SKETCHES OF STATE OFFICERS. 235

Biographical Sketches of State Officers.

Governor of Maryland: JOHN WALTER SMITH, (Democrat)
of Worcester County.

John Walter Smith was born at Snow Hill, Worcester
County, Maryland, on the 5th day of February, 1845. He
was educated at private schools and at Union Academy, in
Snow Hill, where he obtained an English and classical educa-
tion. He is the son of John Walter Smith, and Charlotte Whit-
tington Smith, his mother, having been the daughter of
Judge William Whittington, who was one of the early judges
of the judicial circuit, a part of which now constitutes the first
judicial circuit of Maryland. His parents died while he was
quite a child, and he was at one time the ward of the late
United States Senator Ephraim K. Wilson. In 1869 he
married Miss Mary Frances Richardson. One of his daughters,
Miss Charlotte Whittington Smith, died in August, 1896,
and his only surviving child is Mrs. Arthur D. Foster.
Governor Smith left school at the age of eighteen to accept
a position as clerk in the large mercantile house of George S.
Richardson & Bro., of Snow Hill, and soon after became a
partner in the said firm. The firm was afterwards changed to
Richardson, Smith, Moore & Co., and after the death of the
senior partner, Mr. George S. Richardson, to Smith, Moore
& Co., as it now exists. This firm, in addition to the mer-
cantile and grain business, has been and still is largely
engaged in the lumber business, both in Maryland and Vir-
ginia. Governor Smith is president of the First National
Bank of Snow Hill, which he assisted in organizing in 1887,
and is also president of The Equitable Fire Insurance Com-
pany of Snow Hill. He is also interested in other business
enterprises in his county. He is one of the largest real-
estate owners in his county, and has large timber interests in
Virginia and North Carolina. He is connected, as director,
with a number of important financial institutions in Baltimore,
and is also connected with the Surry Lumber Company of
Virginia, owning some of the largest lumber mills and timber
interests in the South. In 1889 Governor Smith was elected,
as a Democrat, to represent his county in the State Senate of
Maryland. He was successively re-elected to the same posi-
tion in 1893 and 1897. He was made President of the Senate