Individual Details

On the 1880 U. S. Census of Pleasant Grove, Floyd Co., Iowa, Henry W. Smith appears with his wife Jane age 33 born in Indiana, daughter Hattice Smith age 15 born in Maine, both parents born in Maine and Charles C. Craft age 11 born in Iowa, father born in Wisconsin, mother born in New York. Henry is a farmer.

Floyd County, Pleasant Grove Township, Biographies, Source: History of Floyd County, Iowa, 1882, pages 864-865:
Henry W. Smith was born in what was called No. 11, in Somerset County, Maine, Oct. 28, 1831. He was a son of William J. and Susan (Foster) Smith, born natives of Maine. Their family consisted of five children, three boys and two girls, of which Henry A. was the eldest. He lived at home until his twenty-second year, and in his twenty-third year he purchased a farm in Sebec, Piscataquis County, and farmed it about four years. About this time he married Plooma Cushing, of Atkinson, same county, her parents being James and Nancy Cushing; their family consisted of nine daughters and two sons. Mr. Smith, after selling his farm in Sebec, owned several others and a mill, and in November 1865 came to Iowa and bought a farm of Charles Bowman, the farm he has since resided on, it being the northeast of section 28. The next June he moved his family out, consisting of wife and two children - Georgie A. and Hattie A. When he arrived it was as nature had made it. Taking it from the wild prairie, he at first built a board shanty on the center of the north lines, in which he lived two years. It was in this that the first meeting of the township was held, conducted by a man named Swan, a local preacher of Waverly, having services off and on for six months. After this, in 1867, Geo. R. Edmunds, a local preacher from Charles City, preached every two or three weeks, until School house No. 5 was built, when the meetings were held there. It was through the efforts of Mr. Smith and a Mr. Gilman, each of them pledging $25, and raising the same amount, that Elder Lee, of the Upper Iowa Conference, included them in the Rockford work, supplying them with regular services through Rockford's preacher, Rev. Mr. Rowen. Thus to Mr. Smith we give the credit of establishing regular gospel services in Pleasant Grove Township. Mr. Smith made the first assessment in the township, being Assessor the first two years. Has held several other offices in the township. Is a member of the order of A. F. & A. M., being charter member of Alpha Lodge, of Greene. We find Mr. Smith with fine stock and a practical idea of farming. He has erected a large and commodious New England like barn, has the best pumping-milling apparatus in the township, the well being seventy-five feet deep, and contemplates putting up a new house the coming year. His first wife died Dec. 17, 1874. He married Miss E. J. Brisco, a daughter of John Brisco (see sketch), an early pioneer, Dec. 25, 1876. To Mr. Smith we are indebted for many facts of interest pertaining to Floyd County. He has on his home place sixty acres of corn, thirty of oats, nine of wheat, and will have about fifty tons of hay. He has fifteen cows, thirty-two young stock, eight horses and seventy-five hogs.

On the 1900 U. S. Census of Pleasant Grove, Floyd Co., Iowa, Henry Smith appears with his wife E. Jane. They have been married 24 years and have zero children. Henry is a farmer.

Birth	28 Oct 1831	Somerset Co., Maine
Marriage	31 Dec 1876	Floyd Co., Iowa - Elizabeth Jane Briscoe
Death	25 Jan 1917	Butler Co., Iowa
Burial		Pleasant Grove Cemetery, Floyd Co., Iowa

Spouse

Elizabeth Jane Briscoe (1847 - 1907)