George Clarence Smith, president of the People's National Bank, of Kansas City, Kan., has been engaged in commercial pursuits since his seventeenth year, the most of that time having been spent in the banking business in the cities of Ottawa and Kansas City. He was born in Osage, Iowa, June 6, 1860, a son of Hiram R. Smith and wife, whose maiden name was Lydia Ann Culver. Hiram R. Smith, whose vocation was that of a merchant, is a native of Erie county, New York, born Jan. 23, 1834, to Richard and Elizabeth Mack Smith, both of whom were natives of New York state. He is one of ten children, while his wife, Lydia Ann (Culver) Smith, is one of a family of sixteen. Of these twenty-six children all have lived to be more than sixty years of age. Hiram R. Smith removed from New York state to Iowa in 1858, and became one of the founders of the town of Osage in Mitchell county. In 1862 he returned to New York state from Iowa and has resided in Westfield, Chautauqua county, continuously since that time. Lydia Ann Smith was born in Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, July 3, 1836, a daughter of Harmon Culver and Mary McMillan, both natives of New York state. She, too, is living, but all of her fifteen brothers and sisters are dead.

George C. Smith was but two years old when his parents returned to New York, and he was therefore reared and educated in that state. He left school, however, at the age of sixteen and accepted whatever employment he could obtain. At seventeen he became a clerk in a bank in Westfield, where he spent four and a half years in that employment and then became a bookkeeper. In 1881, when he had reached his majority, he went to East Hamburg, Erie county, New York, where for one year and a half he was cashier of a large canning factory. In January, 1884, deciding to seek the greater opportunities of the West, he came to Kansas and first located at. Ottawa, where he resided for twenty-five years, during the whole of which time he was identified with the First National Bank of that city. He started in as a teller, later he became assistant cashier, and finally cashier, which position he held thirteen years. He resigned his position as cashier in 1908 and removed to Kansas City, Kan., where he became one of the organizers of the People's National Bank, of which he has been president since its organization.

On Jan. 31, 1888, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Laura Patterson, of Junction City, born, however, at Bucyrus, Ohio, Jan. 23, 1865. They have two children: Laurence Powars, born June 18, 1892, and Margaret Patterson, born Oct. 13, 1896.

Mr. Smith was for ten years a member of the park commission while a resident of Ottawa. He is director, secretary and treasurer of the Bonner-Brand Portland Cement Co, of Bonner Springs; secretary and treasurer of the Ottawa Gas & Heating Co. from 1887 to 1892; one of the incorporators and is president of the Ottawa Condensing Co.; is a director of the Boiler Works; a director and treasurer of the Associated Charities; is president of the Mercantile Club of Kansas City, Kan., and is vice-president for Kansas of the American Bankers' Association. He is a member of the Elm Ridge Golf Club, of Kansas City. He is a Mason and an Elk, and both he and his wife are communicants of the First Presbyterian Church at Kansas City, Kan.