Representative Joseph Henry Smith View All Years
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Joseph Henry Smith
Harrison County
Born December 27, 1833, in Beaver (now a part of Lawrence) County, Pa. The first sixteen years of his life were spent on the farm, having such educational advantages as were to be had in the public school, of the place. Later he became a student of Westminster College, at Wilmington, Pa. From this place he went to the office of Judge Eben Newton and Judge Frank Girard Servis, at Canfield, Mahoning County, Ohio, where he was admitted to the bar, April 14, 1857. Immediately on admission to the bar, he started for the "far West," and June 1st, of the same year located and began the practice of law at Magnolia. On January 4, 1859, he returned to the old home, in the Keystone State, and married Julia Ann Warrick. At the breaking out of the civil war, no one put forth greater efforts toward filling the ranks with enlisted men than he, for being Chairman of the Board of County Supervisors, when the young men of the county were ripe for enlistment, a meeting of this Board was called, and each person enlisting from the county was given a bounty of eighty acres of land or its equivalent. Smith then enlisted and in one day an entire company was known as Company C, Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry, he being the Second Lieutenant of the Company. In 1858 he was elected as the first County Superintendent of Schools. In 1864 he was elected County Recorder, and in 1867 was elected as a Representative of this and Shelby Counties, in the Twelfth General Assembly, where it is said he very ably presented the wants and protected the interests of his constituents. Scarcely a case of importance upon the court calendars of Harrison County, but Joe H. Smith's name appears as attorney for one of the parties, and not only here, but in the Supreme Court of the State. He is untiring in his efforts, quite captivating in his manner; logical in his conclusion, and at times sarcastic and eloquent.
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