Samuel A. Smith, one of the oldest merchants of Brownville, Piscataquis County, was born in this town, October 13, 1830, son of Daniel and Mary (Stickney) Smith. Daniel Smith, a native of Berwick, Maine, was a farmer by vocation. He came to Brownville in 1820, took up one hundred acres of new land in the southern part of the town, and with persevering industry cleared a farm, which he tilled until obliged to give up active labor. He was a reliable business man and a good citizen. At political elections he voted the Whig ticket. He lived to be about sixty years old. Mary Stickney Smith, his wife, was born in Weare, New Hampshire. She lived to the advanced age of eighty-four years. They had six children that grew to maturity. Of these Mary Ann, Daniel, and Francis are deceased. The living are: Emeline, the wife of William Mayo, of Milo, Maine; Samuel A., the subject of this biography; and Martha E. Smith, who lives with her brother.
Samuel A. Smith was educated in the schools of this town and at Foxcroft Academy. Subsequently, in the capacity of a civil engineer for one John Ayer, he helped in the building of the Maine Central Railroad from Waterville to Bangor. He had been so employed for two years when, in 1856, he started a store in Brownville, which he has since prosperously conducted. For about twenty years of this period he was in partnership with M. W. Brown. He deals in dry goods, groceries, hardware, tinware, agricultural implements, etc., carrying the variety of goods that an experience of over forty years has shown him will meet the demands of his customers.
In 1860 Mr. Smith was joined in marriage with Miss Martha L. Jenks, a daughter of Eleazer A. Jenks, Esq., one of the leading men of Brownville and a Justice of the Peace for forty ,years. They have two children living: Annie L., of Brownville; and Edgar C. Smith, a lawyer in Dover, Maine. They lost one son in infancy. The Republican party has a loyal supporter in Mr. Smith. He has been Town Clerk for over twenty years, a Selectman for one term, and he has also served in the School Committee. Both he and his wife are members of the Congregational church, and he has been a Deacon of the society for about thirty years.
Source: Biographical review: containing life sketches of leading citizens of Somerset, Piscataquis, Hancock, Washington, and Aroostook counties, Maine. Boston: Biographical Review Publishing Company, 1898.