David W. SMITH

 

David W. SMITH, who came to California on the ship that brought the news of the admission to California to the Union, was an early merchant in San Francisco, and well known as a man of exceptional business qualifications.

 

He was a descendant of Elder BREWSTER of the Mayflower colony.  He was born in Kingston, MASSACHUSETTS, in 1810, was educated in Waltham, Massachusetts, and he left Boston for California, coming by way of the Isthmus, and thence up the coast on the steamer which brought the important news above noted.  For several years he was in the wholesale business with an establishment on California Street.  His home was shipped around the Horn ready to be joined together on arrival, and was set up on Johns Street.  For some  years David W. SMITH held the Government position of supervisor of the Mendocino Indian Reservation.  He died in San Francisco in 1873.

 

His wife was Sarah A. MILTON, a native of Boston, Massachusetts.  She came out to California in 1852.  They had five children; David, deceased; Sarah, deceased; Carrie L., deceased wife of Eli B. BURR; Charles, deceased, and Ella, deceased wife of George S. REED, by whom she was the mother of two children, one daughter Ella, deceased, and one son, Alfred Alvin REED, a well known business man of San Francisco who has been with the large music house of Sherman CLAY & Company twenty-eight years and is one of their department managers.  Mr. Alfred Alvin REED married Emily Ethelda KIMBALL, a descendant of the KIMBELL family so prominently mentioned in history.  Mr. REED and his wife reside at their home, 651 Seventh Avenue, San Francisco. Mr. A. A. REED is the last of this SMITH family.  He is also a past officer of several societies, also past commander of Golden Gate Commandery, Knights Templars.

 

Sarah SMITH, the late widow of John GORMAN, reside at 650 Shotwell Street, in San Francisco.  John GORMAN was a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and son of William R. GORMAN.  The GORMAN family came to California in 1852, and William R. was sheriff of San Francisco County in the early ‘50s.  His son John served as his deputy, and later was a post office employe and one of the first letter carriers in the city.  He died at the early age of thirty-seven, May 25, 1873.  Mrs. Sarah GORMAN was a member of the Unitarian Church.  She served as president of the Association of Pioneer Women in 1908-09, and her sister, Mrs. Carrie L. BURR was at one time also president of this association.