John W. Smith was the leading Elder in Ohio Yearly Meeting in the 1880s and 1890s. He was appointed Clerk of many bodies and was respected for his careful choice of words when participating in business meetings.
Smith was the son of Robert H. Smith, a man who was considered in his own day among the strictest of the Wilburites, and Elizabeth Smith, a minister at Stillwater. The family lived in the brick house that is the old section of today's Walton Home.
While his brother Barclay Smith served as Clerk of the men's Ohio Yearly Meeting, John W. Smith was serving simultaneously as Clerk of the Meeting for Sufferings and of the Select Yearly Meeting. JW Smith's 20 year term clerking the Meeting for Sufferings was one of the longest in the history of Ohio YM.
Sources: EAQG 4:276-277, 437, 439, 550-551 |
