Samuel W. Smith

{{short description|American politician}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Samuel William Smith

|image = File:Samuel W. Smith Men of Progress.png

|caption =

|state = Michigan

|district = {{ushr|Michigan|6|6th}}

|term_start = March 4, 1897

|term_end = March 3, 1915

|predecessor = David D. Aitken

|successor = Patrick H. Kelley

|birth_name =

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1852|8|23}}

|birth_place = Independence Township, Michigan

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1931|6|19|1852|8|23}}

|death_place = Detroit, Michigan

|party = Republican

}}

Samuel William Smith (August 23, 1852 – June 19, 1931), was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan.

He was born in Independence Township and attended the common schools in Clarkston and Detroit. He began teaching school in 1869, served as superintendent of schools in Waterford Township in 1875 and also served as principal of the school at Waterford, Michigan. He went on to study law, was admitted to the bar in 1877 and graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1878. He began legal practice in Pontiac, where for six months he worked alone with considerable success, and then formed a partnership with Levi Taft Aaron Perry. Perry retired from the firm during the second year of the partnership, but the connection between Taft and Smith continued until the death of the former in 1897. Smith was prosecuting attorney of Oakland County from 1880 to 1884.

Image:Samuel Williams Smith grave Oakwood Cemetery Adrian Michigan.JPG

He served in the Michigan Senate from 1885 to 1887, representing the 15th District. He was elected as a Republican from Michigan's 6th congressional district to the 55th United States Congress and to the eight succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1897, to March 3, 1915.{{cite web |title=S. Doc. 58-1 - Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session -- beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903 |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/SERIALSET-04562_00_00-001-0001-0000 |website=GovInfo.gov |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=2 July 2023 |pages=53–54 |date=9 November 1903}} During his tenure, Smith was chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia in the 60th and 61st Congresses. He did not stand for reelection to the 64th Congress, but moved to Detroit in 1913 and continued the practice of law. He died in Detroit and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Adrian, Michigan.