BIOGRAPHY OF COL. WATERMAN SMITH of Manchester NH
------------------------------------
Information located at http://www.nh.searchroots.com/Manchester
On a web site about GENEALOGY AND HISTORY OF MANCHESTER NEW HAMPSHIRE 
TRANSCRIBED BY JANICE BROWN 
Please see the web site for my email contact.
----------------------------------
The original source of this information is in the public domain, 
however use of this text file, other than for personal use, is 
restricted without written permission from the transcriber 
(who has edited, compiled and added new copyrighted text to same).
========================================================
SOURCE:
Manchester, A Brief Record of its Past and A Picture of Its Present, 
including an account of is settlement and its growth as town and city; 
a history of its schools, churches, societies, banks, post-offices, 
newspapers and manufactures; a description of its government, police 
and fire department, public buildings, library, water-works, 
cemeteries, streets, streams, railways and bridges; a complete list of 
the selectmen, moderators and clerks of the town and members of the 
councils, marshals and engineers of the city, with the state of the 
cote for mayor at each election; the story of its part in the war of 
the rebellion with a complete list of its soldiers who went ot the war; 
and sketches of its representative citizens; Manchester N.H.; John B. 
Clark; 1875
-------------------
page 428
****
COLONEL WATERMAN SMITH
****
Waterman Smith was born July 16, 1816 in Smithfield, RI which had been
originally granted to his ancestors, for whom it was named. He is the
son of Waterman and Sally (Cory) Smith and is descended from Quaker
ancestors on both sides.  He had five brothers and three sisters of
whom three survive, Elisha A. and Martin H., living in Cranston RI, and
Ann Eliza and Sarah A., living in Providence RI.
 He was brought up on his father's farm and was educated from the time
he was seven until he was fourteen in Greenville Academy in his native
town. Then he was sent to Bolton Seminar, a Quaker institution, in
Bolton, Mass., and remained there four years, returning to Smithfield
to learn the machinist's trade in his father's shop. He spent two years
there and then three more in learning manufacturing in his brother's
cotton-mill in Cumberland, RI.  At the end of that time he went to
Thompson, Conn. [CT] to superintend the Slater Mills.
  When the property was sold in 1842 he went to Scituate, RI to fit up
a carding-room for Brown & Huse, and continued in their employ about
two years. Then he went to Philadelphia, where he spent five or six
years as the superintendent of the John L. Hughes Mills. Returning to
Smithfield, he remained there about three years, in charge of the
Georgia Mills. In 1851 he went to Cohoes, NY to re-fit for J.C. Howe &
Company, of Boston, the Ogden Mills there. In March 1853, he came to
Manchester [NH] and became the agent of the Manchester Print-Works,
of which J.C. Howe & Company were the selling agents. He remained in
this position until July 1871, when he resigned and went to 
California, spending a year in traveling over that state, several of
the western territories and part of the British dominions. Since his
return i 1872 he has been chiefly occupied in the care of his property.
During the thirty-one years from 1840 to 1871 there were but three
months when he was not engaged in manufacturing.
  Col. Smith, politically, has been a Whig and a Republican, and now
calls himself a Liberal Republican. He acquired the rank of colonel
by service on Gov. Smyth's staff in 1865. He was chairman of the board
of education in this city from 1860 to 1867, and has taken a personal
interest in the construction of school-houses. During the existence
of the Merrimack River Bank he was one of its directors and after 1860
its president, and has been president of the First National Bank and
the Merrimack River Savings Bank from their beginning.
  Col. Smith married in 1840 at Thompson, Conn. [CT], Anna C., eldest
daughter of Shadrach Randall of North Providence, RI, by whom he had
four sons and five daughters of whom the latter only survive. Sally W.,
is the wife of John H. Andrews of this city; Nattie B., is the wife of
Capt. J.C. Currier of San Francisco, Cal.; Harriet Newell is the wife
of Harry H. Hale of Boston, Mass., and Augusta G., and Nellie are 
living at home in this city.
  Col. Smith is a man of fine personal appearance, tall, strong, and of
great muscular activity. Being so constituted and possessing a strong
menal endowment besides, he naturally attracts the public attention
in all his movements. He can do nothing on a small scale. All his 
plans, whether as a manufacturer, builder, operator in real estate
business, his mind is never at rest, and if he had nothing to do, he
would be miserable. He is always seeking new fields of thought and
adventure. Yet he is cautious and prudent and has amassed a very
handsome property. While he was the agent of the Manchester Print-Works,
he worked hard early and late for the prosperity of that corporation,
and, as a rule, seems to have made it a point to do all he undertakes
to do, thoroughly.

(end)