Born at Akron, Ohio, on the 15th of August, 1846. His mother's maiden name was Sarah Clendower. She was born in Ireland, but moved to England at an early day. His father, Bernard N. Smith, was a native of England. Married Miss Glendower in 1841, and embarked for America the same year, where he settled in Ohio. John's advantages of education were very limited. He attended the common schools of Waukesha county, Wisconsin, but fourteen months. Being left an orphan at the age of seven, he was taken to the orphan asylum at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he remained two years, and was then adopted by Thomas Burnard, a farmer, who was killed by the falling of a load of wood the following year. Thus thrown on his own resources, from that time till the age of fifteen he worked among farmers for his board and clothes. He moved to Iowa on the 9th of August, 1861, and settled in Muscatine. Went to Clayton county in 1866, and from there to Madison county in 1867. In religion, Mr. Smith was raised a Catholic; when he was fifteen he became a Universalist, and at the age of twenty a Methodist. Mr. Smith has always been a staunch republican; cast his first vote at eighteen for Lincoln and Johnson; was in active service during all of the late civil war; enlisted in 1861 in company H, 11th Iowa Infantry; reenlisted on the 7th of December, 1863, and served till the close of the war. He was discharged on the 2d of July, 1865, and returned immediately to his home in Muscatine, Iowa. Mr. Smith has acquired an ample competence and is a public-spirited citizen, active in all progress, enterprising and much esteemed; an advocate of woman's suffrage, he believes that a woman should receive the same compensation as a man, where the labor to be performed is equal. Mr. Smith now holds the honored position as representative of Madison county, Iowa. Was married to Mary A. McLaughlin, on the 21st of November, 1866.