Smith, William S.

Born: 1810-07-15 West Virginia

Died: 1883-05-20 Greenville, Illinois

Flourished: Bond County, Illinois

William S. Smith was a merchant, banker, and state representative. Born in Morgan County in that section of Virginia that would become West Virginia, Smith entered into the mercantile trade at the age of fourteen. At the age of twenty-three, Smith moved from his native state to Greenville, Illinois, where he opened a general store with his brother which he continued t0 operate until 1876. Smith served Bond County as school commissioner and assessor, and he was an alderman of Greenville. From 1846 to 1847, Smith represented Bond County in the Illinois House of Representatives. He was also a founder and later president and director of the First National Bank of Greenville. In 1850, he owned real property valued at $14,000. By 1860, Smith had accumulated $22,000 worth of real estate and $25,000 worth of personal property. With his first wife, Amanda M. Hall, Smith had seven children. Amanda Smith died in January 1849, and in 1855, Smith married Elizabeth W. Greathouse, with whom he had six children. Politically, Smith was a Whig and later a Republican. He was a member of the International Order of Odd Fellows.

William Henry Perrin, ed., History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1882), 1:85, 2:31; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Bond County, IL, 385; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Greenville, Bond County, IL, 337; Kentucky, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1783-1965, 1 June 1855, Crittenden County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016); Gravestone, Hall's Grove Cemetery, Greenville, IL.