Sacramento County
Biographies
H. JAY SMITH
H. JAY SMITH.–Prominent as a realty
operator in Galt and the surrounding territory, H. Jay Smith has made this his
home since March 15, 1908, following an interesting career in many lines,
particularly in the world of art. He was born on August 12, 1852, Janesville,
Wis., the son of Thomas Jay and Betsy
(Partridge) Smith. The father was born at Wilbraham, Mass.,
and the later engaged in farming in Connecticut; and
there he was married, his wife being a native of Canaan,
Conn. About this time there was a
great exodus of New Englanders to Wisconsin, then considered the Far West, and
Thomas Jay Smith was among the number. Selling hi farm, he received
payment for it in gold, and when he set out on his long journey he was
accompanied by five men to guard his life and treasure. Later Mr. Smith
removed to Red Wing, Minn., and
at one time owned half the town-site of this place. A stanch (sic)
supporter of education, he had both a financial and moral interest in Hamline University
at St. Paul, Minn. He
continued in the real estate business at Red Wing until his health failed, when
he joined his son, taking up his residence at St. Anthony
Falls, a suburb of Minneapolis. There
he passed away in 1871, aged fifty-seven years, his widow surviving him until
the age of seventy-six.
H.
Jay Smith was only ten months old when his parents moved to Red Wing, Minn. There
he attended the grammar and high schools, then entered Hamline University,
and later finished his education in the University
of Minnesota at Minneapolis. While
attending there he helped finance his way by tutoring, and also displayed
considerable business acumen in various enterprises. He purchased hundreds
of cords of pine fire-wood and employed students to pile it into cords, selling
it to residents of the town and nearly always doubling
his money. Besides this he also managed boarding-houses for the students,
renting buildings for the purpose and personally conducting the
business. While he was attending the University, the great mills fire
occurred, and the insurance companies had refused to pay the claims on the
mills destroyed, contending that the fire and damage had been caused by an
explosion. Mr. Smith was given charge of an investigation of the real
cause of the disaster, and although only a student of chemistry and physics, he
experimented and got to the bottom of the cause, proving conclusively to the
insurance companies that the disaster was caused by a quick, straight-burning
fire, instead of by an explosion. As Mr. Smith was only twenty-three years
old at the time, this was considered a remarkable achievement.
After
finishing his university course, Mr. Smith went to New
York, where he was with Wm. Wood & Company, dealers in medical books. He was soon sent West and for three years had charge of four states for this
firm. He then opened a medical book store in Minneapolis,
occupying space in a large book and art store, which he later bought out,
conducting the business himself for several years. For seven years he was
art director of the exposition at Minneapolis,
having sixteen galleries in charge. He temporarily gave up art work,
however, and made several trips of exploration into Colorado,
and on one of these he became thoroughly familiar with the great Battle
Rock Mountain. In
1893 Mr. Smith became identified with the Cliff Dwellers exhibit at the
Columbian Exposition at Chicago. The
exhibit was collected by him and he was the originator of the idea as well as
the design, in which he produced a facsimile of this Battle Rock, which
contained over 200,000 feet of lumber, and which was sprayed by means of
apparatus perfected by him after weeks of effort. In order to produce the
desired color effect, it was necessary to spray it very quickly, while there
were no air currents; and after waiting for several days for a suitable time,
the spraying was completed in two and a half hours, which was considered a
remarkable feat. After the exposition he went to Boston,
where he had an exhibit of the works of American artists and of the old masters,
which was very successful. Prior to this he had spent some time in New
York, where he had secured a shipment of 224 casts of works of art
in the British Museum,
for the Minneapolis Art
Gallery.
Giving
up his art work on account of his health, Mr. Smith spent some time in
Washington, D. C., and then went to St. Louis, Mo. While
there he became identified with a realty firm that had purchased 7,500 acres of
land at Galt, Cal.,
which they expected to develop to vineyard. Mr. Smith came to Galt to look
over the property and returned to St. Louis
to advise the company concerning its development. In March, 1908, he
returned to Galt, and this has since been his home; he is extensively engaged
in the real estate business, and is the owner of about fifty lots in Galt,
besides other property.
Mr.
Smith deserves great credit for his work in securing the Union
High School at Galt. In order
to secure this school at Galt, it was necessary to consolidate eleven
contiguous school districts, five of which lay in San Joaquin
County and six in Sacramento
County. This was accomplished
largely through Mr. Smith’s foresight and executive ability; and it was
accomplished on schedule time. Had the matter been allowed to drag, a
delay of sixty days would have defeated the project.
Few
men have the wide range of experience possessed by Mr. Smith. As an art
connoisseur and critic, he has gained wide notoriety. He is a well-known
traveler and lecturer, having visited every state of the Union, and traveled in
Europe and Mexico. In
the latter country he did valuable research work in archeology and
anthropology. In Europe he gathered works of art
extensively for the Minneapolis Industrial Exposition. He is a man of
clear ideas, force of character, executive ability and practical business
methods that have brought him success. After settling in California
he prepared an illustrated lecture on California, which
he delivered in the principal cities of the East and Middle West,
and in that way he did much towards furthering the interests of the state.
By
his first marriage, to Miss Carrie Bell Barnum of West Cornwall, Conn., Mr.
Smith had three sons, Ernest Jay, general agent for the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company at St. Louis, Mo.;
Thomas Harold, in the automobile business at Oakland; and
Harvey, an architect at San Antonio, Texas. His
second marriage united him with Miss Laura Bell Partridge of Albert Lea, Minn.,
and they had one son, Sidney Partridge, a landscape artist of De
Kalb, Ill. In Minneapolis,
on January 25, 1899, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Maude May Fleming, and they
have two daughters, Maude Frances and Constance Evelyn. Maude Frances is
now Mrs. George Soare, and has one child, Constance
Millicent, one year old. Constance Evelyn is secretary to Mr. Allen of San
Francisco, of the Niagara Fire Insurance
Company. Mrs. Smith is a native of St. Louis,
Mo. In politics, Mr. Smith is a
progressive Republican; and in religious matters he is a student of Christian
Science.
Transcribed 3-9-07
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 490-493. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.