SMITH, HON. LUCIUS E., was a son of Luman B. and Lucia (Collins) Smith, of Monkton, Vt. He was born at that place on the 5th of October, 1824, and was the second of five children, of whom the others were Hon. A. T. Smith, of Vergennes; Daniel C., of Addison; Jerome B., of Burlington; and Mrs. B. F. Sutton, of Middlebury, Vt. The subject of this sketch had exceptional educational advantages, and made good use of them. He entered and was graduated from Juliet College, a Catholic institution at Moscow, Canada, where many priests have been and are now educated. He became a fine French scholar, and to the last kept up his acquaintance with the language through books and newspapers. He was also well informed in general literature and on current topics of popular interest. After his graduation from the college he speculated for a number of years in cattle, sheep, wool, butter, and general produce, having his headquarters in Monkton, Vt. He always owned considerable property in Monkton, and left at the time of his death five hundred acres of land.
His father, Luman B. Smith, was born just west of Monkton Pond, in 1798, on the farm formerly owned by his (Luman’s) father, Daniel Smith, an early settler who attained prominence in the town and represented it in the Legislature a number of years. Daniel Smith died on the 2d of April, 1813, of the epidemic then raging throughout the country. Luman B. Smith died on the 5th of October, 1874. His wife, Lucia, a daughter of Daniel Collins, died on the 19th of September, 1870, aged sixty-eight years.
The subject of this sketch came on to the farm which is now occupied by his widow, in 1873, it being the farm owned by her father, Miles B. Bates, who died on the place on the 29th of September, 1878, aged seventy-six years, after having occupied the place for forty years. He was also the son of an early settler, Jehiel Bates.
Before the formation of the Republican party Lucius E. Smith acted in harmony with the Old Whig party of illustrious memory, and upon its dissolution united with the Republican party. He was formed by nature for the activities of life, and was the foremost man of his town and one of the foremost in the county. In 1858, 1859, 1861, 1862, and 1880, he was elected to the House of Representatives, and in 1866 and 1867 he was a member of the State Senate, and was always serving on important committees and discharging his various duties with fidelity and intelligence. On the 11th of March, 1865, he was appointed by President Lincoln commissary of subsistence of volunteers, with the rank of captain, and on the 7th of May,1870, he was made the consular agent of the United States at St. Johns, P. Q., where he remained for about a year. In his own town he was frequently a member of State, county and district conventions, and his familiar form and fine presence at these gatherings will long be pleasantly remembered. He was often selected as a grand juror to the County Court, and was almost invariably chosen foreman by the judges, which duty he discharged with his usual discretion and tact. He was town treasurer for the twenty-six years preceding his death.
In religion Mr. Smith was from choice a Roman Catholic, and carried out the principles of that faith with unfailing consistency from the first. On the 27th of January, 1853, he was joined in marriage with Elvira, daughter of Miles B. Bates, of Monkton, Vt., who survives him. Two children were the result of this marriage, Wyllys E. Smith, who was born on the 27th of January, 1854, and Fannie E., now the wife of J. E. Buttolph, of Middlebury, born on the 21st of May, 1860. Lucius. E. Smith died on the 4th of January, 1886, of paralysis of the heart. Outwardly he was the picture of health. Mr. Smith had long suffered with heart disease, and so confident was he that his life was soon to end as it did, that for more than a year previous to his death he had arranged all of his affairs in preparation for his departure. He was suddenly stricken down in the village post-office.