Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
THOMPSON SMITH is a retired farmer
dwelling near Sprague. He was born in South Carolina in 1854, the
son of Enoch and Eliza (Miles) Smith, natives of South Carolina.
The father moved to Tennessee in 1852, where he farmed. He was county
commissioner of his county for a number of years and served in the Confederate
army under General Forest. He died in 1892, in that state.
The mother died there in 1893. Owing to the disturbance of the Civil
war, our subject received only a limited education. He remained with
his parents on the farm until twenty-one years of age then began farming
for himself. In 1877, he came to Humboldt county, California, and
there engaged in buying and selling real estate for two years. Thence
he journeyed to Walla Walla and there followed the same business for two
years. It was in 1882, when he came to Sprague where he engaged in
the livery business and also in buying and selling horses for nine years.
Mr. Smith remarks that when he first came to Sprague there were few well
bred horses in the entire country. He retired from business in the
spring of 1891, and did nothing until 1898, having been very much crippled
in the fire of 1895. In addition to the business named, Mr. Smith
has paid considerable attention to farming but retired from that in 1902,
selling some of his land. He recently sold two other farms and still
has some land in this section besides an elegant residence in Sprague and
four hundred and eighty acres in Umatilla county. Mr. Smith had four
brothers, Enoch, deceased; William A., Levi A. and Mrs. Julia Terry.
On August 7, 1885, in Sprague, Washington,
Mr. Smith married Miss Katherine Murphy, daughter of Peter K. and Martha
Murphy, now living in Portland, Oregon. Mrs. Smith has the following
brothers and sisters, Carrie, Minnie, Annie, Susan, Mattie and Martha,
a sister in a convent at Vancouver. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith five children
have been born, Harry E., attending the Blair Business College in Spokane;
T. Clifford, Helen, Geneva, and Mary C.
Mr. Smith is a member of the Masonic lodge
and also of the Maccabees. He is the only man in Sprague who was
here when the Masonic lodge was formed and Mr. Smith desires to preserve
the fact that the original corner stone laid for the Masonic building,
lies about twelve feet back from the northeast corner of the present building.
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