Gaston, Joseph. "Portland, Oregon Its History and Builders." Vol. 2. Chicago and Portland, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911. p. 279. AMEDEE M. SMITH Amedee M. Smith, deceased, was numbered among those who contributed to the material development and the moral progress of Portland, where for many years he was classed as a citizen whose labors were directly beneficial to many lines which have constituted factors in Portland's growth and improvement. Known and honored for his sterling traits of manhood and for what he accomplished in industrial circles, his death came as a distinct loss to the city when on the 29th of September, 1894, he passed away. He had arrived on the Pacific coast in 1865, at which time he was a young man of about twenty-six years. His birth had occurred in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1839 and in tracing the ancestral history of the family it is found that at a remote period in the settlement of Nova Scoria his American progenitor arrived in that country from England. The climate was bleak, the opportunities seemed limited in a country where winter long lingered, therefore the Smith family later removed to Massachusetts and subsequently became residents of New Jersey. Freeman Smith, who was born in the latter state, removed to Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and in 1842 became one of the pioneers in the vicinity of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, aided in founding that city and also claimed and improved a tract of raw land. He was a son of Dr. Isaac Smith, a successful and talented physician, who had served as colonel of the First Regiment from Hunterdon county. New Jersey, in the Revolutionary war until 1777 when he resigned his commission in order to accept an appointment as justice of the supreme court of his state. Amedee M. Smith, the youngest in a family of eleven children, was reared on the Iowa frontier where he remained until after the outbreak of the Civil war, when he enlisted in defense of the Union which his grandfather had aided in founding. He became a member of Company F, Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry, with which he served for three years as a non-commissioned officer. In early manhood he also learned the pottery business under his brother. Freeman Smith who owned and conducted a pottery in Iowa. In the meantime Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Speelman, who was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, a daughter of A. E. Speelman, a native of the Keystone state and a glass blower by trade. On account of impaired eye-sight Mr. Speelman gave up his position in the east and in the early '5os established his home on a farm near Marion, Linn county, Iowa. His last years, however, were spent at Verndale, Minnesota. He held membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. The family of which he was a representative came from Germany while his wife was a member of the Isherwood family of English extraction. As stated, their daughter Mary, became the wife of Amedee M. Smith and in 1865 with the one child, who had been bom to them in Iowa, they started for the Pacific coast, traveling by way of Panama and San Francisco. They were accompanied by Mr. Smith's parents, who settled in Albany, Oregon, but in 1866 removed to Buena Vista, where the father died in 1881 at the venerable age of eighty-nine years. Freeman Smith, a brother of A. M. Smith, had made the journey in the same year by way of the isthmus route to Oregon, while during the '5os three other brothers had arrived on the Pacific coast; Henry who settled near Eugene, Oregon; James, who died soon after reaching this state; and W. H., who took up land in Clatsop county. After residing in Albany for a year A. M. Smith removed to Buena Vista, Polk county, where suitable clay land was found for pottery purposes. He and his brother were then joined by their father in establishing the first pottery business on the Pacific coast. From the beginning the enterprise prospered as a home-made article could be sold at a lower rate than that which had to be imported from the east. In 1870 A. M. Smith purchased the interest of his father and brother and successfully conducted the enterprise alone until 1883. Two years before he established his headquarters in Portland and removed his family to this city. His enterprise, small in its inception, grew to large proportions until the plant covered several acres. In 1883 on the river front and Sherlock avenue he erected a three-story building, two hundred by two hundred and fifty feet, on a lot two hundred by six hundred feet and installed six large kilns. The business was then incorporated under the name of the Oregon Pottery Company, with Mr. Smith as president and James Steel as secretary. Their manufactured product consisted of all kinds of vitrified pipes, while the Buena Vista plant was used for the manufacture of pottery. A disastrous fire destroyed the Portland plant in 1890, but with characteristic energy Mr. Smith began the erection of brick buildings on the same site and a tract of land adjoining. The factory was soon again in working operation with new and improved equipment and at all times and in every department has been kept abreast with the progress manifest in pottery manufacture. Mr. Smith lived to see wonderful changes in the business and in the methods of handling the output. In the early days pottery manufacturers would start out from their kilns with a load of their wares which they sold throughout the Willamette valley, traveling on from day to day until all was disposed of. However, with the building of railroads and the increase in the capacity of their plants they began making large shipments by rail. Mr. Smith continued as president of the company until his death, when he was succeeded by his son and namesake, the business was reorganized under the name of the Western Clay Manufacturing Company in 1897, with A. M- Smith. Jr., as president and manager; W. H. Britts, vice president; and Blaine R. Smith, secretary and treasurer. In 1890 the manufacture of pottery was discontinued and the plant devoted entirely to the manufacture of their other products. Mr. Smith's interests always centered in his home and his success was all the more gratifying to him because of the opportunity which it gave him to provide liberally for his family. Unto him and his wife were bom seven children but one son, Albert G.. died at the age of nine years, and an infant died in Iowa. The others were: Elizabeth, now Mrs. W. H. Britts: Amedee M.; Blaine R.; Mary E, the wife of Dr. F. C. Sellwood; all residents of Portland; and Leta R., the wife of Roger H. Haselton of Underwood, Washington. Following the death of his first wife in 1883, Mr. Smith wedded Mrs. Emma J. Coulter, of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, and they became parents of two children, Harold S. and Mildred. Mr. Smith was long a devoted member of the Taylor Street Methodist Episcopal church, served on its board of trustees and took active part in its work. A contemporary biographer has said. of him: "His influence was always for the good and his sympathy, his benevolence and his kindly greeting will long be remembered by all with whom he came in contact His duties were performed with the greatest care and throughout life his personal honor and integrity were without blemish. His character as it was manifested to his associates was remarkable for its simplicity; he had great earnestness and concentration of purpose; in planning he was deliberate but forceful; in his business dealings he was ever prompt, reliable and entirely trustworthy and he gained a greater degree of success than many who at the start were blessed with better advantages." ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in April 2008 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.