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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa
W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889

[page 560-561]

    CHARLES M. SMITH is one of the well-known farmers of Willow Township.
    He was born in Meltonborough, Carroll County, New Hampshire, and is
    one of a family of twelve children of ELEPHALET B. and MARY (LEAVITT)
    SMITH.  His father is of English ancestry.  His grandfather, JOHN
    SMITH, was a Lieutenant in the United States Navy in the War of 1812,
    and was wounded at Portsmouth Harbor.  CHARLES M. lived in his native
    State until 1853, when his father died, and left him to rely upon his
    own resources.  He went to East Cambridge, and ran an engine in the
    cabinet manufactory and planing mill of Bartlett & Brown.  He remained
    in the employ of this firm for seven years, and then went to Pontiac,
    Livingston County, Illinois, and rented a farm which he cultivated
    until 1873, when he determined to try his fortune in the new country
    of Cherokee, Iowa.  He settled on section 29, Willow Township, buying
    160 acres of land which had not been improved.  He broke out the land,
    built a house, barn and granaries, and otherwise equipped the place
    for general farming purposes.  The fine groves which are found on the
    SMITH homestead were planted by the present owner's own hand, and are
    not only a beautiful ornament, but serve as a windbreak.  When Mr.
    SMITH first settled where he now lives, there was not a single house
    in sight toward the east, and Cherokee was the nearest trading point.
    His neighbors were A. J. WHISMAN, Mr. GUILLIAMS, ELIAS STRATTON and
    JOSEPH McCOUN.  In those days the mills at Denison, Sioux City,
    Smithland and Oto did the grinding for people living in Willow
    Township.  Soon after coming to Cherokee County Mr. SMITH began to
    pay especial attention to the raising of cattle and hogs, and was
    one of the first men from his neighborhood to sell hogs in the town
    of Cherokee.  He was married January 10, 1861, to Miss ELLEN COOK,
    of Livingston County, Illinois.  She was born in Kentucky, and is a
    daughter of MICAJAH and ELIZABETH (LEWIS) COOK.  This marriage has
    resulted in the birth of six chidren: MARY, wife of JOSEPH CAMPBELL;
    CADE, whose biography is given in this volume; SARAH, WILLIAM B.,
    EFFIE and CORA.  JAMES and MARY (SMITH) CAMPBELL are the parents of
    one child, EARL.  Mr. SMITH has given his children the advantage of
    a common-school education, two of them advancing beyond this course.
    Mrs. SMITH is a member of the Congregational Church.  In politics Mr.
    SMITH is Democratic.  Although not one of the earliest setters he has
    many recollections of pioneer times in his neighborhood.  At the first
    election after his coming to the county there were but twenty votes
    cast in the townships of Willow and Grand Meadow, which were then
    combined and known as Willow Township; there were no bridges across
    the waters of the Little Sioux, and the mail was brought twice a week
    on horseback to the Washta postoffice.

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