Leander Smith, banker at Morrison, is one of the most prominent business men in Northern Illinois. He is senior member of the banking firm of Smith & Mackay, and has been president of the First National Bank of Morrison since its organization in 1865. The ancestors of Mr. Smith belonged to the old Puritan stock that settled in Mass. and his immediate progenitors located at and near Ipswich, in that State. From there, Nathan Smith, his father, traced direct lineal descent. The grandparents of Mr. Smith settled in Mt. Vernon, NH, where Nathan was born in 1777. Nancy Lamson, who became his wife, was born in Mt. Vernon in 1782 and they became the parents of two sons, Nathan Jr and Leander. The former died in Athol Mass. in Jan. 1879 and left a wife and three children.
Nathan Smith Sr. was by vocation a manufacturer of woolen cloth and after marriage went to Templeton Mass. In 1838 he removed to Royalston, in the same State, and died there in 1849. His wife died at the same place in 1854.
Mr. Smith was born Feb. 10, 1819 in Templeton Mass. In addition to the business of a manufacturer his father owned and conducted a farm, where his family lived and where his sons were brought up. Mr. Smith lived on the farm until he was 16 years of age, when he was sent to an academy at New Ipswich NH, where he obtained a substantial elementary education. At the age of 17 he began teaching and spent six successive winters in the pursuit of that vocation. Meanwhile he was engaged in studious preparation for a professional life, and as opportunity offered, he began to read medicine. He matriculated in the Medical Dept. of Dartmouth College in Hanover NH, from which he was graduated with the degree of M.D. in 1842, when he was 23 years of age.
He entered upon his initiatory career as a physician and surgeon at Richmond NH where he practiced with success for about three years. He was not content with the scope and acquisitions of his life as a professional man, and in order to extend his business relations he left Richmond and went to Tioga Co PA, when the rich lumber resources of that section was being opened and which afforded a promising field for the exercise of the abilities and ambitions of Mr. Smith. His professional skill was as valuable a resource as the energies and financial ability he brought to bear upon the situation, and he conducted his business as a physician with all the interest and ardor demanded by the exigencies of the location. he entered heavily into the manufacture and sale of lumber and combined therewith a mercantile enterprise of considerable proportions. His location was at Elkland and he was engaged in the pursuit of his several interests in Tioga County from 1845 to 1853.
Meanwhile, the glowing and exciting accounts of the golden harvest on the Pacific coast, ripe for the reapers, aroused all sectionf of the New World and Mr. Smith joined the "Argonauts," as the earliest immigrants to California were designated. He went in March 1849 to the sunset slope of the Western Continent, to avail himself of the mining resources. At that time the city of Sacramento was a hamlet of tents, and a few unpretentious houses occupied the site of the present magnificent city of the Golden Gate. The local government was in a state of chaos from existing circumstances; the rapid influx of pupulation of a most miscellaneous character, setting aside all regulations of law and order; and in the absence of authority, every man was a power unto himself and exercised his assumed perogatives according to his own interpretations of the rights and privileges to himself accruing, by virtue of his understanding, his interests, or his prejudices, or whatever his standpoint might be.
Mr. Smith engaged in prospecting on the North Fork of the American River, and he remained about a year. He was an efficient auxiliary in the administration of measures to secure the tranquility and protection of the people, the government being in a formative condition.
He returned to PA in 1850, after a year of successful operation in the Golden State, and resumed the duties of his former business connections. In 1853, he went to Vinton, Benton Co IA under the same impetus which had led him to PA. He established his practice there and became speedily and extensively identified with the general interests of the place. He qcquired the prorpietorship of large trcts of Government land, and he platted an addition to the village of Vinton, which is still designated by his name. After operating at that point a year, he went to Lyons IA and prosecuted his professional business and other interests two years.
In 1856 he came to Fulton, Whiteside Co IL, where he devoted his attention to he prosecution of financial projects and enterprises, and also engaged extensively in the manufacture and sale of lumber. He prosecuted his interests in that direction at Fulton 10 years and during that time he secured large tracts of Government land in Wisconsin and Minnesota, covered with pine timber, the latter being removed and the land afterwards sold to settlers for farms.
Mr. Smith inaugurated the private banking enterprise of Smith, Root & Co. at Fulton in 1856 in which he retained a controlling interest until 1864 under which the enterprise was established at Morrison - L. Smith & Co. In 1865 the latter was converted into the First National Bank, with Mr. Smith as President and A.J. Jackson, Cashier. In January 1885 the bank commenced business under its first extension of franchise, its original charter having expired at the end of 20 years.
In the fall of 1862 while a resident of Fulton, Mr. Smith was elected to represent his district in the Legislature of IL and in the fall of 1864 he was re-elected to the same position. He served on Committees on Banks, Corporations and State Institutions and on several others of minor importance. He performed his duties in the interests of his constituency in an able and characteristic manner. He introduced several important bills, among which was that providing for the building of the Rockford, Rock Island and St. Louis RR, now the property of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy corporation.
In 1876 Mr. Smith became a resident of Morrison, and in 1878 he founded the private banking house of Smith & Mackay, of which he is the senior member and which has been from the outset engaged in the transaction of extensive and satisfactory financial operaitons. He has continued his trafic in real estate and has devoted much attention to the general improvement of land in Whiteside County, where he is the proprietor of 2,000 acres of land under excellent cultivaion. He is also the owner of several thousand acres of land in Iowa, nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Since becoming a citizen of Whiteside County, he has been continuously identified iwth the local interests of Fulton and Morrison. He officiated several years as members of the Council in the former place and also served that municipality some years as City Treasurer. On the organization of the
College of Northern IL, at Fulton, he was constituted a member of the Board of Trustees, and with the exception of interim of one year, he has acted as its Treasurer continuously.
Mr. Smith was united in marriage Aug. 18, 1843 in Richmond NH to Elizabeth Parkhurst. She was born in Richmond and was the daughter of Dr. John Parkhurst of that place. She died Jan. 31, 1851 at Elkland PA. Mr. Smith entered into a second alliance May 2, 1855 with Dolly Ann Allen. She was born in Cortland Co NY. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been the parents of six children. Elizabeth, second child, is deceased. Alice is the oldest. Frank L. is cashier in the banking house of Smith & Mackay. Louis W. is his successor in the order of birth. Edward A. is a bookkeeper in the bank. Harry W. is the youngest child.
Portrait & Biographical 1885 Pg 303
