Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 962 - 963

OREN SMITH came to Lincoln Township in time to assist in organizing its school districts, and also to lend his aid in erecting the first two school buildings of the township. Before he could put up a permanent shelter for his family he was obliged to haul lumber from Cottonwood Falls, a distance of 100 miles. He has engaged in many a buffalo hunt over the country which is now laid off in beautiful farms, and where villages are developing into towns of respectable proportions, and has watched with the interest which every intelligent man feels the growth and development of a new section of country. He is now numbered among the extensive stock-raisers of the northeastern portion of the county, where he has been no unimportant factor in its prosperity.

            A native of Ashtabula County, Ohio, our subject was born at the homestead of his parents in 1842, and was the third in a family of five, the offspring of Orville and Nancy (Tobias) Smith, natives respectively of Ohio and New York. The paternal grandparents, Elkin Smith and his wife, were natives of New York State, and the maternal grandfather was Jason Tobias. The maiden name of the latter's wife was Haines.

            The father of our subject carried on farming and milling, and spent his entire life in his native State, his death occurring in 1856. The wife and mother is still living and makes her home in Ashtabula County. Their five children, four of whom are living, were named respectively: Harriet; Mary, deceased; Oren, our subject; Edward L. and Sarah J. Oren, of our sketch, spent his boyhood and youth in an uneventful manner, attending the district school and becoming familiar with the various employments of the farm. He carried on agriculture for himself awhile after attaining his majority. Previous to this, however, after the outbreak of the Rebellion and when but a youth of nineteen years, he enlisted in Company F, 2d Ohio Cavalry, on the 20th of August, 1861, for three years. He was mustered into service at Cleveland, and was actively engaged in the battles at Monticello, Ky., in 1861, at Knoxville, Tenn., under Gen. Burnside, and in the battle of the Wilderness under command of Gen. Grant. Later, under Sheridan, he was in the Shenandoah Valley, and at the expiration of his first term of service re-enlisted in the same company and regiment. He received his honorable discharge at Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 20, 1865, after having been mustered out of service in St. Louis, Mo.

            Mr. Smith, upon his return to his old tramping grounds in Ohio, resumed farming, and in 1867 was united in marriage with Miss Lydia A. Wibirt. Mrs. Smith is a native of Chenango County, N. Y., and was born in 1846. She was the seventh of ten children who comprised the family of Thomas and Mary Ann (Sanford) Wibirt, natives respectively of New York and Connecticut. Her paternal grandparents, Benjamin and Sylvia (Kella) Wibirt, were natives of Massachusetts, and the mother's parents, Levi and Elizabeth (Tyrrell) Sanford, were born in Connecticut. Grandfather Sanford was a minute man in the War of 1812.

            Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Smith emigrated to Randolph County, Mo., where our subject carried on farming three years, and removing thence in the spring of 1871, took up his residence in Lincoln Township, this county. Here he homesteaded a quarter of section 28, which he commenced at once to improve, and to which he has added until he is now the possessor of 240 acres. This he has brought to a good state of cultivation, and provided with neat and substantial buildings. The farm is admirably adapted to the raising of grain and stock, and well watered by a good creek which passes through it. Mr. Smith keeps high-grade Durham cattle, Norman horses and full-blood Poland-China hogs. He is not very active in politics otherwise than to cast his vote with the Republican party. He has held the office of Township Treasurer, and has contributed his full quota toward its reputation as a desirable place of residence for the enterprising and industrious individual seeking his fortunes west of the Mississippi.

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