Frederick W. Smith

Frederick William Smith was born October 3, 1815, at Trier, Rhine Province, Prussia, the son of Mathias and Maria (Portz) Schmidt. Their family consisted of four sons and three daughters.

Frederick was educated in the schools of Trier and at a military academy for the profession of civil engineering. In 1833, when he was eighteen years old, the family left Germany for America. Landing in New York and staying there about a year, they moved on to Philadelphia. Frederick then set out on his own for New Orleans, where he was employed in a cotton press. Because of the breaking out of yellow fever there, he left by steamboat for St. Louis. There he secured the post of deputy surveyor, making surveys and maps of the city. He surveyed the site for the Old Cathedral in St. Louis as well as making the plan for a convent in Kaskaskia, Illinois. He then suffered an attack of 'swamp fever and, deciding that the upper Missouri Valley was more healthful, he left St. Louis for Liberty, Missouri, where he recovered his health. In 1837 he made his final move by steamboat up the Missouri River to Blacksnake Hills, the Indian trading post of Joseph Robidoux.

A post office had been established at Blacksnake Hills in June 1840 and Julius C. Robidoux, son of Joseph Robidoux, was appointed postmaster. Frederick Smith became a friend of Joseph Robidoux and in August 1841 he was appointed postmaster. There was not a great amount of mail, so Smith usually carried the incoming letters around in his top hat until he met the addressee and could deliver the letter. During this time he engaged in farming and surveying.

Joseph Robidoux's trading post had been in existence since 1826, and he had secured from the Indians title to the surrounding land. After the Platte Purchase by the federal government from the Indians in 1836, and the 1837 transfer by the federal government to the State of Missouri, Robidoux attempted through Senator Thomas H. Benton to have the government confirm his Indian title to the land. This he was unable to accomplish so he pre-empted the quarter-section of land where the trading post was located. Because of the slant of the Missouri River, the area was short of the usual 160 acres.

In 1839 three men from Independence, Missouri, came to see Robidoux with the intention of buying his land and establishing a town. They had prepared a map and brought $1,600 in silver to complete the purchase. Robidoux had planned to make the sale to them but, a minor disagreement arising out of a game of cards with them, he changed his mind. He rejected their bid and decided that he would establish a town himself.

There were two surveyors living near Blacksnake Hills, Frederick W. Smith and Simeon Kemper. Both heard of Robidoux's plans and both applied to him for the job of making the town plan. Robidoux told them he would be glad to have competition and for them both to go ahead and he would choose the one he favored. Kemper made a plan with wide streets and parks, and surveyed the ground twice, once with his grid of streets running north, south, east, west and a second time slanting from the compass but fitting the contour of the land better. He named his town Robidoux. Smith made his plan with narrow streets and alleys, following the European custom; named his town 'Saint Joseph' and named the east-west streets for the family of Joseph Robidoux: Faraon, Jules, Francis, Felix, Edmond, Charles, Sylvanie, Angelique, and Messanie. Joseph Robidoux took the Kemper map to St. Louis to have it lithographed. There the lithographers objected to the plan and insisted that it was not in proper form. So Robidoux sent back to St. Joseph for the Smith map and it was accepted. According to the Smith family story, it was the St. Louis lithographers that really made the decision as to the plan of St. Joseph streets, though there is also, a tradition that Robidoux said: “I don't want to give away my land in wide streets, I want to sell it in lots.

Frederick Smith, himself, had pre-empted 160 acres of land, just east of Robidoux's 'Original Town. This he divided into lots and made it “Smith's Addition to the Town of St. Joseph. The land at Eighth and Edmond Streets where the Missouri Theatre stands is a part of this, and is still owned by the Smith descendants. His name is also perpetuated in the name of Frederick Avenue.

The St. Joseph newspaper Adventure carried the following advertisement in 1848:

TOWN LOTS FOR SALE

In Smith's Addition to St. Joseph

F. W. Smith

St. Joseph, Sept. 22, 1848

Frederick Smith, in the years before his marriage, lived a bachelor existence. There was plenty of hunting and fishing and an occasional dance. As postmaster, he was aware of the invitations sent out, and if he did not receive one for an occasion he thought he would like to attend, he was known to have made his own. He would take his gun and appear to have been out hunting and then drop by the house where the party was in progress. Knocking at the door, as if for just a friendly call, he would be invited in.

On February 1, 1843, Smith married Miss Jane Tolin, who had come from Kentucky to visit her sister. They had five sons and two daughters, their oldest child, Frederick W., Jr., being the first male child born in the city, on January 2, 1844. Mr. Smith was a captain in the militia for a number of years and promoted to major, securing the title by which he was generally addressed. These companies of militia were disbanded at the start of the Civil War.

Frederick Smith owned the first theatre building in St. Joseph, located on Edmond Street, east of Third. The productions were usually by local talent, with the addition of an occasional professional from St. Louis. This theatre was used during the late 1850s.

Smith was elected to the City Council, and elected mayor in April 1861. His last public office was that of judge of the Buchanan County Court, his term ending in 1876. He was a well-liked citizen, interested in all ventures for building up the city. A Catholic, he worked for the location of the Convent of the Sacred Heart in St. Joseph, and he was a contributor toward the work of Christian Brothers College. In 1855 he gave Smith Park to the city.

He died on May 7, 1883, and was buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery. One of his daughters married John A. Duncan and one of their daughters married Wylie Cox. Descendants bearing those names have been well known in St. Joseph.