Joseph Patterson Smith
Among the sons of Adams County, Ohio, who attained to position of prominence, perhaps the subject of this sketch was most widely known.
Joseph Patterson Smith, son of John M. and Matilda A. (Patterson) Smith, was born in West Union, August 7, 1856, and received the principal part of his education in the Public schools of his native place. He had a retentive mind and was especially proficient in mathematics and history. From his father, he inherited a splendid memory and a love of statistics, and from his mother an energy and ambition that were characteristic of the man in later years. Like many of his companions, during the Summer months in his youth, he learned the only trade for which an opportunity was offered in West Union—that of a printer. At about the age of sixteen, he was employed for a few months in a nail mill at Bellaire, Ohio, but his constitution was too delicate for such an occupation, and it was abandoned. For a time, he attended the University at Greencastle, Ind., supporting himself by labor at the printing case during the evening hours. Subsequently he taught for a few terms in the District schools of Ohio and Illinois.
From early boyhood, beginning with the "Reconstruction Period," Mr. Smith evinced a strong love for politics, and was noted among his townsmen for his knowledge and understanding of the questions at issue, and for his ardent Republicanism, long before he attained his majority. As an occasional local correspondent, he attracted the attention of the editor of the Cincinnati Commercial, and was employed by him as a "special" to travel over the State, in 1876, and write up the political outlook in each of the Congressional Districts. In this manner he became acquainted with the leading Ohio Republicans (of whom Major McKinley was one) and formed lasting friendships with many of those who afterwards became noted in history of the State and Nation. From that time, until the date of his death, Joseph P. Smith was a prominent factor in Ohio politics. Almost wholly through his own exertions, Mr. Smith was successful in becoming the Republican caucus nominee and was elected Journal Clerk of the Senate in the Sixty-fifth General Assembly. He was also for a time a Clerk in the Roster Department of the State Adjutant General's Office.
At different times during the years covering and immediately following these periods, he edited the Western Star at Lebanon, the Clermont Courier at Batavia, and the New Era at West Union. In 1888, he became part owner and editor of the Daily Citisen, of Urbana, which gained a reputation under his management extending beyond the confines of the State. The Citisen was the first newspaper to advocate the selection of Wiliam McKinley as the Gubernatorial candidate of the Republican party, and his name was kept at the head of its editorial columns from the day following Major McKinley's defeat for Congress in the famous gerrymandered district, in 1890, until his triumphant election for Governor of Ohio, in 1891. A number of the campaign documents used by the Republican State Committee that year (as were a number in subsequent years and also in the National campaign of 1896) were prepared by Joseph P. Smith. Throughout the period of his control of the Citizen its editorials were widely quoted.
In 1891, the late John A. Cockerill, then editor-in-chief of the New York World, tendered Mr. Smith a position on the editorial staff of that paper; but the flattering offer, while appreciated as a gracious compliment, was declined, as he did not want to leave the State. A tender of the editorship of the Toledo, Ohio, Daily Commercial was accepted in Dec, of that year. While serving on the latter paper (in 1892), Governor McKinley appointed him State Librarian. Many useful, rare and valuable works were added to the library during his incumbency of the office. Especially is this true as to works of reference. In May, 1896, he resigned the librarianship to take a confidential position with Major McKinley, remaining with him throughout the Presidential campaign and until after the latter's inaguration as President of the United States, March 4, 1897.
It is a fact, which none acquainted with the circumstances will dispute, that no other individual in the State did more to bring about the nomination of Major McKinley to the Presidency than Joseph P. Smith. Such was his love and esteem for the man that his every energy was exerted to the end that his friend might become the head of the Nation. His private papers, covering the years 1893, 1894, 1895 and 1896, now in possession of Mrs. Smith's executor and held as a legacy for his children, show that he was in correspondence and close touch with leading Republicans in every State and Territory in the Union during these years. No young man had a more extensive acquaintance, and none ever made more strenuous efforts to redeem all political promises. He was a thorough organizer and could see further into the effects of a political move than almost any other person engaged therein. And yet no one ever heard him boast of his influence, or personally claim to have done anything superior to that of the ordinary party worker. His mind was a veritable encylopedia of political information and a magazine of reminisences of the politics and the politicians of the past and present.
On March 29, 1897, the President tendered Mr. Smith the position of Director of the Bureau of the American Republics, and his action was approved by the Executive Committee of the Bureau. As the official head of this department, he was making its influence felt throughout the nineteen Republics included in its organization, and, had his life been spared, he undoubtedly would have been instrumental in more firmly uniting them to their mutual commercial benefit, and thus have more effectually carried out the original conception of the late James G. Blaine, as he outlined it at the Pan-American Congress in 1889- 1890.
During his brief life, and aside from his other duties, Joseph P. Smith edited several works, including "The Speeches of William McKinley," which attained a wide circulation. He wrote numerous short articles of a political and historical nature, a biography of the President for Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia for 1897, and a "History of the Republican Party of Ohio." Several contemplated works in various states of preparation were among his papers at the time of his death.
Never of the most robust health, but kept up for years by a wonderful will power, Mr. Smith was compelled to seek for rest and restoration of health in October, 1897. After battling bravely against a combination of diseases, and after seemingly having conquered them, death came suddenly on the morning of February 5, 1898, at Miami, Florida, where he had been taken by friends during the previous December.
On April 14, 1886, Joseph P. Smith and Miss Maryneal Hutches, of Galveston, Texas, were married at the home of the bride's parents. Several children were born to this union, namely, Frank Hutches, at Galveston, Texas; Virginia Patterson, at Batavia, Ohio; Antoinette Barker, Mary Stow, John Michell, William McKinley, and Joseph Patterson, at Urbana. The last named was but five months old when his father died.
Maryneal Hutches Smith was born at Galveston, Texas, March 1, 1860. She was educated at Abbott Academy, at Andover. Massachusetts, graduating in June, 1878. After her marriage, she resided for a time in Columbus, then in Batavia, and for the last ten years of her life in Urbana. Under the terms of her husband's will, she was left sole executrix of his estate and guardian of her children. Being a woman of brilliant mind and attainments, and endowed with a wonderful ambition, she accepted the trust, and planned to make the futures of her children all that was anticipated and contemplated by her deceased husband. In June, 1898, without solicitation on her part, President McKinley appointed Mrs. Smith to the position of Postmistress of the city of Urbana, Ohio. She was performing the duties of this office with credit and ability, as was evidenced by the improvements in the office and the increase in its receipts, when the death summons came immediately and almost without warning. She died at her home in Urbana of apoplexy on the afternoon of September 12, 1898, or but a little more than seven months after the death of her husband. Thus, within that short space of time, the several children were deprived of the care of the parents who were generous and indulgent to a fault. Together the earthly forms of their parents are resting in a beautiful plat in lovely Oakdale cemetery at Urbana.
At the time of his death the whole press of Ohio, and all the leading newspapers of the Nation, regardless of party, for he was recognized by the Democrats as an honorable opponent, and had warm personal friendships among them, spoke only in praise of Joseph P. Smith. Of the expressions used, no more candid and truthful portrayal of his life and character can be found than is contained in this extract from the Canton, Ohio Repository, of February 5, 1898:
"Supremely faithful and loving to his family, combined with his beautiful qualities of heart and brighest of bright intellects, his greatest virtue was his unfaltering loyalty to the cause of which were enshrined his brightest earthly hopes and ambitions.
"Had his physical body possessed the strength to support his indomitable energy in the assiduous application of his remarkable intellect, few men would have equalled him in possibilities of attainment.
"His fertile head was a vertiable store house. History, ancient and modern, were constant and living pictures in his always lively memory. His brain seemed incandescent with the knowledge almost of the world, when ripe occasion made its demands on his resourceful mind. When working in the cause he loved the most, he knew no night or day. Sleep could only come when utter physical exhaustion forced tired nature to assert herself. *****
"He was firm in the faith of Everlasting Peace to come. In Canton, in his tribute to a friend who had gone from earth, he wrote in paraphrase :
"Tears for the living, Love for the dead."
"And yet, many is the heart that grieves, and myriad are the eyes that glisten today upon receiving the news from Florida at the taking away of an intellect so bright and a character so lovely, just as fame and fortune were at his feet in recognition of eminently patriotic service."
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900