Thomas Guilford Smith (1839)

Born 27 Aug 1839 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Ancestors

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Biography

Thomas Guilford Smith was born in Philadelphia on the 27th of August, 1839. He attended both the public and private schools of his native city, finally entering the Central High School of Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1858 with the degree of A.B. He then entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., from which in 1861, he graduated with the degree of Civil Engineer, also being elected to Delta Chapter, Theta Delta Chi Fraternity. Two years afterward, in 1863, his Philadelphia alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts.

Dr. Smith's first entry into the world of active business was in connection with the engineering department of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, attaining the position of Resident Engineer in the Mahanoy Mining District. Subsequently, he resigned this place to become manager of the Philadelphia Sugar Refinery. After the termination of this connection, he again entered actively into engineering work, this time as Consulting Engineer for different companies, and in 1872 their interests necessitated his visiting Europe. A notable event of this trip was his attendance at the International Prison Congress in London, to which body he held credentials as a delegate. Dr. Smith at this Congress met many eminent men interested in the reform of prison methods and the amelioration of the condition of convicts.

Dr. Smith came to Buffalo in 1873, and from that year to 1889 was engaged here in business in connection with a number of industries. In 1889 he became Sales Agent for Carnegie, Phipps & Co., of Pittsburg, and later of the Carnegie Steel Company, the nucleus of the United States Steel Corporation. The relations of Dr. Smith with this business have continued to the present time, and he is also identified with the Illinois Steel Co. and the U. S. Steel Products Export Co.

He has been able to take an active part in many movements relating to science, humanity and general progress, to maintain genuine and living affiliations with a large number of societies organized for the furtherance of literature, science and fine arts and other branches of knowledge, to become a potent factor in educational matters, to achieve distinction as an exponent of the doctrine of the American protective tariff and to make his opinions felt and his course followed in affairs connected with the vital subjects of the time.

In 1887 Dr. Smith was made a member of the Council of the University of Buffalo. In 1890 Dr. Smith was elected a Regent of the University of the State of New York. The office of Regent is justly considered one of the highest within the gift of the State, to the Board of Regents being committed the official supervision of all educational institutions within the State.

Dr. Smith's labors as a Regent have been marked by initiative earnestness and effective results. He is Chairman of the Museum Committee of the Board, which has charge of all the scientific work under the Regents' supervision, including geology, botany, entomology, palaeontology and other branches. Dr. Smith is himself a man of scientific training and has always been a student of natural history. To Mm is due much of the study in recent years of the economic geology of the State, a subject of great practical importance in its relations to road-making, agriculture and mining.

In 1899 Hobart College, in recognition of Dr. Smith's long and valuable services in behalf of education, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Five years before, Hobart Chapter had honored his attainments as a scholar by electing him to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. In 1900 Alfred University, Alfred, N. Y., conferred the degree of Doctor of Law^s in recognition of his efforts in establishing at Alfred the N. Y. State School of Ceramics.

A survey of Dr. Smith's work in the province of education — using the word in its strict sense — leads naturally to some examination of the relations held by him to general culture and to organizations having for their aim intellectual improvement in different special fields. In 1896 he was elected President of the Buffalo Library. He took the ground that the Library should be made free to the public, succeeded in bringing about this result, and aided in obtaining from the city an annual appropriation of $80,000 for that institution. Serving first as Treasurer, then as Vice-President, and finally as President of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, he showed the same spirit which had characterized him in the case of the Library. The outcome was that the Academy was opened to the public every day in the week. He is now President of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences and has been for the past three years. In 1894 he was chosen a Director of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the same year he was the delegate of that body to the 11th International Congress of Medicine and Surgery, at Eome. In the years 1866-67 he was elected a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute and the Union League, all of Philadelphia. He is a member of the American Economic Association, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the New York State Historical Society, the Buffalo Historical Society, the American Institute of Mining Engineers and also the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In 1889 he was elected President of the Alumni Association of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and he is a member of the Alumni Association of the Philadelphia Central High School. In 1892 he joined the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, representing Col. Christopher Meng, Assistant Deputy Quartermaster-General of the Continental army, subsequently being elected Vice-President and still later President of the Buffalo branch of that order, and he is a member of the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York, and is also a member of the Welcome Society of Pennsylvania, being a descendant of David Ogden, who came to this country in the ship Welcome.

Col. T. Ellwood Zell, a Quaker of Philadelphia, at the close of the Civil War, in which he had served with honor and distinction in the 121st Pennsylvania Volunteers, organized with two others the Military order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He officially appointed his nephew, T. Guilford Smith, to be his successor, and at a meeting of the N. Y. Commandery held December 13, 1905, Hon. T. Guilford Smith was elected a Companion of the First Class Heredity of the Order.

A Republican in politics, the connection of Dr. Smith with the American Protective Tariff League deserves special mention. His views of the tariff question are a matter of inheritance as well as conviction, for when the party of Alexander Hamilton was in existence Dr. Smith's ancestors were Federalists, and at a later epoch his father and grandfather were Whigs. He has been a member of the Tariff League from the time it was established, and has worked with persistent energy for the cause of protection to our national industries, being convinced that American prosperity is vitally involved in the tariff issue.

Dr. Smith is identified with many clubs and organizations for social purposes, being a member of the Buffalo and University clubs of Buffalo.

Prominent among the philanthropic institutions to which Dr. Smith has lent his influence and aid, is the Charity Organization Society of Buffalo, of which he was elected President in 1888, thereafter continuing in that office. This is the pioneer society in the United States. It is an important example of organized benevolence, and since its inauguration over one hundred charitable associations have been formed along similar lines in other cities.

Dr. Smith had a share in the Pan-American project. He was Chairman of the Exposition Committee on Fine Arts, and the choice was admittedly a felicitous one. The collection of paintings, sculpture and other works of art was remarkable both for diversity and merit, and the outcome was that the Exposition gave a strong and lasting impetus to esthetic culture in Buffalo. In addition to his activities in the art department of the Pan-American, Dr. Smith was a member of the Committee on State and Foreign Relations, a field for which he was fitted by cosmopolitan spirit and extensive travel, and in which he did important service.

To fail to allude to Dr. Smith's foreign journey would be to omit an interesting phase of his life, and one which has had a marked influence on his career. Dr. Smith has many of the characteristics of the typical "citizen of the world," and this is largely to be attributed to the exceptional opportunities he has had to visit distant lands and observe dissimilar customs and new habits of thought. Fojiir times he has made comprehensive tours of Europe, and he has also traveled in the Orient. As a man who in a singular degree unites sterling qualities with polished address, and whose scope and variety of experience assures ready adaptation to circumstances, Dr. Smith is much sought on those occasions where social amenities are combined with larger interests. A noteworthy instance of this character was the visit of the members of the Iron and Steel Institute to the United States in 1904, as Dr. Smith was a member of the Reception Committee. .

July 14, 1864, Dr. Smith was married in St. Marks' Church, Grand Rapids, Mich., to Miss Mary Stewart Ives, a daughter of Chauncey -Pelton and Charlotte Brownell (Stewart) Ives of Lansingburgh, N. Y., where Mrs. Smith was born. They have two sons, Pemberton Smith, who was born June 3, 1865, graduated with the degree of C.E. from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1888, and who is a civil engineer by profession, and now represents the U. S. Steel Products Export Co. in South America; and Chauncey Pelton Smith, born October 27, 1869, graduated as M.D. from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, later taking a postgraduate course of Johns Hopkins Hospital, and who is was a physician and surgeon practicing in Buffalo.

Sources

MEMORIAL AND FAMILY HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY NEW YORK VOLUME I BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK- BUFFALO THE GENEALOGICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 1906-8 THE WINTHEOP PEESS 419-421 LAFAYETTE STREET NEW YORK

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