San Joaquin County
Biographies
FRANK HARTFORD SMITH
FRANK HARTFORD SMITH, an
attorney of Stockton, was born in the town of Monmouth, Kennebec County, Maine,
April 23, 1850, a son of Joseph Henry and Abigail (Noyes) Smith. The father,
born in Exeter, New Hampshire, March 22, 1813, learned the trade of shoemaker
and afterward had a shoe store in Augusta, Maine. Later on, he carried on a
general store in Monmouth, and was for many years engaged in mercantile
business. Still later, he returned to his original pursuit, being employed as
foreman for ten years in a shoe factory in Winthrop, Maine. Since 1879 he has
been disengaged from active business, and in 1889 came to Stockton, accompanied
by Mrs. Smith, a native of Monmouth, Maine, where she was born September 22,
1817. The grandfather Smith and his wife, by birth a Miss Dutch, lived to a
good age, and their son Charles, born about 1817, is still living in 1890.
Grandfather Samuel Noyes, born in Norway, Oxford County, Maine, in 1790,
learned the trade of carpenter. He served in the war of 1812, rising to the grade
of sergeant, and was afterward captain of a local artillery company. He was a
man of fine physique and was much respected in the community for his personal
worth. For many years before his death, in 1868, he was engaged in the sheep
and cattle trade. Grandmother Betsey (Smith) Noyes, born in Monmouth, Maine, a
daughter of James Smith, was not akin to the Smith family into which her
daughter married. Grandparents Noyes raised a family of nine children, who all
lived to maturity, and of whom the oldest is Mrs. Joseph Henry Smith, now of
Stockton. Mrs. Betsey (Smith) Noyes was eighty-nine at her death in Maine,
about 1882. The Smith and Noyes families, from whom the subject of this sketch
is descended, had come to Maine from Massachusetts, and more remotely from
England, but the exact date of arrival in New England of the founder of either
family is not ascertained
Frank H. Smith was successively educated
in the district school, Monmouth Academy, the Waterville Classical Institute,
and Bates College in Lewiston, from which he was graduated in 1875. He then
read law for some months in the office of W. R. White, who afterward became
United States Attorney for Idaho. Mr. Smith came to this city in March, 1877,
and read law in the office of James A. Louttit, then city attorney and
afterwards a member of Congress from this district. Mr. Smith had taught school
in Maine and in this county, and having prepared himself for the profession of
his choice as opportunity offered, he was duly admitted to the bar of the Supreme
Court of this State in June, 1879, and in July was appointed Deputy County
Clerk, and assigned to court-room service. This position he held to the close
of 1882, when he entered on the practice of his profession January 1, 1883, as
senior partner of the firm of Smith & Keniston. By the accession of Mr. S.
L. Carter, January 1, 1885, the firm became Carter, Smith & Keniston, and
since the withdrawal of Mr. Keniston in August, 1887, it is known as Carter
& Smith. Meanwhile Mr. Smith was elected City Attorney in May, 1883, and
held that office until January, 1887. He was a member of the Board of Trustees
of the Public Library in 1882, and again, by appointment, since June, 1889. He
is a member of San Joaquin Lodge, No. 19, A. F. & A. M., and of Truth Lodge,
No. 55, I. O. O. F.
Mr. Frank H. Smith was married in
Stockton, June 27, 1887, to Miss Bella McGuffic, born in Benicia, California,
May 9, 1862, a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Green) McGuffic. Both
parents, born in Scotland and married in New York State, came to California in
1853, and are residents of Stockton in 1890.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County, California,
Pages 629-630. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago,
Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
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