Charles L. Smith has been a factor in business and local affairs at Albion for over forty years, and out of his work, good management and judgment acquired the competence which enables him to spend his declining years in comfort and peace.
He was born at Tiffin, Ohio, April 30, 1847, and has now passed the age of three score and ten. His parents, Lewis C. A. and Anna M. (Reif) Smith, were both natives of Germany, his father born April 29, 1816, and his mother December 11, 1820. They grew up in their native country, but were married after they came to Tiffin, Ohio, July 7, 1846. Lewis Smith was a gunsmith and locksmith and followed that occupation in Tiffin until 1859. He then located on a farm a mile and a half south of Tiffin, but about 1872 retired to the town and died at Tiffin in 1907. His wife passed away in the same city January 15, 1908. They were members of the German Lutheran Church, and the father was very active and liberal in its support. As an American citizen he voted the republican ticket. There were seven children, and five are still living: Charles L.; Mary, wife of Jacob Marquart; Amelia, wife of John Wisher; Emma, wife of Fred Bender; and Albert, who lives at Tiffin.
Charles L. Smith grew up in Tiffin, or on the farm nearby, and acquired his education in obth the district and the city schools. He lived at home till the age of twenty-two. He was in the butcher business at Tiffin until 1876, when he removed to Albion and started his shop. Four years later, in 1880, he bought out his partner, and continued active in that business, supplying many of the best people of the town and surrounding country with good meats until 1900. it was through steady application to this business that he made his competence. In 1878 a fire destroyed his shop, but in a few years he had recovered all his lost ground. Mr. Smith has invested in real estate, and now owns two good farms, one of 230 acres and another of a 113 acres.
December 18, 1877, he married Miss Melissa Beck. She was born at Albion November 4, 1856, and her father, Michael Beck, a pioneer of Noble County, is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have three daughters. Leona, a graduate of high school, is the wife of Edwin Hicks, of Auburn, Indiana; Kate, also a high school graduate, married Ray c. Dilgard; May, a high school graduate, married Walter Bonham. Mrs. Smith is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he votes as a republican. He has never sought official honors and has been content to perform his community service as a business man. He is a director in the Farmers Bank at Albion.
Biography of Charles L. Smith, History of Northeast Indiana, © 1884, Vol. 2, Pg. 5