountains and engaged in the raising of stock and poultry. He remained so occupied for about a year,
when he purchased his present ranch of five hundred acres, his first payment on
the $3,000 involved being $500. He
entered at once upon farming operations, and later put down artesian
wells. His land was all wild and a part
of it is marshland, under which is a lake of good water, which can be obtained
through artesian wells. The city of
Oakland is desirous of purchasing this property for that purpose, and the value
of his ranch has increased to about $70,000.
Since his location upon the property he has engaged in general ranching
and the dairy business, and has met with success in his work.
Mr. Smith has never married and has
always cared for his widowed mother and sister.
In his political preferences he is a Republican, although his father and
brother were Democrats.
Transcribed
by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 943-944. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Donna
Toole.
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