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CABELL COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Chris & Kerry
cmac4330@chesapeake.net
December 14, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume II
pg. 157
DUDLEY IRVING SMITH, of Huntington, has been a resident of Cabell County from
the time of his birth and is now one of the more venerable native sons residing
in the vital seat city, whose inception and upbuilding have been matters of
familiarity to him. He was born at Guyandotte, now a part of the City of
Huntington, on the 29th of October, 1845, and is a son of Dudley D. Smith, who
was born on a farm near Lowell, Washington County, Ohio, and who received
excellent educational training for his day. He taught school in Ohio when a
young man and finally, in company with P. S. Smith, came to what is now Cabell
County, West Virginia, and the two established themselves in the general
merchandise business in the Village of Guyandotte. Within a short time
thereafter Dudley D. Smith married Eleanor Miller, of Lawrence County, Ohio. A
man of superior intellectuality and sterling character, he became an honored and
influential figure in the community, and both he and his wife were earnest
members of the Methodist Church. He was a stanch Union man during the Civil war,
and his freely expressed views led to his becoming disliked in the community,
which was strongly Confederate in sentiment, with the result that he found it
expedient to return to Ohio, where he found more congenial surroundings. Later
he returned to Guyandotte, and he was one of the few Union sympathizers not
taken captive in the town when it was invaded by a band of Confederate soldiers,
who later evacuated the place, when its capture by Union forces seemed imminent.
The occupation by Union soldiers led to the burning of thirty-five houses at
Guyandotte, and in this both Union and Confederate sympathizers suffered alike,
the action having been taken, doubtless, more in reprisal than as a ''military
necessity'' for which claim was made. Mr. Smith .and his wife continued their
residence in Cabell County until their deaths, and of their eight children only
two are now living.
Dudley I. Smith, the third child, was attending what is now Marshall College
when the unsettled conditions incident to the Civil war caused him to go to
Washington County, Ohio, where he followed farm work in the summer season and
attended school during the winter. After a year he returned to the parental
home, his father having at the time been conducting a small general store at
Proctorville, Ohio. After a year or more of work on farms and in a brick yard
Mr. Smith took a course in a business college at Cincinnati, Ohio, and
thereafter he clerked a few months in a store at Gallipolis, that state. He
next became clerk on a steamboat plying the Upper Ohio River, and thereafter he
built and operated a wharf boat at Guyandotte, West Virginia. About a year later
he sold this business and became associated with his father in mercantile
pursuits at Guyandotte.
In 1870, as a democrat, Mr. Smith was elected sheriff of Cabell County, and
after he had served two years of his four-year term a new election was called,
by legislative enactment, and he was again elected for a full term of four years.
He thus served six years, and it was within this period that the Younger-James
band of desperadoes robbed the Bank of Huntington. After a strenuous pursuit
one of the robbers, Budd McDaniels, was killed, one, Clel Miller, captured, and
the remaining two, Cole Younger and Frank James, escaped.
When the new Town of Huntington was founded its rapid growth attracted to the
community all sorts of people, and Ss sheriff of the county Mr. Smith found
ample call upon his attention in the suppression of lawlessness and crime. In
the meanwhile he had retained his interest in the store at Guyandotte, and had
also engaged in the buying and selling of land. After retiring from the office
of sheriff he turned his attention especially to the real estate business, and
of this line of enterprise he has continued a representative to the present
time. In 1902 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, and
by successive re-elections he retained this position eighteen years, during the
greater part of which he was president of the board. Upon the organization of
the First National Bank of Huntington, Mr. Smith became one of its stockholders
and directors, and for many years past he has been vice president of this
substantial institution. He is a Royal Arch Mason and he and his wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
In 1870 Mr. Smith wedded Miss Hannah C. Miller, and they have three children:
Mayme C. (widow of Dr. A. T. Cherry), George Collord and Dudley Irvin.
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