MARYLAND MANUAL. 31

In January session, 1896, Governor Jackson was chairman
of the committee on finance, and member of the committees on
executive nominations and contingent expenses of the Senate.

Governor Jackson is a man of conviction, performing his
duty with a conscientious regard to his position. As chairman
of the finance committee, he is painstaking, careful, watching all
improper attempts on the State treasury, but just and liberal
towards those matters that commend themselves to his ripened
judgment. A marked characteristic of Governor Jackson is his
unwavering fidelity to his friends—if he believes in a man and his
cause, he is untiring in efforts on his behalf, immovable in his
friendship.

WORCESTER COUNTY.

Senator John Walter Smith.

Col. John Walter Smith, Democrat, was born in Snow Hill,
on the 5th of February. 1845. His father's name was also John
Walter Smith, his mother's name was Charlotte Whittington
Smith, the daughter of Judge William Whittington, who was
one of the early judges of this judicial circuit, was a man of
wealth, and owned and resided upon the property which after-
wards became the residence of the late Judge William Tingle,
in Snow Hill, and built the large brick house which still stands as
originally constructed. He was an able lawyer and a learned
judge. Col. Smith's father belonged to a family which for
many years was among the most prominent in this county. He
moved from Snow Hill to Baltimore, and there engaged largely
in the wholesale grocery business, but owing to reverses caused
by a financial panic, whereby he lost large sums of money in the
South, he returned to Snow Hill, where he died in 1850, leaving
the subject of this sketch an orphan, with but small means avail,
able for his education and support. After his father's death,
Col. Smith's relation, the late Walter P. Snow, an able lawyer
and a man much beloved in his community, was appointed guar-
dian, and upon Mr. Snow's death, the late Senator Wilson
became his guardian. He was sent to school at Union Academy
in Snow Hill, where he pursued the English and classical course
of that institution. At school he was noted for his studious habits
and good scholarship, excelling especially in mathematics. He
left school at the age of eighteen to accept a position as clerk in
the large mercantile house of George H. Richardson & Brother,
of Snow Hill. In this position he soon evinced an unusual tal-
ent for business, and as a result was taken in as a partner in the
firm while still quite a young man. This firm, now known as
Richardson, Smith, Moore & Co., after Mr. Smith became a
member of it, engaged largely in the lumber business, both in