During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Madison County Courthouse featured a number of courthouse paintings of prominent judges and attorneys that practiced in the county. During a renovation of the present courthouse in the 1960s the portraits were removed from public view and memory.
Recovered portraits are being repaired when possible for permanent display after the future courthouse renovations are completed; however, all will be displayed as part of our 2016 Archives Day on this fall.
Over the course of the next few months, we will feature articles on each of the judges whose images will be displayed. Today we will speak about Judge John E. Smith.
John E. Smith was born in the Town of Nelson on August 4th, 1843. By his fourth birthday both of his parents had died and John was living with his half-brother S. Perry Smith. John attended local schools before enrolling in Cazenovia Seminary.
Upon completion of his studies, he taught briefly before reading law at the office of Lucius P. Clark in Morrisville. He attended Albany Law School, earning an LL.D before passing the bar in May of 1867. One of his classmates at Albany Law School was future President William McKinley.
After graduation Smith operated a law office in Morrisville in between holding a number of elected and appointed positions, as well as briefly forming a law partnership in Syracuse with CV Kellogg and EM Wells.
In 1864 he married Mary E. Osborn of Smithfield and they had three sons.
In 1877 Smith was elected Madison County District Attorney, serving one term.
On December 28th, 1882, Smith was appointed to the role of Madison County District Attorney after then District Attorney Henry Barclay took ill.
He held the appointment for one year.
In 1885 Smith was elected a state senator from the 23rd district holding the office for two separate terms.
In July of 1889 he was appointed the first assistant United States attorney for the Northern District of New York with offices located in Buffalo, overseeing a number of prominent cases and having a brief read by the US Supreme Court.
On March 13, 1899 Smith was appointed to fill the seat of County Judge to replace the departed Judge Alfred D. Kennedy. He served out the remainder of the term and won re-election the next year serving until 1905.
John E. Smith was also a prominent local historian who edited the book “Our County and Its People: a Descriptive and Biographical Record of Madison County, New York” in 1899. He was a member, trustee and deacon of the Congregational Church in Morrisville as well as a charter member of the Madison County Historical Society.
Smith died in August of 1907 and is buried in the Morrisville Rural Cemetery.
Archives Day 2016 will be on October 11th from 10 am to 4 pm at the Madison County Office Building #4. Besides the portraits, court cases, notes and other items will be on display from the men in the paintings.
For more information about Madison County history my contact me via phone is 315-366-2453 or email HYPERLINK “mailto:matthew.urtz@madisoncounty.ny.gov” matthew.urtz@madisoncounty.ny.gov. Don’t forget to like Madison County, NY History on Facebook and visit our website HYPERLINK “http://www.madisoncounty.ny.gov/historian/home” www.madisoncounty.ny.gov/historian/home. Matthew Urtz is the Madison County Historian.
Works Cited: “The Late Honorable John E. Smith.” The Oneida Dispatch. 30 August 1907.
Greenhagen, Sue. “Honorable John E. Smith.” Madison County Heritage. Number 27, 2002.
“Hon. John E. Smith Dead.” The Cazenovia Republican. 29 August 1907
Smith, John E. Madison County: Our County and its People. The Boston History Company, Publishers. 1890
Tompkins, Brownell Fitch.
1806-1906 Biographical Sketches of the Madison County Bench and Bar. Madison County Historical Society. 1911.