Francis L. Smith

Francis L. Smith
Member of the Virginia Senate
from the 14th district
In office
December 3, 1879 – December 5, 1883
Preceded byWilliam H. F. Lee
Succeeded byElisha E. Meredith
Personal details
BornFrancis Lee Smith Jr.
(1845-10-06)October 6, 1845
Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
DiedAugust 25, 1916(1916-08-25) (aged 70)
Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
PartyDemocratic
SpouseJannie Sutherlin
Alma materVirginia Military Institute
Military service
Allegiance Confederate States
Branch/serviceConfederate States Army
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Francis Lee Smith Jr. (October 6, 1845 – August 25, 1916) was an Confederate veteran, lawyer and politician who served in the Virginia Senate and as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1902, representing his native Alexandria.[1][2]

Early and family life

Born in Alexandria in 1845, to the former Sarah Gosnell Vowell (an Alexandria native) and her lawyer husband, Francis Lee Smith Sr. His father had been born in Warrenton, Virginia in 1808 and would die in Alexandria in 1877. His middle name designates his membership through his grandfather in the Lee Family of Virginia, one of the First Families of Virginia, but other ancestors who emigrated in early colonial days included Major John Smith, Col. George Reade, Col. Miles Cary and Col. William Ball.[3] and his mother in (nearer) Fairfax County, Virginia.[4] His father was elected as Alexandria's representative to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1848 but only served a single term. He had an elder brother, Cliffie H. Smith, and younger brother, Courtland Smith, and sisters Margaret, Mary, Alice and Sarah, and the household also included a 45 year old white housekeeper, Nora Bell.[5] In the 1850 federal census, the family owned four enslaved people,[6] and a decade later Smith Sr. owned 13,000 in real estate and personal property including six enslaved people, of whom all but one were women.[7]

Smith was educated in Alexandria preparatory schools (public schools not existing until after the Civil War), then sent to Lexington to complete his studies at the Virginia Military Institute during the American Civil War. He graduated in 1864.[8] He then read law.

Military service

Despite his youth and family's desire to educate him, Smith as a private in the Confederate Army as the VMI cadet corps fought at the Battle of New Market, during which he was wounded in the chin and shoulder.[9][10][11] As an adult, he continued military service, serving as captain of the Alexandria Light Infantry in 1878. He rose to the rank of major of the Third Regiment of Virginia Volunteers in 1881, and the following year became the regiment's lieutenant colonel.[12]

Career

Admitted to the bar in Alexandria in 1867, Smith worked as the city's corporation attorney in 1870-1874,[13] He also worked for the Richmond and Danville Railroad before moving back to Alexandria in 1876,[14] where he had a private practice as the attorney for various corporations, including the Pennsylvania Railroad which operated in the city. At some time after Alexandria established (segregated) public schools in 1870, Smith served as president of the school board, and he also for a time served on the board of visitors for his alma mater. Adams also served as a member of the board of directors of the Citizen's National Bank of Alexandria.[15]

In 1879, voters in Alexandria City and adjoining Arlington (then known as Alexandria County), Fairfax and Prince William Counties elected Smith to the Virginia Senate, the previously two-senator district that also had included Loudoun County having been split, so he effectively replaced Rooney Lee and veteran politician Charles E. Sinclair.[16][17] He also served as an alderman for his home time from 1885-1887,[18] and as a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901 representing Alexandria City and Alexandria County.[19]

Personal life

Smith married Janie L. Sutherlin of Danville, Virginia on November 20, 1871, but she died in 1876, leaving this man to raise their daughter (also named Janie).[20]

Death and legacy

Smith is buried at Alexandria's Presbyterian Cemetery. He also survived his daughter, but before her death, she married Edward Ware Barrett of Athens, Georgia, and bore a daughter who reached adulthood.

References

  1. ↑ Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography (1915) vol. 3, pp. 268-269, available at hathitrust.org.
  2. ↑ Men of Mark in Virginia: Ideals of American Life. Vol. 3. Washington, D.C.: Men of Mark Publishing Co. 1907. pp. 372–374. Retrieved February 5, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ Men of Mark (1901) Vol. 3 pp. 372-374
  4. ↑ this man's death certificate, available online
  5. ↑ 1860 U.S. Federal Census for Alexandria, Virginia p. 173 of 260
  6. ↑ a 45 year old man, 40 and 19 year old women and a 12 year old girl in 1850 U.S. Federal Census slave schedule for Alexandria, Virginia p. 6 of 15
  7. ↑ a 21 year old man, women aged 63, 50, 38, 23 and 20 years, in 1860 U.S. Federal Census slave schedule for Alexandria, Virginia p. 9 of 18
  8. ↑ Tyler
  9. ↑ Tyler
  10. ↑ Index to Compiled Confederate Military Service Records available online
  11. ↑ Men of Mark available online as
  12. ↑ Tyler
  13. ↑ T. Michael Miller, Alexandria (Virginia) City Officialdom, 1749-1992 (Heritage Books Inc. p. 35, the archivist's book includes a date before that in Tyler, and notes no new corporation attorney until C.E. Stuart in 1875, although the Commonwealth attorney (prosecutor) changed two years earlier)
  14. ↑ Men of Mark, vol.? p. 566
  15. ↑ Tyler
  16. ↑ Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 531, 536
  17. ↑ Swem, Earl G. (1918). Register of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1776–1918. Richmond: Virginia State Library. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  18. ↑ Tyler
  19. ↑ Leonard p. 573
  20. ↑ Tyler
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