Santa Clara County Biographies


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



 
WALTER L. SMITH 
 
owns and occupies a a beautiful cottage home on the Meridian road, near the 
crossing of Los Gatos Creek, in the Hamilton District. His orchard, of six 
acres, nearly all in full bearing, is planted chiefly with prunes and apricots, 
with a variety of other fruits for domestic use. The property was bought in 
1882, and the residence designed, built, and occupied by Mr. Smith the following 
year.
        Mr. Smith was born in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, March 31, 1823. 
His youth was spent principally in Massachusetts. The tide of emigration to the 
New El Dorado caught him in its outward flow, and November 12, 1849, he embarked 
in the sail ship Euphrasia for a trip around Cape Horn. The voyage was marked by 
no untoward event. The vessel passed the Golden Gate, and landed her passengers 
at San Francisco, May 26, 1850. The two following years Mr. Smith spent 
profitably in placer mining, in Tuolumne County. From February, 1853, to 1870, 
he was interested with others in lumber manufacture, under the firm name of 
Smith, Dudley & Co., his brother John being one of the firm, in Mariposa County. 
The company were extensively engaged in furnishing lumber for the construction 
of quartz mills, bridges, etc.
        Mr. Smith returned to Massachusetts, in 1885, and married Miss Caroline 
Hill. She died in San Francisco, in 1869. In 1870 he removed to San Francisco, 
where he lived about a year, during which time he went to Lawrence, 
Massachusetts, where he married Mrs. Adeline M. (Childs) Train. In 1871 he 
removed from San Francisco to Stanislaus County, where he remained until 1880, 
as the resident manager of a water right for San Francisco parties. His life in 
the years up to 1880 were very active and energetic, but now he is living in a 
somewhat retired way, at his pleasant home in the Hamilton District.
 
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, 
Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 
1888.
Pg. 474