Alameda County Biographies

Jacob V. Smeaton

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

	Jacob V. Smeaton is an active and enterprising representative of business interests in 
Oakland as general manager of the C. A. Smith Lumber Company, which important position he has 
held since 1911. His birth occurred in Montgomery county, New York, on the 20th of December, 
1868, his parents being James and Elizabeth Smeaton. He attended the graded .and high schools 
in the acquirement of an education and following his graduation, in 1886, secured a position as 
bookkeeper with the John E. Sutphen Lumber Company, being thus employed until 1888. In that year 
he went to Rochester, New York, where he acted as bookkeeper for the Hollister Lumber Company 
until 1890 and was then transferred to their branch in North Tonawanda, New York, there serving 
as bookkeeper until 1893. Mr. Smeaton was in that year made manager and held the position until 
1901, when he resigned and went to Ashland, Wisconsin, there establishing the Spider Lake Sawmill 
& Lumber Company, of which he acted as treasurer and manager until disposing of his interests in 
1909. He then went to Marshfield, Oregon, and there had charge of a mill for the C. A. Smith 
Lumber Company until 1911, when he was transferred to Oakland, California, as general manager of 
the concern, and in that connection his efforts have since constituted no small factor in its 
continued growth and success.
	In Passaic, New Jersey, on the 24th of January, 1893, Mr. Smeaton was united in marriage 
to Miss Jennie F. Birch, by whom he has two children: James D., a youth of sixteen, who is 
attending high school; and Samuel Edgar, who is eleven years old and a public-school student.
	In his political views Mr. Smeaton is a republican, exercising his right of franchise in 
support of the men and measures of that party. In Masonry he is identified with both the York and 
Scottish Rites and also with the Mystic Shrine. He is a past commander of Ashland Commandery of 
Ashland, Wisconsin, and a popular member of the Athenian Club and the Commercial Club of San 
Francisco. Mr. Smeaton is widely and favorably known for his straight�forward and honorable methods 
both in business and social relations and is numbered among the successful and representative 
citizens of Oakland, being highly esteemed for his sterling worth and as a promoter of all that 
tends to advance the general welfare.

Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914, p. 171