Smithi

Transcribed from "History of North Washington, an illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties", published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.

     IRVING 0. SMITH, an estimable citizen of Wenatchee, Chelan county, at present engaged in the fruit business, is a New Englander by birth, the place of his nativity being Point Shirley, Massachusetts. He was born March 9, 1847. The ancestors of his father, Theodore Smith, came to the United States over two hundred years ago, and they have taken prominent parts in all of the wars since that period. The father of our subject died in Illinois, in 1888. The mother, Emily (Walker) Smith, was a native of Williamstown, Vermont, descended from an old New England family. She died when our subject was but three years of age.
     The latter attained his majority in Illinois, where he was, practically, reared and educated in the state normal school of Illinois. He subsequently taught school two years, going to Kansas soon after he had reached his twenty-first year. Soon after this he was in Denver, Colorado, engaged in mining, which occupation he pursued six or seven years, and the following seven years he was in California, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, engaged in various lines of business. He came to Spokane in the spring of 1887 and followed the dairy business in company with his brother, Edward. In 1891 he arrived in Wenatchee, and devoted his attention to dairying and ranching. Subsequently he went to Vancouver, British Columbia, and, for four years, was in the ice cream and confectionery business. Going thence to Seattle he built a house and invested in property in that city, but returned to Wenatchee, where at present he resides. He has four brothers, Edward F., Justus K., Joseph and Bert, and three sisters, Josephine, Addie and Lida, single, and residing with her mother in California.
     At Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 11, 1875, our subject was married and the fruit of this union is two boys, Irving W. and Theodore C., the elder of whom, Theodore, 20 years old, is a rising electrician of Seattle, while the younger, Irving, 17 years of age, is with his parents on the ranch. Mr. Smith is a member of the Free Methodist church and politcally a Prohibitionist.