Maryland State Archives

SMITH, John Walter, a Representative and a Senator from Maryland; born at Snow Hill, Md., February 5, 1845; attended private schools and Union Academy; engaged in the lumber business in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina; president of the First National Bank of Snow Hill and director in many business and financial institutions; elected to the State senate in 1889, 1893, and 1897, and served as president in 1894; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-sixth Congress and served from March 4, 1899, until his resignation on January 12, 1900; Governor of Maryland 1900-1904; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William Pinkney Whyte; reelected in 1909 and 1914 and served from March 25, 1908, to March 3, 1921; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1920; chairman, Committee to Investigate Trespassers Upon Land (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on the District of Columbia (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee to Examine Branches of the Civil Service (Sixty-sixth Congress); retired to private life and died in Baltimore, Md., April 19, 1925; interment in the Presbyterian Cemetery, Snow Hill, Md.