AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY, California Edition, Vol. II, pp. 768-776
Charles Warren Smith
When it is stated that the honored and influential citizen of Pasadena, Los Angeles county, to whom this memoir is dedicated, was for fully half a century numbered among the representative railroad men of the nation, there is given adequate evidence of the broad scope and importance of his activities, through which he became a recognized authority in connection with the administration and practical operations of railway systems. He was called to numerous executive offices of great trust and responsibility and was essentially a man of affairs, as well as one of much constructive and executive ability. During the later years of his life he lived virtually retired from the more insistent cares and exactions of business, but his vital interest in industrial, financial, economic and public affairs was not permitted to wane, the while he enjoyed, in his beautiful home in Pasadena, the gracious rewards of former years of earnest and worthy endeavor. Popular approbation is the measuring rod of character, and it is sufficient in this connection to say that Mr. Smith so ordered his course as to merit and receive the most unqualified popular confidence and esteem at all stages of his long and active career as one of the world's noble army of productive workers. He was summoned to the life eternal on the 1st of July, 1912, and survived his loved and devoted wife by only a few months.
A scion of one of the staunch old English colonial families of New England, that cradle of much of our national history, Charles Warren Smith was signally favored in ancestral heritage. He himself was a native of the Empire state of the Union, as he was born at Austerlitz, Columbia county, New York, on the 5th of September, 1831. He was a son of William DeForest Smith and Elmira (Gott) Smith, the former of whom was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1805, and the latter of whom was a native of Austerlitz, Columbia county, New York, where her father, Story Gott, born in Connecticut and of English and Scotch lineage, took up his abode in the early pioneer days, after having served as soldier in the Continental line in the War of the Revolution. In the colonial epoch of the history of New England the original progenitor of the Smith family to which the subject of this memoir belonged left Litchfield, England, and immigrated to the new world. He founded a settlement in Connecticut and gave to the same the name of his home town in England, Litchfield, which is likewise the name of the Connecticut county in which he thus established his abode. He was one of the strong characters and influential men of the community and lived a life of honor and usefulness. He and his wife continued to reside in Connecticut until their death, and their descendants are now to be found in the most diverse sections of the United States. William DeForest Smith removed from his native town of Litchfield, Connecticut, to Berkshire county, Massachusetts, where he eventually became a manufacturer of vehicles. In 1845 he removed with his family to Union county, Ohio, where, in March, 1848, he and two of his children succumbed to the scourge of cholera. His cherished and devoted wife survived him by several years and was a resident of Homer, Union county, Ohio, at the time of her death, which occurred in 1852, she having been a devout member of the Presbyterian church. Of the nine children six attained to years of maturity and two of the number are now living, — Mrs. Mary A. Fairbanks, of Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, and Mrs. Cecilia J. Richie, of Sedalia, Missouri. Mrs. Fairbanks is the mother of Hon. Charles Warren Fairbanks, former vice-president of the United States, and the latter was named in honor of Charles Warren Smith, to whom this tribute is dedicated. William Henry Smith, the fourth in order of birth of the nine children, became well known in the literary and business world and had the distinction of being the organizer of the Western Associated Press of the United States, of which he was manager until within two years of his death. He was a resident of Chicago at the time of his demise, in 1896, and the great newspaper association of which he was thus the founder was organized in the year 1869.
Charles W. Smith gained his rudimentary education in his native state and was eleven years of age at the time of the family removal to Union county, Ohio, where he was reared to maturity under the conditions and influences of the pioneer era and where he availed himself of such advantages as were afforded in the somewhat primitive schools of the day. That he made good use of these opportunities is evident when it is stated that he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors and that as a young man he was a successful teacher in the district schools, in which he held sway during the winter terms. At the age of fourteen years he went to Woodstock, Champaign county, Ohio, where he learned the trade of harness and saddle making. He did not long devote his attention to his trade, as a new field of endeavor was opened to him, bringing him into association with railroad work, in connection with which he was destined to attain to a position of marked prominence and influence. On the 1st of March, 1855, about six months prior to his twenty-fourth birthday anniversary, Mr. Smith was appointed agent at Woodstock, Ohio, for the Columbus, Piqua & Indiana Railroad. His efficient and faithful service soon brought to him promotion to the position of agent for the company in Columbus, the capital city of Ohio, and a year after assuming this incumbency he was made general freight agent for the same road. In 1867 he became general freight agent for the Panhandle system of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and this office he retained until 1870, when he resigned, to assume a similar position with the Central Pacific Railroad Company, whose line had been opened only a short time before. He thus came to California and established his official headquarters in Sacramento, but after a period of two years his health became so impaired as to necessitate his resignation. He then returned to the east, and in 1872 became general manager of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad, with headquarters in the city of Indianapolis. This position he later resigned to accept that of traffic manager for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, with headquarters in Chicago. On the 1st of May, 1880, his able services were called into requisition by the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company, with which he held the office of traffic manager for one year, with headquarters in the city of New York. He resigned this position to assume that of general manager of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, with headquarters at Richmond, Virginia.
On the 1st of January. 1886, Mr. Smith was elected vice-president and general manager of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, with headquarters at Topeka. Kansas, and in 1888 he also became general manager of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, the line of which extended from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Mojave, California. He retained these offices until 1890, when failing health again compelled his resignation. In 1895, at the solicitation of the resident bondholders of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in Germany, Mr. Smith accepted the office of receiver of the property, the affairs of which he administered with such discrimination as to protect the interests of his foreign clients, and on the 1st of July, 1897, he effected the sale of the property to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, of the fine system of which the line is now an integral part.
In August, 1897, Mr. Smith established his home in Pasadena, California, and through the influence of friends who owned the bonds of the Pasadena & Los Angeles Electric Railway Company he became president of this corporation. On the 1st of February, 1900, he was made general manager of the Los Angeles Railway Company, with headquarters in Los Angeles. After retaining this position about eighteen months he resigned the same, on the ist of August, 1901, and was forthwith elected vice-president of the company, for a term of three years. In 1902, when the property of the Pasadena and Los Angeles electric line was sold to the Pacific Electric Company, he retired from active business, save that he retained the office of vice-president of the Union National Bank of Pasadena, a position of which he continued the incumbent until his death.
The many exactions of large official and business interests did not in the least militate against Mr. Smith's loyal and public-spirited concern in the welfare of his home city of Pasadena and in the advancement of Los Angeles and other sections of southern California. He was a valued member of the Pasadena Board of Trade and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and he manifested a deep interest in their affairs and the promotion of high civic ideals.
At the time of the Civil war Mr. Smith was actively identified with the Union League and was an uncompromising abolitionist. Thus, as may naturally be inferred, he was a staunch advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, with which he was identified from the time of its organization until his death. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows from 1852 until the close of his life, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. He also held membership in the California
Club of Los Angeles. Mr. Smith passed the gracious evening of his life in his beautiful home in Pasadena, and he spared neither time nor expense in the improvement of the property. He gave special attention to the fine gardens that adorn the place and the same contain many choice varieties of trees, shrubs and flowers, a number of which are rare specimens secured in foreign lands. He was an appreciative student of botany, and found much satisfaction and diversion in the idyllic gardens which were brought to remarkable perfection under his personal direction and care.
At Woodstock, Ohio, on the 13th of May, 1852, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss Marceline M. Sprague, who was born at Woodstock, Vermont, and whose father, Melvin Sprague, was one of the pioneers of Champaign county, Ohio. Mrs. Smith proved a devoted companion and helpmeet to her husband and was a woman of most gracious personality, presiding with dignity over the beautiful home that she made a center of refined hospitality. She was called to the life eternal in January, 1912, about six months prior to the death of her husband, and thus they were not long separated after their devoted companionship of nearly sixty years, the remains of both being taken to Chicago, for interment. They became the parents of three children, of whom only one is living : Kate, who became the wife of Chauncey Kelsey, died at Richmond, Virginia ; Ella passed away at the age of five years ; and William Henry, the only surviving member of the immediate family, is numbered among the representative business men of Pasadena.
Charles Warren Smith
When it is stated that the honored and influential citizen of Pasadena, Los Angeles county, to whom this memoir is dedicated, was for fully half a century numbered among the representative railroad men of the nation, there is given adequate evidence of the broad scope and importance of his activities, through which he became a recognized authority in connection with the administration and practical operations of railway systems. He was called to numerous executive offices of great trust and responsibility and was essentially a man of affairs, as well as one of much constructive and executive ability. During the later years of his life he lived virtually retired from the more insistent cares and exactions of business, but his vital interest in industrial, financial, economic and public affairs was not permitted to wane, the while he enjoyed, in his beautiful home in Pasadena, the gracious rewards of former years of earnest and worthy endeavor. Popular approbation is the measuring rod of character, and it is sufficient in this connection to say that Mr. Smith so ordered his course as to merit and receive the most unqualified popular confidence and esteem at all stages of his long and active career as one of the world's noble army of productive workers. He was summoned to the life eternal on the 1st of July, 1912, and survived his loved and devoted wife by only a few months.
A scion of one of the staunch old English colonial families of New England, that cradle of much of our national history, Charles Warren Smith was signally favored in ancestral heritage. He himself was a native of the Empire state of the Union, as he was born at Austerlitz, Columbia county, New York, on the 5th of September, 1831. He was a son of William DeForest Smith and Elmira (Gott) Smith, the former of whom was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1805, and the latter of whom was a native of Austerlitz, Columbia county, New York, where her father, Story Gott, born in Connecticut and of English and Scotch lineage, took up his abode in the early pioneer days, after having served as soldier in the Continental line in the War of the Revolution. In the colonial epoch of the history of New England the original progenitor of the Smith family to which the subject of this memoir belonged left Litchfield, England, and immigrated to the new world. He founded a settlement in Connecticut and gave to the same the name of his home town in England, Litchfield, which is likewise the name of the Connecticut county in which he thus established his abode. He was one of the strong characters and influential men of the community and lived a life of honor and usefulness. He and his wife continued to reside in Connecticut until their death, and their descendants are now to be found in the most diverse sections of the United States. William DeForest Smith removed from his native town of Litchfield, Connecticut, to Berkshire county, Massachusetts, where he eventually became a manufacturer of vehicles. In 1845 he removed with his family to Union county, Ohio, where, in March, 1848, he and two of his children succumbed to the scourge of cholera. His cherished and devoted wife survived him by several years and was a resident of Homer, Union county, Ohio, at the time of her death, which occurred in 1852, she having been a devout member of the Presbyterian church. Of the nine children six attained to years of maturity and two of the number are now living, — Mrs. Mary A. Fairbanks, of Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, and Mrs. Cecilia J. Richie, of Sedalia, Missouri. Mrs. Fairbanks is the mother of Hon. Charles Warren Fairbanks, former vice-president of the United States, and the latter was named in honor of Charles Warren Smith, to whom this tribute is dedicated. William Henry Smith, the fourth in order of birth of the nine children, became well known in the literary and business world and had the distinction of being the organizer of the Western Associated Press of the United States, of which he was manager until within two years of his death. He was a resident of Chicago at the time of his demise, in 1896, and the great newspaper association of which he was thus the founder was organized in the year 1869.
Charles W. Smith gained his rudimentary education in his native state and was eleven years of age at the time of the family removal to Union county, Ohio, where he was reared to maturity under the conditions and influences of the pioneer era and where he availed himself of such advantages as were afforded in the somewhat primitive schools of the day. That he made good use of these opportunities is evident when it is stated that he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors and that as a young man he was a successful teacher in the district schools, in which he held sway during the winter terms. At the age of fourteen years he went to Woodstock, Champaign county, Ohio, where he learned the trade of harness and saddle making. He did not long devote his attention to his trade, as a new field of endeavor was opened to him, bringing him into association with railroad work, in connection with which he was destined to attain to a position of marked prominence and influence. On the 1st of March, 1855, about six months prior to his twenty-fourth birthday anniversary, Mr. Smith was appointed agent at Woodstock, Ohio, for the Columbus, Piqua & Indiana Railroad. His efficient and faithful service soon brought to him promotion to the position of agent for the company in Columbus, the capital city of Ohio, and a year after assuming this incumbency he was made general freight agent for the same road. In 1867 he became general freight agent for the Panhandle system of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and this office he retained until 1870, when he resigned, to assume a similar position with the Central Pacific Railroad Company, whose line had been opened only a short time before. He thus came to California and established his official headquarters in Sacramento, but after a period of two years his health became so impaired as to necessitate his resignation. He then returned to the east, and in 1872 became general manager of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad, with headquarters in the city of Indianapolis. This position he later resigned to accept that of traffic manager for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, with headquarters in Chicago. On the 1st of May, 1880, his able services were called into requisition by the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company, with which he held the office of traffic manager for one year, with headquarters in the city of New York. He resigned this position to assume that of general manager of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, with headquarters at Richmond, Virginia.
On the 1st of January. 1886, Mr. Smith was elected vice-president and general manager of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, with headquarters at Topeka. Kansas, and in 1888 he also became general manager of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, the line of which extended from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Mojave, California. He retained these offices until 1890, when failing health again compelled his resignation. In 1895, at the solicitation of the resident bondholders of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in Germany, Mr. Smith accepted the office of receiver of the property, the affairs of which he administered with such discrimination as to protect the interests of his foreign clients, and on the 1st of July, 1897, he effected the sale of the property to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, of the fine system of which the line is now an integral part.
In August, 1897, Mr. Smith established his home in Pasadena, California, and through the influence of friends who owned the bonds of the Pasadena & Los Angeles Electric Railway Company he became president of this corporation. On the 1st of February, 1900, he was made general manager of the Los Angeles Railway Company, with headquarters in Los Angeles. After retaining this position about eighteen months he resigned the same, on the ist of August, 1901, and was forthwith elected vice-president of the company, for a term of three years. In 1902, when the property of the Pasadena and Los Angeles electric line was sold to the Pacific Electric Company, he retired from active business, save that he retained the office of vice-president of the Union National Bank of Pasadena, a position of which he continued the incumbent until his death.
The many exactions of large official and business interests did not in the least militate against Mr. Smith's loyal and public-spirited concern in the welfare of his home city of Pasadena and in the advancement of Los Angeles and other sections of southern California. He was a valued member of the Pasadena Board of Trade and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and he manifested a deep interest in their affairs and the promotion of high civic ideals.
At the time of the Civil war Mr. Smith was actively identified with the Union League and was an uncompromising abolitionist. Thus, as may naturally be inferred, he was a staunch advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, with which he was identified from the time of its organization until his death. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows from 1852 until the close of his life, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. He also held membership in the California
Club of Los Angeles. Mr. Smith passed the gracious evening of his life in his beautiful home in Pasadena, and he spared neither time nor expense in the improvement of the property. He gave special attention to the fine gardens that adorn the place and the same contain many choice varieties of trees, shrubs and flowers, a number of which are rare specimens secured in foreign lands. He was an appreciative student of botany, and found much satisfaction and diversion in the idyllic gardens which were brought to remarkable perfection under his personal direction and care.
At Woodstock, Ohio, on the 13th of May, 1852, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss Marceline M. Sprague, who was born at Woodstock, Vermont, and whose father, Melvin Sprague, was one of the pioneers of Champaign county, Ohio. Mrs. Smith proved a devoted companion and helpmeet to her husband and was a woman of most gracious personality, presiding with dignity over the beautiful home that she made a center of refined hospitality. She was called to the life eternal in January, 1912, about six months prior to the death of her husband, and thus they were not long separated after their devoted companionship of nearly sixty years, the remains of both being taken to Chicago, for interment. They became the parents of three children, of whom only one is living : Kate, who became the wife of Chauncey Kelsey, died at Richmond, Virginia ; Ella passed away at the age of five years ; and William Henry, the only surviving member of the immediate family, is numbered among the representative business men of Pasadena.
AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY, California Edition, Vol. II, pp. 768-776
Charles Warren Smith
When it is stated that the honored and influential citizen of Pasadena, Los Angeles county, to whom this memoir is dedicated, was for fully half a century numbered among the representative railroad men of the nation, there is given adequate evidence of the broad scope and importance of his activities, through which he became a recognized authority in connection with the administration and practical operations of railway systems. He was called to numerous executive offices of great trust and responsibility and was essentially a man of affairs, as well as one of much constructive and executive ability. During the later years of his life he lived virtually retired from the more insistent cares and exactions of business, but his vital interest in industrial, financial, economic and public affairs was not permitted to wane, the while he enjoyed, in his beautiful home in Pasadena, the gracious rewards of former years of earnest and worthy endeavor. Popular approbation is the measuring rod of character, and it is sufficient in this connection to say that Mr. Smith so ordered his course as to merit and receive the most unqualified popular confidence and esteem at all stages of his long and active career as one of the world's noble army of productive workers. He was summoned to the life eternal on the 1st of July, 1912, and survived his loved and devoted wife by only a few months.
A scion of one of the staunch old English colonial families of New England, that cradle of much of our national history, Charles Warren Smith was signally favored in ancestral heritage. He himself was a native of the Empire state of the Union, as he was born at Austerlitz, Columbia county, New York, on the 5th of September, 1831. He was a son of William DeForest Smith and Elmira (Gott) Smith, the former of whom was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1805, and the latter of whom was a native of Austerlitz, Columbia county, New York, where her father, Story Gott, born in Connecticut and of English and Scotch lineage, took up his abode in the early pioneer days, after having served as soldier in the Continental line in the War of the Revolution. In the colonial epoch of the history of New England the original progenitor of the Smith family to which the subject of this memoir belonged left Litchfield, England, and immigrated to the new world. He founded a settlement in Connecticut and gave to the same the name of his home town in England, Litchfield, which is likewise the name of the Connecticut county in which he thus established his abode. He was one of the strong characters and influential men of the community and lived a life of honor and usefulness. He and his wife continued to reside in Connecticut until their death, and their descendants are now to be found in the most diverse sections of the United States. William DeForest Smith removed from his native town of Litchfield, Connecticut, to Berkshire county, Massachusetts, where he eventually became a manufacturer of vehicles. In 1845 he removed with his family to Union county, Ohio, where, in March, 1848, he and two of his children succumbed to the scourge of cholera. His cherished and devoted wife survived him by several years and was a resident of Homer, Union county, Ohio, at the time of her death, which occurred in 1852, she having been a devout member of the Presbyterian church. Of the nine children six attained to years of maturity and two of the number are now living, — Mrs. Mary A. Fairbanks, of Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, and Mrs. Cecilia J. Richie, of Sedalia, Missouri. Mrs. Fairbanks is the mother of Hon. Charles Warren Fairbanks, former vice-president of the United States, and the latter was named in honor of Charles Warren Smith, to whom this tribute is dedicated. William Henry Smith, the fourth in order of birth of the nine children, became well known in the literary and business world and had the distinction of being the organizer of the Western Associated Press of the United States, of which he was manager until within two years of his death. He was a resident of Chicago at the time of his demise, in 1896, and the great newspaper association of which he was thus the founder was organized in the year 1869.
Charles W. Smith gained his rudimentary education in his native state and was eleven years of age at the time of the family removal to Union county, Ohio, where he was reared to maturity under the conditions and influences of the pioneer era and where he availed himself of such advantages as were afforded in the somewhat primitive schools of the day. That he made good use of these opportunities is evident when it is stated that he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors and that as a young man he was a successful teacher in the district schools, in which he held sway during the winter terms. At the age of fourteen years he went to Woodstock, Champaign county, Ohio, where he learned the trade of harness and saddle making. He did not long devote his attention to his trade, as a new field of endeavor was opened to him, bringing him into association with railroad work, in connection with which he was destined to attain to a position of marked prominence and influence. On the 1st of March, 1855, about six months prior to his twenty-fourth birthday anniversary, Mr. Smith was appointed agent at Woodstock, Ohio, for the Columbus, Piqua & Indiana Railroad. His efficient and faithful service soon brought to him promotion to the position of agent for the company in Columbus, the capital city of Ohio, and a year after assuming this incumbency he was made general freight agent for the same road. In 1867 he became general freight agent for the Panhandle system of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and this office he retained until 1870, when he resigned, to assume a similar position with the Central Pacific Railroad Company, whose line had been opened only a short time before. He thus came to California and established his official headquarters in Sacramento, but after a period of two years his health became so impaired as to necessitate his resignation. He then returned to the east, and in 1872 became general manager of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad, with headquarters in the city of Indianapolis. This position he later resigned to accept that of traffic manager for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, with headquarters in Chicago. On the 1st of May, 1880, his able services were called into requisition by the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company, with which he held the office of traffic manager for one year, with headquarters in the city of New York. He resigned this position to assume that of general manager of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, with headquarters at Richmond, Virginia.
On the 1st of January. 1886, Mr. Smith was elected vice-president and general manager of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, with headquarters at Topeka. Kansas, and in 1888 he also became general manager of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, the line of which extended from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Mojave, California. He retained these offices until 1890, when failing health again compelled his resignation. In 1895, at the solicitation of the resident bondholders of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in Germany, Mr. Smith accepted the office of receiver of the property, the affairs of which he administered with such discrimination as to protect the interests of his foreign clients, and on the 1st of July, 1897, he effected the sale of the property to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, of the fine system of which the line is now an integral part.
In August, 1897, Mr. Smith established his home in Pasadena, California, and through the influence of friends who owned the bonds of the Pasadena & Los Angeles Electric Railway Company he became president of this corporation. On the 1st of February, 1900, he was made general manager of the Los Angeles Railway Company, with headquarters in Los Angeles. After retaining this position about eighteen months he resigned the same, on the ist of August, 1901, and was forthwith elected vice-president of the company, for a term of three years. In 1902, when the property of the Pasadena and Los Angeles electric line was sold to the Pacific Electric Company, he retired from active business, save that he retained the office of vice-president of the Union National Bank of Pasadena, a position of which he continued the incumbent until his death.
The many exactions of large official and business interests did not in the least militate against Mr. Smith's loyal and public-spirited concern in the welfare of his home city of Pasadena and in the advancement of Los Angeles and other sections of southern California. He was a valued member of the Pasadena Board of Trade and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and he manifested a deep interest in their affairs and the promotion of high civic ideals.
At the time of the Civil war Mr. Smith was actively identified with the Union League and was an uncompromising abolitionist. Thus, as may naturally be inferred, he was a staunch advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, with which he was identified from the time of its organization until his death. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows from 1852 until the close of his life, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. He also held membership in the California
Club of Los Angeles. Mr. Smith passed the gracious evening of his life in his beautiful home in Pasadena, and he spared neither time nor expense in the improvement of the property. He gave special attention to the fine gardens that adorn the place and the same contain many choice varieties of trees, shrubs and flowers, a number of which are rare specimens secured in foreign lands. He was an appreciative student of botany, and found much satisfaction and diversion in the idyllic gardens which were brought to remarkable perfection under his personal direction and care.
At Woodstock, Ohio, on the 13th of May, 1852, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss Marceline M. Sprague, who was born at Woodstock, Vermont, and whose father, Melvin Sprague, was one of the pioneers of Champaign county, Ohio. Mrs. Smith proved a devoted companion and helpmeet to her husband and was a woman of most gracious personality, presiding with dignity over the beautiful home that she made a center of refined hospitality. She was called to the life eternal in January, 1912, about six months prior to the death of her husband, and thus they were not long separated after their devoted companionship of nearly sixty years, the remains of both being taken to Chicago, for interment. They became the parents of three children, of whom only one is living : Kate, who became the wife of Chauncey Kelsey, died at Richmond, Virginia ; Ella passed away at the age of five years ; and William Henry, the only surviving member of the immediate family, is numbered among the representative business men of Pasadena.
Charles Warren Smith
When it is stated that the honored and influential citizen of Pasadena, Los Angeles county, to whom this memoir is dedicated, was for fully half a century numbered among the representative railroad men of the nation, there is given adequate evidence of the broad scope and importance of his activities, through which he became a recognized authority in connection with the administration and practical operations of railway systems. He was called to numerous executive offices of great trust and responsibility and was essentially a man of affairs, as well as one of much constructive and executive ability. During the later years of his life he lived virtually retired from the more insistent cares and exactions of business, but his vital interest in industrial, financial, economic and public affairs was not permitted to wane, the while he enjoyed, in his beautiful home in Pasadena, the gracious rewards of former years of earnest and worthy endeavor. Popular approbation is the measuring rod of character, and it is sufficient in this connection to say that Mr. Smith so ordered his course as to merit and receive the most unqualified popular confidence and esteem at all stages of his long and active career as one of the world's noble army of productive workers. He was summoned to the life eternal on the 1st of July, 1912, and survived his loved and devoted wife by only a few months.
A scion of one of the staunch old English colonial families of New England, that cradle of much of our national history, Charles Warren Smith was signally favored in ancestral heritage. He himself was a native of the Empire state of the Union, as he was born at Austerlitz, Columbia county, New York, on the 5th of September, 1831. He was a son of William DeForest Smith and Elmira (Gott) Smith, the former of whom was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1805, and the latter of whom was a native of Austerlitz, Columbia county, New York, where her father, Story Gott, born in Connecticut and of English and Scotch lineage, took up his abode in the early pioneer days, after having served as soldier in the Continental line in the War of the Revolution. In the colonial epoch of the history of New England the original progenitor of the Smith family to which the subject of this memoir belonged left Litchfield, England, and immigrated to the new world. He founded a settlement in Connecticut and gave to the same the name of his home town in England, Litchfield, which is likewise the name of the Connecticut county in which he thus established his abode. He was one of the strong characters and influential men of the community and lived a life of honor and usefulness. He and his wife continued to reside in Connecticut until their death, and their descendants are now to be found in the most diverse sections of the United States. William DeForest Smith removed from his native town of Litchfield, Connecticut, to Berkshire county, Massachusetts, where he eventually became a manufacturer of vehicles. In 1845 he removed with his family to Union county, Ohio, where, in March, 1848, he and two of his children succumbed to the scourge of cholera. His cherished and devoted wife survived him by several years and was a resident of Homer, Union county, Ohio, at the time of her death, which occurred in 1852, she having been a devout member of the Presbyterian church. Of the nine children six attained to years of maturity and two of the number are now living, — Mrs. Mary A. Fairbanks, of Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, and Mrs. Cecilia J. Richie, of Sedalia, Missouri. Mrs. Fairbanks is the mother of Hon. Charles Warren Fairbanks, former vice-president of the United States, and the latter was named in honor of Charles Warren Smith, to whom this tribute is dedicated. William Henry Smith, the fourth in order of birth of the nine children, became well known in the literary and business world and had the distinction of being the organizer of the Western Associated Press of the United States, of which he was manager until within two years of his death. He was a resident of Chicago at the time of his demise, in 1896, and the great newspaper association of which he was thus the founder was organized in the year 1869.
Charles W. Smith gained his rudimentary education in his native state and was eleven years of age at the time of the family removal to Union county, Ohio, where he was reared to maturity under the conditions and influences of the pioneer era and where he availed himself of such advantages as were afforded in the somewhat primitive schools of the day. That he made good use of these opportunities is evident when it is stated that he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors and that as a young man he was a successful teacher in the district schools, in which he held sway during the winter terms. At the age of fourteen years he went to Woodstock, Champaign county, Ohio, where he learned the trade of harness and saddle making. He did not long devote his attention to his trade, as a new field of endeavor was opened to him, bringing him into association with railroad work, in connection with which he was destined to attain to a position of marked prominence and influence. On the 1st of March, 1855, about six months prior to his twenty-fourth birthday anniversary, Mr. Smith was appointed agent at Woodstock, Ohio, for the Columbus, Piqua & Indiana Railroad. His efficient and faithful service soon brought to him promotion to the position of agent for the company in Columbus, the capital city of Ohio, and a year after assuming this incumbency he was made general freight agent for the same road. In 1867 he became general freight agent for the Panhandle system of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and this office he retained until 1870, when he resigned, to assume a similar position with the Central Pacific Railroad Company, whose line had been opened only a short time before. He thus came to California and established his official headquarters in Sacramento, but after a period of two years his health became so impaired as to necessitate his resignation. He then returned to the east, and in 1872 became general manager of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad, with headquarters in the city of Indianapolis. This position he later resigned to accept that of traffic manager for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, with headquarters in Chicago. On the 1st of May, 1880, his able services were called into requisition by the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company, with which he held the office of traffic manager for one year, with headquarters in the city of New York. He resigned this position to assume that of general manager of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, with headquarters at Richmond, Virginia.
On the 1st of January. 1886, Mr. Smith was elected vice-president and general manager of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, with headquarters at Topeka. Kansas, and in 1888 he also became general manager of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, the line of which extended from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Mojave, California. He retained these offices until 1890, when failing health again compelled his resignation. In 1895, at the solicitation of the resident bondholders of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in Germany, Mr. Smith accepted the office of receiver of the property, the affairs of which he administered with such discrimination as to protect the interests of his foreign clients, and on the 1st of July, 1897, he effected the sale of the property to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, of the fine system of which the line is now an integral part.
In August, 1897, Mr. Smith established his home in Pasadena, California, and through the influence of friends who owned the bonds of the Pasadena & Los Angeles Electric Railway Company he became president of this corporation. On the 1st of February, 1900, he was made general manager of the Los Angeles Railway Company, with headquarters in Los Angeles. After retaining this position about eighteen months he resigned the same, on the ist of August, 1901, and was forthwith elected vice-president of the company, for a term of three years. In 1902, when the property of the Pasadena and Los Angeles electric line was sold to the Pacific Electric Company, he retired from active business, save that he retained the office of vice-president of the Union National Bank of Pasadena, a position of which he continued the incumbent until his death.
The many exactions of large official and business interests did not in the least militate against Mr. Smith's loyal and public-spirited concern in the welfare of his home city of Pasadena and in the advancement of Los Angeles and other sections of southern California. He was a valued member of the Pasadena Board of Trade and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and he manifested a deep interest in their affairs and the promotion of high civic ideals.
At the time of the Civil war Mr. Smith was actively identified with the Union League and was an uncompromising abolitionist. Thus, as may naturally be inferred, he was a staunch advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, with which he was identified from the time of its organization until his death. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides which he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows from 1852 until the close of his life, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. He also held membership in the California
Club of Los Angeles. Mr. Smith passed the gracious evening of his life in his beautiful home in Pasadena, and he spared neither time nor expense in the improvement of the property. He gave special attention to the fine gardens that adorn the place and the same contain many choice varieties of trees, shrubs and flowers, a number of which are rare specimens secured in foreign lands. He was an appreciative student of botany, and found much satisfaction and diversion in the idyllic gardens which were brought to remarkable perfection under his personal direction and care.
At Woodstock, Ohio, on the 13th of May, 1852, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss Marceline M. Sprague, who was born at Woodstock, Vermont, and whose father, Melvin Sprague, was one of the pioneers of Champaign county, Ohio. Mrs. Smith proved a devoted companion and helpmeet to her husband and was a woman of most gracious personality, presiding with dignity over the beautiful home that she made a center of refined hospitality. She was called to the life eternal in January, 1912, about six months prior to the death of her husband, and thus they were not long separated after their devoted companionship of nearly sixty years, the remains of both being taken to Chicago, for interment. They became the parents of three children, of whom only one is living : Kate, who became the wife of Chauncey Kelsey, died at Richmond, Virginia ; Ella passed away at the age of five years ; and William Henry, the only surviving member of the immediate family, is numbered among the representative business men of Pasadena.
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