USA > Wisconsin > The United States biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men, Wisconsin volume > Part 70
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After the death of " Bull " Smith, which occurred at the close of the seventeenth century, and the division of the family estate, one of his sons located in New Jersey, near the falls of Passaic. This part of the family was again divided, when part of it re- moved to Westchester county, New York, and only as far back as forty years ago a very large part of the population of that county were connected by blood and marriage with this branch of the Smith family. It was a prolific race, every marriage resulting in the birth of from six to twelve young Smiths. From this branch of the "Bull " Smith family our subject claims descent.
In 1826 his father found his way back to New York, and resumed his old business of merchandis-
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ing, but died suddenly on the anniversary of Wash- ington's birthday in 1828, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, leaving a family of six children (a seventh was born about a month after his decease). He died young, though the family were proverbially long-lived, his father having died in his eighty-ninth year.
On the death of her husband Mrs. Smith removed to the neighborhood of Auburn, where her father's family resided, while our subject remained in the city with his guardian, James Smith, a relative and a lawyer of eminence, who, having settled the ques- tion of his ward's profession, held to the theory that the place to make a lawyer was in a lawyer's office ; and at the age of fourteen, under the old rules of the supreme court, the name of A. Hyatt Smith was registered with the clerk of the supreme court as a student-at-law. For seven years thereafter he pur- sued the study of this profession in the office of his guardian. Simultaneously with this he carried on his literary studies in the private academy of Bore- land and Forest, then the first classical school in New York city, and completed his education at the Mount Pleasant Seminary, then under the manage- ment of the Rev. Samuel J. Prime, father of the present editor of the "New York Observer." His recollections of this excellent institution and its re- vered principal 'are of the most agreeable character. Mr. Prime was one of the few educators who knew how to combine firm and unyielding discipline with such kindness and gentleness as brought the most stubborn temper into amicable subjection. Under him study was no task, but a pleasure. He im- parted knowledge without any of the pomposity pe- culiar to the pedagogue of more modern times.
Our subject was admitted to practice in the city courts in the summer of 1835, and to the supreme court of the State in 1836. The rules of the supreme court, under which he was admitted, required that the applicant should produce the certificate of an attorney and counselor-at-law attesting his charac- acter, and that he had regularly pursued the study of law for the term of seven years in his office pre- vious to the age of twenty-one, with other very stringent requirements long since relaxed or alto- gether abolished. Under these rigid rules he was examined and admitted, and immediately entered upon a large and lucrative practice in partnership with his former preceptors, one of whom, James Smith, at that time retired from the firm on account of failing health, and for six years he worked unre-
mittingly, without sufficient time for sleep or rest, which so impaired his health that he was advised by the best physicians that the only way to save his life was to move away from the seacoast. Accordingly in 1842 he resolved to abandon his business and move to Wisconsin, which he had previously visited- on business, and on the 22d of November arrived in Janesville during a tremendous snow-storm, and being informed that the land on the west side of the river was for sale, purchased it, with a view to the improvement of the water-power, taking several other parties into the transaction to gain monetary aid in making the improvement. On the Ist of April, 1843, the territorial legislature granted a char- ter to A. Hyatt Smith, William H. H. Bailey and Charles Stevens, conferring the right to dam the Rock river and utilize the power thus derived. Both of the last named gentlemen, however, with- drew, and he was left the sole owner of the fran- chise. He subsequently associated with himself James McClurg, of western New York, Martin O. Walker, of Chicago, and J. B. Doe, of Janesville, and on the 6th of January, 1846, commenced the construction of a mill, the largest then west of the lakes, and on the 4th of March the founda- tion was above high-water mark, about fifty men having worked in water during that period. The mill commenced operating in the following summer, and gave Janesville, which had then a population of but four hundred, its first substantial impetus. The young city soon shot ahead of all its rivals, and has maintained its advantage to this day, a fact greatly owing to its water-power.
In the summer of 1847 Mr. Smith, although a democrat, was elected to the first convention to frame a State constitution, to represent a constitu- ency which up to that time had been largely whig. One of the chief difficulties of the convention was the dividing of the State into assembly districts so as to do justice to the voters without favoring par- ties. After several failures to accomplish this deli- cate task, a special committee for the purpose was appointed, of which Mr. Smith was made chairman, and succeeded in preparing a report which was unanimously recommended by the committee and adopted by the convention. The constitution pre- pared by this convention (which was, in many re- gards, a most excellent one, but in some of its pro- visions rather in advance of the times) encountered the most strenuous opposition from the moneyed classes of the people and from corporations gener-
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ally, and was defeated by the voters; the clauses most obnoxious to this class being those exempting the property of married women from distraint for the debts of their husbands, securing to the debtor a homestead exemption, and prohibiting the char- tering of banks of issue-a clause which would have withdrawn from circulation a large amount of paper put afloat by an insurance company in the similitude of bank bills. This one institution at that time held the money power in the States of Il- linois, Wisconsin and Iowa. This immense power, combined with the aggregate influence of embryo corporations all over the State, defeated the consti- tution, but such of the people as lived to witness the crash of these institutions in the panic of 1857, and the consequent ruin that followed, saw their folly and the wisdom of the rejected instrument.
Mr. Smith made the opening speech in defense of the submitted fundamental law at Waukesha, and for more than sixty consecutive days spoke from four to eight hours daily in defense of it. But although the measure was not carried at that time, the re- jected provisions, except the last named, became part of the laws of Wisconsin in less than four years subsequently.
The following are among the public offices which he has held at intervals during his long and eventful career :
In 1836 he was appointed to the office of com- missioner of deeds in the city of New York, by nom- ination of Governor Marcy and confirmation of the senate. The recommendation of Mr. Smith, who was known to be in favor of the scheme, was made a test to ascertain the governor's true position on the sub-treasury deposit system as recommended by President Van Buren ; from this office he was re- moved by Governor Seward, who succeeded Gov- ernor Marcy. As above related, he was a member of the first constitutional convention of Wisconsin. In 1847 he was appointed by Governor Dodge, and confirmed by the legislative council, attorney-general of the Territory, and held the office till after the State was admitted into the Union. During his term of office he tried several suits against a former territorial governor, Doty, and other officers, brought for the misapplication of funds appropriated and granted to the Territory by congress to build a cap- itol, and obtained a judgment against the governor for thirty-five thousand dollars and upward. In 1848 he was appointed United States attorney by President Polk, and held the office until the acces-
sion of the Taylor administration. On the organi- zation of the city of Janesville in 1853 he was elected its first mayor, and again in 1857 he was elected to the same position against his will. In 1851, while absent from the country, in England, he came within two votes of receiving the democratic nomination for governor, without his knowledge or consent; and again in 1853 he stood for a long time within two votes of a nomination for the same office, but withdrew in favor of Barstow, who was elected. He was for many years regent of the State Univer- sity at Madison, having been elected from year to year by the legislature without regard to party. (See Miss Fredreka Bremer's " Homes in America," page 636.)
The following are among the public enterprises with which he has been connected : In 1847 he organized a company to build a plank road from Milwaukee to Janesville, but by reason of disagree- ment between the Milwaukee stockholders of the enterprise it was discontinued after the building of twenty miles. Failing in the effort to secure some- thing better than a mud road to the lake shore, he endeavored to induce the people of Milwaukee to unite with him in organizing under a railroad char- ter which he then controlled, with the hope of build- ing a road from that city to Rock river, and thence to the Mississippi river, intending it as a base line to carry all the products of the north to Milwaukee ; but the scheme then met with only derision from all save two or three gentlemen, who were powerless of themselves; hence he turned his attention elsewhere. The Galena and Chicago railroad was at that time graded some twenty miles out of the latter city, making slow progress, and being ironed with old strap rails taken from New York roads. According- ly he procured a charter from the Wisconsin legisla- ture (approved April 19, 1848) and organized a company to construct a road from Madison via Beloit to connect with the Galena and Chicago railroad, and obtained a promise from the officers of the latter company to build a branch line to Beloit as soon as their line reached Rock river, pro- vided his company had a road ready to run as far as the mouth of the Catfish. He accordingly applied to the people of Beloit for aid in the enterprise, but they rejected the proposition with scorn. The legis- lature being then in session at Madison he obtained an amendment to his charter, authorizing his com- pany to vary the location of its line to any point on the State line it deemed best, east of Beloit ; but the
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Chicago company absolutely refused any connection except at Beloit; this stubbornness on their part being explained by the fact that they were largely interested in town lots in the last named city. The situation was peculiar. He was then building a rail- road in Wisconsin pointing to Chicago, which on reaching the State line would find a blank of seventy miles of prairie. There was no time to be lost. He accordingly applied to the Illinois legislature then in session, and obtained authority to construct a road from Chicago to the State line, with liberty to consolidate with any Wisconsin company ; but when even this threatening attitude failed to move the obdurate board of the Chicago and Galena company, he determined to build an air line from Janesville to Chicago. He found in Chicago and along the line men of high standing ready to act as directors for the Illinois company, provided they were not asked to supply any money. Our subject furnished the money and they held the stock. This put on his shoulders the management of two companies, and the raising of the money to carry on the work. The recital of the expedients to which he was driven in this emergency would fill a large sized volume, and be the source of mnuch amusement besides ; but his hands were not yet full. The line he was then controlling commenced at Chicago and branched at Janesville, one branch running to Lake Superior via Fond du Lac, the other to the falls of St. Croix via Madison ; but his plans contemplated a scheme much more vast than seemed to be involved in these limits, and he accordingly procured from the Minne- sota legislature, then in session at St. Paul, a charter authorizing the construction of a road from the falls of St. Croix, then called Taylor Falls, to St. Paul, thence to the Red River of the North, thence to Fond du Lac of Lake Superior, and from the junc- tion of these two roads at the Red river to the west- ern boundary of Minnesota. This charter contained a conveyance of all the lands that might be there- after granted by congress to the State for the con- struction of a road on or near the line indicated therein. In the present day a scheme of this mag- nitude would not excite any comment ; but, as above remarked, Mr. Smith was ahead of the times. Then the enterprise was regarded as Utopian; besides there were other objections nearer home. The fact that he was building a great interior highway to carry the products of the Northwest to the Atlantic sea-board, without paying tribute to the lake towns, created such an excitement and such violent oppo-
sition to the project as has been seldom encountered, and for several years both he and his scheme were the objects of such ridicule and abuse as has rarely fallen to the share of one man. He entered into politics and was obliged to "run " the State govern- ment to prevent unfriendly legislation, and for five years no railway legislation of any kind was had without his approval. In 1851 he went to England and made a considerable purchase of iron, for bonds, at such favorable rates as have never since been equaled. His iron delivered at New York cost thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents per ton, freight and duties included. It was bought on speculation, and as a means of raising money for the road, and sold in New York for a large profit, and the proceeds used in construction. This purchase of iron made the completion of the road a fixed fact. Mr. Smith had not, however, been in England fifteen days before he was handed a file of American newspapers, overflowing with attacks and libels on himself and the whole scheme of which he was the promoter, denouncing it as a swindle. The hostility became so bitter, personal and local, as to be absolutely in- tolerable; and after about six years of hard work, the best years of his life, given to the public without any profit, but at a sacrifice of several hundred thou- sand dollars of his own private fortune, he did, what he has not since ceased to regret, resigned, and let his franchises fall into the hands of Wall-street specu- lators. Charles Butler, of New York, became his suc- cessor, and he and his associates and successors made large fortunes for themselves and their friends, where- as he spent more money than any of them had ever previously owned. They made money ; he lost. The part of the road built under his administration cost twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars per mile ; that built by his successors cost ninety thousand per mile. The stock of the road is of no value, because it pays no dividends, while at the cost he turned it over to his successors, or even with fifty per cent added, it would have been a good paying investment.
Among his early associates, to whom he cheer- fully acknowledges his deep obligations for unwav- ering friendship and invaluable aid and comfort in his great and well planned schemes, were Robert J. Walker, John B. Macy, Wm. A. Lawrence, Wm. Ward, junior, Joseph B. Doe and Isaac Wooden, the last named being a gentleman of brilliant talents, great breadth of intellect and executive ability.
As intimated above, the history of his six years' struggle with the insurmountable difficulties with
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which he contended, the opposition which he en- countered from open and covert enemies and false friends in disguise, would fill a large sized volume, and may yet be given to the public, but its recital here would swell this sketch far beyond the limits which our space would allow; hence we must con- tent ourselves with a bare reference to them. The flourishing roads which have been built upon his franchises, and to a considerable extent with his money, are the Chicago and Northwestern, or that part of it running northwesterly to and through the State of Wisconsin, originally known as the Rock River Valley Union Railroad, also the road running west from Janesville, now known as the Milwaukee and St. Paul road, and also the North Pacific through Minnesota.
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Being, however, wearied with the perpetual strife in which he found himself compelled to mingle, and feeling also that the contest had become per- sonal, on the promise that he should be protected from his indorsements of the railroad paper, he resigned, as before stated. After a time the company was re- organized, but the pledges made to him were vio- lated, and he was compelled, out of his own private fortune, to pay large amounts of corporation notes to which his name was indorsed. He was the owner of landed property in Janesville and Chicago, valued at over a million dollars, most of which was sacri- ficed in the payment of these and other complica- tions growing out of his railroad transactions. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that he should become strongly impressed with the idea that the man who undertakes a public improvement from pure public spirit and enterprise is a fit subject for a lunatic asylum.
Mr. Smith, however, is still in the enjoyment of his mental faculties, and has great cause for thank- fulness, in one direction at least : he has never been tempted to relieve himself of any of his obligations by the aid of a bankrupt law; he has paid every claim to the uttermost for which he became officially responsible,- in this particular contrasting strikingly with men who are now rolling in wealth, and es- teemed by the community as respectable.
After the end of his railroad building, he took upon himself, with his wife's estate, which was also quite large, the erection of a hotel in Janesville. A company had been organized for this purpose, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, and had laid the foundation of a hotel that would cost three times that sum. The company dissolved, and disposed of
the property to him. He completed and furnished the building at a cost of one hundred and seventy- four thousand dollars, which was one of the finest structures of the kind outside of Chicago; but the entire establishment was destroyed by fire a few years after its completion, the fire, as was supposed, being the work of an incendiary. He had received through the post-office an intimation that it would be fired, and hence was debarred from effecting any insurance on it. The fire occurred in January, 1866. In 1871 the largest of his mills was also destroyed by fire by the hand of an incendiary, as was mani- fest from after developments. But the greatest dis- aster of his life occurred in the great Chicago fire of the same year. He had opened an office in that city, intending to practice his profession there, being induced to this course by parties who had purchased lands in that city and neighborhood worth several millions of dollars, that had been sold on trust deeds in most cases for less than ten per cent. of their actual value. The land had been conveyed regard- less of the requirements of law, and the object of Mr. Smith was to file bills to redeem them, and pay back the money with interest. He had also bought an undivided half of a law-library, one of the best in Chicago (original cost, sixteen thousand dollars), and, on making this purchase, sold one worth one thousand five hundred dollars for half its value.
He had prepared bills for redemption of land worth millions of dollars; but his office, with all its contents, perished in the general conflagration in October, 1871, his safe, in which were all his deeds and valuable papers, being reduced to a shapeless mass of old iron. His loss in this catastrophe was greater than all his previous losses combined.
Added to this came sickness and distress in his family, until it seemed as if the afflictions of the patriarch Job were trifling as compared with his. Under such an accumulation of woes most men would have given up in despair, or been so far para- lyzed as to have yielded to what fatalists would have called the inevitable. But, notwithstanding the avalanche of misfortunes which lighted upon his head, and the waves of trouble that rolled over him, he was never even tempted to consider the advice of Job's wife, "curse God and die," and is to-day as hopeful and happy a man as lives in Janesville, and, with an energy peculiar to men of real ability, he has set himself the task of retrieving his fortune, in which, it is superfluous to say, we wish him the utmost success.
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He was made a Mason in Janesville in 1847, and in 1848 served as master of his lodge. In 1849 he was chosen and installed senior grand warder. He helped to organize the chapter of Royal Arch Ma- sons at Janesville, acting as king. Several years ago he was elected to the order of Knights Templar, but has not yet found time for installation. While in London and Liverpool he visited several Masonic lodges, and from his own experience of the utility of the institution -though he hardly considers it ac- cording to the rules to say so- would advise every young man who conveniently can to become a Ma- son. He considers Masonry beyond all question the most ancient of orders, reaching back at least a thousand years beyond the Christian era, and as having done much during the dark ages to preserve and pass down whatever was transmitted to us of ancient civilization.
In 1876 he aided in the organization of a strictly temperance society in Janesville, known as the Temple of Honor, an institution which has been successful beyond the most sanguine hopes of its founders. The organization is destined at no dis- tant day to sweep the traffic from the city altogether.
In religious belief, he was early indoctrinated into the principles of the Protestant Episcopal church, receiving his first religious bias from the Rev. Man- ton Eastburn, afterward Bishop of Massachusetts, while rector of the Church of the Ascension, which, in its incipiency, worshiped in a little ivy-covered structure known as the Church of Du Santa Esprit, on Pine street, near Nassau, New York, which has long since yielded to the demands of business, and of which the guardian of our subject, James Smith, was one of the wardens. He has been for many years a leading member of the congregation of Trinity church, Janesville.
In politics he has always been democratic. His first vote was cast for Martin Van Buren, and he was an earnest politician long before he was a voter. In 1835 he was a member of the fifth ward (New York) committee, with Fernando Wood. In 1848 he was nominated for congress on the same ticket with Cass and Butler, his district including the west half of Wisconsin, from the State line to Lake Superior. During that campaign he made a speech in every village in his district, advocating free trade, in which he has ever been a firm believer; and, although defeated by the Hon. Orsemus Cole, the present chief justice of the State, for whom he has fre- quently voted since, yet he ran over five hundred
votes ahead of his ticket. Only once in his life did he swerve in fidelity to his party, and that was in 1864, when he voted for Mr. Lincoln's reelection.
On the 4th of April, 1838, he was married in St. Paul's Church, New York, by the Rev. Manton Eastburn, to Miss Ann Margaret Cooper Kelly, a native of Philadelphia, and daughter of Philip Kelly, Esq., who, in company with his brother Thomas, opened, if not the first, one of the first wholesale shoe houses in that city. It dates back to the close of the revolutionary war. In 1815 the firm was dissolved, when Philip Kelly invested a part of his capital in building a hotel, in its day the largest in the city, and so much beyond what it was supposed the business of Philadelphia would sup- port that it was for many years known as "Kelly's Folly." He also built a large woolen mill at Ger- mantown, and carried on the manufacture of woolen goods until his decease in the year 1826.
Philip and Thomas Kelly bore a singular relation to each other. Thomas, the younger, was the father- in-law of Philip, the elder. Thomas Kelly married the widow Cooper, who had several daughters, and Philip, the elder brother, married the eldest of her daughters; so that Thomas Kelly bore the double relationship of uncle and grandfather to Mrs. Smith. Thomas died a few years since at the age of nearly a hundred years, leaving an estate valued at over a million dollars. He was a contemporary of Mr. Girard, and he and the latter were designated as the two rich men of the city in their day.
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