San
Joaquin County
Biographies
PETER JOHN SMITH
Among the many benevolent
organizations of Stockton, the Board of Exempt Firemen of which Peter J. Smith
has been president for more than twenty years is doing an outstanding
work. Mr. Smith became a member of the
Volunteer Fire Department of Stockton in May, 1879, and at all times since has
been active in its affairs. He was born
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 13, 1855, a son of John Adams and Magdalena
(Andres) Smith, natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively. His ancestors on both the paternal and
maternal sides were political exiles from Alsace-Lorraine, France, and they
figured prominently in the early days of our Republic. Two sons were born of this union, Peter J.,
the subject of this sketch, and Frank Harmon, superintendent of the Flint &
Marquette Railroad, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
John A. Smith was a member of the 26th Wisconsin Volunteer
Infantry during the Civil War and served three years; at the close of his three
years’ service he was wounded and returned home and after his recovery engaged
in the tanning business at Milwaukee for many years. The parents of our subject lived to be
eighty-six and eighty-five years old, respectively.
Peter J. Smith began his education
in the public schools of Milwaukee, and recalls vividly the assassination of
President Lincoln and the closing of the schools on that account; he also
attended the Spencerian College in Milwaukee. His dreams of living in the Golden State were
realized in May, 1876, when he arrived in San Francisco, where he met his uncle,
Peter Andres, superintendent for the Simpson Lumber Company; he found
employment with the same company and was soon made assistant superintendent;
later he was sent to Tuolumne where he established a lumber yard for his
employers.
Mr. Smith’s first marriage occurred
in Stockton in 1879, and united him with Miss Mary McNamara, a native of Iowa,
and two children were born to them: John
Adams, civil engineer and railroad surveyor, and Andrew, of the firm of Pope
& Smith, undertakers of Stockton.
Mrs. Smith died on September 26, 1910, and in 1915 Mr. Smith married
Miss Anna Yettner, who was born in Kansas, but reared
in Stockton. For many years Mr. Smith
was connected with the Stockton Lumber Company and the Buell Lumber Company; he
is now living retired at his comfortable residence, built in 1880 at 1104 South
Center Street. Mr. Smith has always been
active in the affairs of the Republican Party and has served many times on the
county and state central committee; for the past forty-six years he has been
identified with the Knights of Pythias Lodge and is a past chancellor; he
served as deputy sheriff under Walter Sibley for many years. He is a member of the South Stockton
Improvement Club and has taken a very prominent part in the activities of this
organization and from its workings the agitation for the new city charter came
into being. His activities as president
of the Board of Exempt Firemen have been productive of much good to the
community where he is held in high esteem by all who know him.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
724. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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