C.D. Smith

Samuel Smith was not related to C D Smith according to Sam’s obituary C. D. Smith was born at Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. His parents moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland, when he was a boy, so his schooling was there. In 1857, when he was twenty-two, he went west to Iowa City, Iowa, and in 1859 he came to St. Joseph. In association with his brother, Samuel I. Smith, James McCord, and Dudley M. Steele, C. D. Smith started a wholesale grocery business on North Third Street. In 1886 that business was destroyed by fire.

On January 1, 1887, the two Smith brothers and John J. Judson opened a wholesale drug supply house, and in 1888 built the large building on the northeast corner of Third and Sylvanie Streets. Mr. C. D. Smith was married to Miss Elizabeth Colhoun, daughter of John Colhoun, the banker, and they built their home at 1105 Henry Street. Mr. Smith died in St. Louis on May 24, 1888, leaving a daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Bickley Street of Kansas City, and two sons, Edward C. Smith and Lewis M. Smith.

Edward C. Smith became president of the C. D. Smith Drug Company in 1892 and Lewis M. Smith succeeded to the post in 1904. Lewis M. Smith was born in St. Joseph July 10, 1870. He attended the local schools and graduated from Yale University. He then entered his father's business. He became head of that, as well as president of the Smith-Faus Drug Company of Salt Lake City, a branch of the St. Joseph house, and he was vice-president of the Smith-McCord-Townsend Dry Goods Company of Kansas City.

In 1923 the C. D. Smith Drug Company bought out the Van Natta Drug Company of St. Joseph uniting two of the oldest and largest

drug houses on the Missouri River. When the business started, it carried about a thousand different items. This gradually expanded to about twenty thousand items. Salesmen covered the states of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska.

Lewis M. Smith was married to Miss Sarah Townsend, daughter of John Townsend. They lived for many years at 503 North Fifth Street, on the corner of Robidoux, but after the death of Mr. Townsend, they moved to his house at 1301. Ashland Avenue. There were five children: Mrs. Bickley McCaskey and Mrs. Sarah Stacy of St. Joseph, Mrs. Anne Lentz of Delray Beach, Florida, Lewis M. Smith, Jr., Santa Barbara, California, and John Townsend Smith of St. Joseph.

Lewis M. Smith died suddenly on April 10, 1924, at the age of fifty-four. His son, John Townsend Smith is now president of the C. D. Smith Drug Company.