Sacramento County
Biographies
JAY H. SMITH
JAY H. SMITH.—The
lure of the land and agricultural life has ever had an attraction for Jay H.
Smith, who is now residing on his beautiful and well cultivated orchard home
eighteen miles east of Sacramento,
consisting of ten acres planted to vineyard, prunes and almonds. He was
born in Sangamon County, Ill.,
July 5, 1872, the eldest son of Jacob and Harriet (Gould) Smith. Jacob Smith
was born in Germany and was a lad of
six years when he accompanied his parents to America,
where they settled at St. Louis, Mo. At
sixteen years of age he enlisted as a drummer boy with Company C, 7th
Missouri Volunteer Infantry and was in active service throughout the Civil War,
serving under Generals Sherman and McPherson. After his return to civilian
life, he engaged in farming and was married to Miss Harriet Gould in Sangamon
County, Ill.; and later removed to Hamilton County, Nebr., where he took up a
large tract of land and also served as justice of peace of his township; he was
an energetic citizen of his section and a leader among the members of the G. A.
R. He passed away in 1916 at the age of seventy years.
Jay
H. Smith received a good education in the Nebraska
schools and in 1892 the family came to California,
locating at Orangevale, which at that time was a frontier section of California
when not more than 200 acres of land was under cultivation as orchards. The family located on ten acres and later
added another ten arces (sic) to the original
purchase. The mother of our subject is now living retired at Hayward,
Cal.
The
marriage of Mr. Smith occurred at Orangevale and united him with Miss Annie C.
Rickey, a native of Nevada, who accompanied her father,
A. R. Rickey, to California. Three
children have been born to Mr. And Mrs. Smith; Ernest resides in Humboldt
County, Cal.; Leroy resides in Oakland,
Cal.; and Viola is in the University
of California at Berkeley. In
1902 Mr. Smith purchased ten acres, which he has developed into one of the show
places of Sacramento County;
he also owns desirable real estate in the city of Sacramento. For
the past twenty-three years, Mr. Smith has had charge of the engineer work of
the Orangevale water-works. He has taken an active
part in the development and progress of the Orangevale
section of the county. Today there are 2,300 acres in highly productive
orchards and vineyards in contrast with 200 acres thirty years ago; Mr. Smith
has served as school trustee of Orangevale and for five
years was postmaster; he has also served as deputy sheriff and deputy constable
of the town. Fraternally he is affiliated with Folsom Lodge No. 64, I. O.
O. F. During the World War he worked untiringly for the success of the
different drives of the community.
Transcribed 6-19-07
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 898-899. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.