California Biographies Mendocino and Lake Counties, California Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California With Biographical Sketches History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry Illustrated, Complete In One Volume Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914 ANDREW SMITH. � Were inquiry to be made among the people of Lake county as to the greatest need of this section of the state some would respond "A railroad !" Others would assert the greatest need to be a larger number of men of enterprise and patriotic spirit. The railroad is now among the certainties of the not distant future, while the presence of Mr. Smith and men of like energy and ability is a most favorable omen for a growing, high- minded and desirable citizenship. The identification of Mr. Smith with local industries is varied. Not only is he proprietor of a general merchandise store at Kelseyville and a director of the Farmers' Savings Bank at Lakeport. but in addition he has a homestead of forty acres half way between Lakeport and Kelseyville, another ranch of equal size two and one-half miles west of Kelseyville, a third tract of thirty-five acres in the former Hudson hold- ings in Big valley and one hundred and sixty acres in the mountains twelve miles east and south of Kelseyville or two and one-half miles north of Siegler's Springs, thirty-five acres of the quarter section being under cultivation to fruit, fifteen acres being in pears and the remainder in apples, peaches, plums, prunes, etc. His local holdings are increased by the ownership of two resi- dence properties in Kelseyville and two in Lakeport. Born in New York City May 2, 1855, Andrew Smith was one year old when his father, Thomas Smith, moved to Wisconsin and settled near Madi- son. At nine years of age he accompanied the family from Wisconsin to Iowa and settled in Woodbury county, where he attended the public schools. When nineteen he went further west, spending one year on a ranch in Wyoming. During 1875 he prospected in the Black Hills, going next overland to Bis- marck, N. D., and thence up the Missouri river to the mouth of the Yellow- stone, where he hired to the government, freighting up the river from Fort Buford to Fort Keogh, near the present site of Miles City, Mont. He then engaged as a scout under General Miles, whom he accompanied on many perilous expeditions and in all the work that ended the Indian depredations in that part of Montana after the capture of the Cheyenne chief. Lame Deer. after this he carried the mail on horseback one hundred and eighty miles from Fort Buford to Fort Keogh, Mont., the only station between being Glen- dive, a government station, traveling mostly at night. During all this time he had many hairbreadth escapes from the Indians. Next he located at Glendive and successfully hunted buffaloes for three years. For eight years he had lived the life of a frontiersman. Interesting as was the existence and delightful as are many of its memories (chief among these being the recol- lections of a warm friendship with Theodore Roosevelt, then operating a ranch at Medora, N. Dak., he wearied of being without a home, and so returned to Iowa, where. May 12, 1883, he married Miss Mary Moody, a former schoolmate in Woodbury county. She was born near Detroit, Mich., the daughter of David and Mary (Leach) Moody, natives of Ireland and England, respectively, who settled in Michigan and later moved to Wood- bury county as pioneer farmers, and there Mrs. Smith was reared and edu- cated and taught school before her marriage. Accompanied by his young wife, Mr. Smith returned to the frontier. .About 1883 he had established a cattle ranch on Beaver creek in the eastern part of Montana, near Wibaux, and there he built a cabin and began housekeeping. A year before his marriage Mr. Smith had driven out from Iowa a fine drove of one hundred head of cattle. This herd formed the nucleus of his cattle business. In 1886 he sold the cattle and bought horses. From that time until 1906 he engaged in raising horses, but a desire to secure better educational advantages for his children and to engage in less arduous enter- prises on his own part caused him to remove to California, where he is mer- chant, bank director and fruit-grower in Lake county. Coming here in 1905, he bought his home ranch of forty acres. The next year he returned to Wibaux, Mont., and closed out all of his ranch interests, selling his tract of twenty-four hundred acres and bringing his family to the California home. All of his children are living except the second, Harry, who was accidentally killed at the age of fourteen years on the Montana ranch. The others are as follows: Jennie is the wife of J. W. Jones, a rancher and contractor at Wibaux. Mont. ; Olive M., a graduate of the Clear Lake union high school and San Jose State Normal, and at one time a teacher in the grammar school at Lakeport, is the wife of Edgar Mason, of Upper Lake; Roscoe M., a graduate of the Clear Lake union high school and of Heald's Business College at San Jose, assists his father in the store ; Ruth and Hazel are both students in the Clear Lake union high school ; Herbert Arthur and Joseph Andrew are pupils in the grammar school. The ambition of the parents has been to surround the children with every possible advantage, so that they may be thoroughly prepared for life's responsibilities.