No man now living in Barry County is more widely known to all the people of the county or more universally esteemed than Clement McDonald Smith, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit since 1893. He is the son of David W. Smith and Leonora McDonald, pioneers of Barry County. Born December 4, 1844, near Fort Wayne, Indiana, he was brought in infancy by his parents to the farm near Nashville where they had settled. His early years were spent on the farm, where when old enough he bore his share of the labors of the pioneer days, going to the district school in the winters and imbibing such knowledge as those primitive conditions could afford. At the age of sixteen he entered the Academy at Vermontille, where he spent one year in adding to his stock of knowledge. Then, like many another ambitious boy of those days, he taught school winters and worked on the arm summers. The scenes of thee youthful labors in the school room were Coats Grove, Barryville and the Star district near Hastings. In 1865 he entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, where he remained one year. His straightforward circumstances did not permit him to go on with his class, but, with determination to realize his professional ambition, he returned home and taught school another year, reading law in the office of Frank Allen and while teaching in the grammar grades in Charlotte he continued his legal studies in the office of Attorney Edward A. Foote. He was admitted to the bar before Judge Woodruff of Charlotte in April, 1868. Forty-five years after his class at Ann Arbor graduated, the honorary degree of Bachelor of Laws was conferred upon Judge Smith, an honor that came to him entirely unsought, in recognition of his distinguished services in the realm of jurisprudence.
After his admission to the bar he opened a law office in Nashville, supplementing his practice by teaching in the first union school opened in that village. In 1869 he went to Middleville and formed a law partnership with Harvey Wright which was continued for about six months. In 1870 he returned to Nashville and practiced law there until 1876, when he was elected Judge of Probate and removed to Hastings. For eight years he performed the responsibilities of this office to the satisfaction of the public.
In the fall of 1880 he formed a partnership with Hon. Philip T. Colgrove of Hastings, which continued until Judge Smith was called to the bench.
In 1889 Circuit Judge Hooker appointed Judge Smith Prosecuting Attorney to fill the vacancy caused by the death of C. H. Van Arman. On January 3, 1893, Governor John T. Rich, then just entering upon his office, made his first appointment, b placing Judge Smith upon the Circuit bench of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, comprising at that time the Counties of Barry, Eaton, and Calhoun, to succeed Judge Hooker, who had been elevated to the Supreme bench of the state. Ever since that time Judge Smith has occupied this responsible position. At the end of his appointive term he was elected by a majority of 1.529, and at each succeeding election his majority has been increased, until in the spring of 1911, his nomination was endorsed by all parties and he was returned to his judicial position without an opposition.
In 1903 President McKinley tendered Judge Smith the Associate Justiceship of the Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico. After careful consideration, Judge Smith declined this high honor.
Besides his professional and official duties Judge Smith has found time to form fraternal associations, to attend to other lines of business, to take and active part in his church, the Methodist Episcopal, in whose Sunday school he has been a faithful teacher many years. His services as a speaker are always at the command of his friends, and often are availed of, on all manner of public occasions. Fraternally Judge Smith is a Mason, member of Hastings Blue Lodge and Chapter and of Charlotte Commandery. He is President of the Masonic Temple Association of Hastings, Mich. He is also member of the Knights of Pythias.
He is President of the Hastings National Bank and is interested in other business enterprises. For many years he has been Historian of the County Pioneer Society.
He was married May 17, 1871, to Miss Frances M. Wheeler, daughter of Milo T. Wheeler of Woodland. Mrs. Smith has been active in women's club work and is an ex-President of the State Federation of Women's Clubs. They have three children—Shirley W., who holds the responsible position of Secretary of the University of Michigan; Donald D., a civil engineer now connected with the Southern Surety Company at St. Louis, Mo., as consulting engineer; and Gertrude J. Smith of Hastings.