"An Illustrated History of Whitman County, state of Washington." San Francisco:
W. H. Lever, 1901.  p. 412.
 
A. J. SMITH

     There are always some men in every county and section who seem born to
lead. They accomplish more individually than, perhaps, half a dozen ordinary men
and show a capacity for managing intricate and multiform establishments which to
men of fewer talents is incomprehensible. It is no exaggeration to class the man
whose name appears as the caption of this article among these giants of
achievement, for he is certainly one of the great forces in the industrial
development of the Palouse country.
     Mr. Smith is a native of Missouri, born March 20, 1842. When ten years of
age he accompanied the remainder of the family to Iowa, where he completed his
education and passed his minority. In 1865 he emigrated to Oregon, located in
the Willamette valley, and began to lay the foundation of his fortune and his
success. For a time after his arrival in the west he worked for wages, but in
due course frugality and assiduous effort made him master of sufficient funds to
justify his embarking in business on his own account. Even from the outset of
his career his ambition to excel in more than one line of enterprise manifested
itself, and we find him combining farming and the lumber business. He followed
these two industries uninterruptedly until 1881, which year is the date of his
advent to Whitman county.
     Locating at Pine City, he purchased there a small three-foot-burr flour
mill, the only one in that part of the country at the time, and gave inception
to his career as a flour-mill man. He has been engaged in that branch of
industry ever since, and now has a large stone mill, with the latest improved
system of rollers, its daily capacity being thirty barrels. In 1884 our subject
engaged also in the general merchandise business in Pine City, and to this he
even yet devotes a portion of his time. He carries an aggregate stock of about
five thousand dollars, and has built up a thriving and extensive trade. But even
his mill and his store are not sufficient to keep him busy and
to satisfy his ambition, so he has acquired the title to two hundred and forty
acres of land and is also a farmer and stock-raiser.
     While in Oregon our subject married Miss Sarah Fletcher, a native of
Missouri, and to their union ten children have been born: Ira L.; Alva; Ennis;
Roy; Ralph; Mary; Grover; Clifford; Melvina; and Henry. All the children are at
home except Alva, who is married and engaged in farming on the Nez Perce
reservation. Mr. Smith has a very remarkable family of boys, and one of which he
has good reason to be proud. Of the eight not one ever drinks a drop of liquor
or uses tobacco in any form, and all are thrifty, industrious and respected
members of society. They are natural mechanics, evidences of their skill in this
direction being found in the present mill and in many other stone buildings
erected by them. This gift also enables them to operate the mill successfully.
It was a custom of Mr. Smith's to give each of his boys five hundred
dollars upon becoming of age and an offer of three hundred dollars per annum and
board to remain in his employ. As a consequence the boys are all at home with
the single exception above referred to.


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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in January 2011 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.