Smith, Spencer

Born: 1818-09-20 Vermont

Died: 1870-06-04 Salt Lake City, Utah

Born in Panton, Vermont, Spencer Smith was a teacher, professor, school principal, and member and secretary of the St. Louis Academy of Science. In 1850, he was working as a teacher and living in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife, Rachel Elizabeth Smith (née Wead). By 1860, he was living in Kirkwood, Missouri and serving as the principal of a female seminary (school). He appears to have prospered in this role, owning real estate valued at $8,000 as well as a personal estate valued at $13,500. In the summer of 1863, he registered for the draft in St. Louis County's second congressional district, but there is no evidence that he actually served during the Civil War. He died after traveling to the Rocky Mountains in an effort to improve his health.

U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Third Ward, St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO, 369; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Kirkwood, St. Louis County, MO, 28; U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2010); Gravestone, Oak Hill Cemetery, Kirkwood, MO; The Missouri Republican (St. Louis), 11 June 1870, 3:6.