Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

John B. Smith (1893-1895). Born Saxton's River (VT); Hillsborough manufacturer. In state politics from 1884.

John Smith (1838-1914) was one of eight children born to Ammi and Lydia (Butler) Smith; three of his siblings died in childhood. His father first operated a sawmill at Hillsborough (NH) but moved to Vermont to manufacture woolens (1833/47). He returned to Hillsborough to retire.

John Smith was schooled in Hillsborough public schools and at Francestown Academy. After several business ventures in Manchester (1863/80), Smith returned to Hillsborough where his hosiery company was incorporated as Contoocook Mills (1882). He served as president of Hillsborough Guaranty Savings Bank, was a Mason, a member of the Congregational Church, and owned considerable real estate in New Hampshire, and in Boston.

Smith was a Republican. He was named an alternate delegate to the 1884 Republican National Convention, and a presidential elector. He was a member of the Governor's Council (1887/9) and chairman of the Republican Party State Committee (1890). In 1892 Smith received his party's nomination for governor by acclamation at the state convention; he was a popular man with labor and the Republicans took two congressional seats from the Democrats in the election. The popular vote landslide made Smith the first New Hampshire governor in six years who was not chosen by the legislature. [The lopsided popular vote also gave the state's electoral votes to Harrison in the presidential election, though Democrat Grover Cleveland won nationally.]

During the Smith administration, the state took over care of the state's insane after a deadly fire at the Dover Insane Asylum killed forty-one. The counties had had responsibility for such care until now. Statues of Daniel Webster and General Stark were also donated by the state to the national government and unveiled in Washington, D.C.

Location: State House, Second Floor
Portrait by Daniel Strain, 1895; Presented by Governor Smith