Hon. Frank Elbert Smith, who has the well earned reputation of being the leading; oyster grower of Connecticut, has been engaged continuously in this line of business since 1871 and there is no phase of the work in its practical or in its scientific interests with which he is not thoroughly familiar. He was born in New Haven. Connecticut, July 31, 1834, and is a son of Giles Griswold and Emily (Potter) Smith. The father was born in Haddam, Middlesex county, Connecticut, and was a son of David Smith, a farmer and shoemaker, who for many years resided at Madison, Connecticut, where his death occurred. His wife bore the maiden name of Mercy Griswold. The maternal grandfather, William Potter, was a merchant of New Haven and wedded Miss Mary Bills.
     Giles Griswold Smith pursued his education in the schools of Middlesex and of New Haven counties and in young manhood took up his abode in the city of New Haven, where he followed the sea in connection with an old sailing fleet engaged in the West India trade. He devoted many years to activity of that character and later was employed by the New Haven Rubber Company, after which he went south to locate, but the feeling manifested toward the northern people at that time—just prior to the Civil war—caused him to return to New Haven and again enter into active relations with the New Haven Rubber Company. Subsequently he removed to Madison and became engaged in the fishing industry—at that period a most important one in this section. He afterward purchased the fishing pounds at Stony Creek, New Haven county, and took up the business of oyster growing, becoming superintendent of the Stony Creek Oyster Company in 1870. He was associated with that undertaking until 1873, when he severed his connections with the Stony Creek Company and engaged in the fishing business and in oyster growing on his own account. He died at Stony Creek in 1890, exactly twenty years from the date when he took up his abode there. His widow survives and yet lives at Stony Creek.
     Frank Elbert Smith, their son and the immediate subject of this biographical review, pursued his education in the schools of New Haven and of Madison, Connecticut, and was engaged with his father in the oyster business as early as 1871, being at that time a youth of seventeen years. He afterward followed oyster growing in the winter seasons, while in the summer months he sailed pleasure yachts which he owned, dividing his time in this manner for fourteen years. He was the owner of the trim yacht Tigress, which had quite a reputation for being one of the fleetest centerboard boats along the Connecticut shore. This boat he sold to a noted Turk, who had commissioned the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to buy for him a good American yacht. The reputation of the Tigress brought a representative of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to see the boat, with which he was so well pleased that the purchase was consummated. The Tigress was then sent to Constantinople on the deck of a ship full of rifles and it was the first centerboard yacht to reach Turkey, where it was renamed the Yankee Doodle and where it kept up its reputation in Turkish waters by winning all the races for which it was entered. In 1885 Mr. Smith purchased the controlling interest in the Stony Creek Oyster Company, which was incorporated in 1868, and since that date he has been an active factor in the control of the business. The Stony Creek oysters enjoy a well merited reputation which has made the name a synonym for quality and has caused the output to be eagerly sought by dealers. Mr. Smith ships oyster seed all over the United States and has sent car-loads of Stony Creek oyster seed from his beds to the Pacific coast. The Stony Creek Oyster Company has over one hundred acres planted to oyster beds under water and they are among the largest growers of oysters in Connecticut. There is no man more familiar with this line of business than Mr. Smith, who has been associated therewith for forty-six years and has watched the development of the trade and at the same time has kept in touch with the most progressive and scientific methods of oyster propagation. Among his outside interests is that of a director of the Guilford Savings Bank.
     On the llth of November, 1870, Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Helen Bishop, of Niantic, Connecticut, who was born in Meriden, Connecticut, but during her infancy was taken to Stony Creek, where she was reared. She is a daughter of Nathaniel H. and Adeline (Doolittle) Bishop. The father was a native of Meriden, Connecticut, and became a tinsmith of Stony Creek. His wife was born in North Haven, Connecticut, and both have now passed away. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born two daughters: Gertrude K., who is the wife of Herbert K. Hanna, of Norwich, Connecticut, and has one son, Marvin; and Maude H., who is secretary of the Stony Creek Oyster Company and is a graduate of the Normal School of Gymnastics of New Haven.
     In politics Mr. Smith is a stalwart republican and for fifteen years he represented the Stony Creek district on the Branford school board. He was appointed by the selectmen of Branford to the board of finance in 1916 and is now acting in that capacity. In 1904 he was elected to represent his district in the house of representatives and served in the session of 1905, acting on the fisheries and game committee. His religious faith is that of the Congregational church, his membership being with the church of that denomination at Stony Creek, where he has acted as superintendent of the Sunday school for twenty-five years, although he is not serving at the present time. He has been a trustee of the church since 1890 and is now one of its deacons. He belongs to Widows Son Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M., of Branford, and is a charter member of the local organization of the New England Order of Protection at Branford. He belongs to the Connecticut Oyster Growers' Association, of which he is now treasurer, and he is a director and the auditor of the Oyster Growers' & Dealers' Association of North America, which he assisted in organizing in New York city. His interests and his activities arc thus broad and varied and have to do with many things which directly bear upon the welfare and progress of the individual and of the community. His business career has been actuated by a spirit of laudable enterprise and ambition, and his determined purpose and capable management have brought him prominently to the front among the oyster growers of New England.