George Baldwin Smith - Misplaced Pages

19th century American lawyer and politician

George B. Smith


4th Attorney General of Wisconsin
In office January 2, 1854 – January 7, 1856
Governor	William A. Barstow
Preceded by	Experience Estabrook
Succeeded by	William Rudolph Smith
3rd and 16th Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin
In office April 1, 1878 – April 7, 1879
Preceded by	Harlow S. Orton
Succeeded by	John R. Baltzell
In office April 5, 1858 – April 1, 1861
Preceded by	Augustus A. Bird
Succeeded by	Levi Baker Vilas
Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the Dane 5th district
In office January 13, 1869 – January 12, 1870
Preceded by	Levi Baker Vilas
Succeeded by	Alden Sprague Sanborn
In office January 13, 1864 – January 11, 1865
Preceded by	George Hyer
Succeeded by	James Ross
Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the Dane 6th district
In office January 12, 1859 – January 11, 1860
Preceded by	Alexander A. McDonell
Succeeded by	Cassius Fairchild

Personal details
Born	George Baldwin Smith (1823-05-22)May 22, 1823 Parma Corners, New York
Died	September 18, 1879(1879-09-18) (aged 56) Dane County, Wisconsin
Resting place	Forest Hill Cemetery Madison, Wisconsin
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Eugenia Weed Smith
Children	James S. Smith Anna (McConnell) 3 others (died young)
Parents	Reuben Smith (father) Betsy (Page) Smith (mother)
Profession	lawyer, politician

George Baldwin Smith (May 22, 1823 – September 18, 1879) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician. He was the 4th Attorney General of Wisconsin, and the 3rd and 16th mayor of Madison, Wisconsin.

Legal and political career

Smith was admitted to the federal bar in to Southport, Wisconsin Territory, (present-day Kenosha, Wisconsin) in 1843. In 1845, he moved to the territorial capital of Madison, where he was appointed district attorney for Dane County in January 1846. He served in this role until 1852. He was elected to represent Dane County at the 1846 Wisconsin Constitutional Convention.

Smith was elected Attorney General of Wisconsin in 1853, serving from 1854 to 1856; he declined a re-nomination in 1855. After leaving office, his name was drawn into the scandal involving the fraudulent re-election of William A. Barstow in 1855.

He then served as mayor of Madison from 1858 to 1861. He represented the city in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1859, 1864, and 1869. The Democratic Party selected him as their candidate to run for his district's congressional seat in 1864 and 1872, but he failed to win both times. Smith was also the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Senate in 1869, losing to Matthew H. Carpenter.

In 1876 he helped to supervise the canvass of electoral votes in Louisiana in the heavily-disputed 1876 presidential election. He was re-elected as mayor of Madison in April 1878, and served until just a few months before his death, in Madison, in 1879.

Personal life and education

Smith was born in Parma Corners, New York to Reuben Smith and Betsy Page Smith; his mother died ten weeks after his birth. His family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1825, then to Medina, Ohio, in 1827. Smith studied law with attorneys in Medina and Cleveland before moving with his father to Wisconsin in 1843.

Smith married Eugenia Weed in 1844. They had five children, two of whom survived to adulthood: James and Anna.

Electoral history

Wisconsin Attorney General (1853)

Wisconsin Attorney General Election, 1853
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, November 8, 1853
	Democratic	George Baldwin Smith	31,705	57.03%	+1.36%
	Whig	Orsamus Cole	23,676	42.59%	+4.60%
	Free Soil	Vernon Tichenor	215	0.39%	−5.93%
Plurality			8,029	14.44%	-3.23%
Total votes			55,596	100.0%	+2.88%
	Democratic hold

Madison Mayor (1858)

Madison Mayoral Election, 1858
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
General Election, March 1, 1858
	Democratic	George Baldwin Smith	978	61.98%
	Republican	Neely Gray	600	38.02%
Plurality			378	23.95%
Total votes			1,578	100.0%
	Democratic hold

Wisconsin Assembly Dane 6th District (1858)

Wisconsin Assembly, Dane 6th District Election, 1858
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, November 2, 1858
	Democratic	George Baldwin Smith	663	57.30%	+9.42%
	Republican	Hiram C. Bull	494	42.70%
Plurality			169	14.61%	+10.37%
Total votes			1,157	100.0%	+16.63%
	Democratic gain from Republican		Swing	18.84%

Madison Mayor (1859, 1860)

Madison Mayoral Election, 1859
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, March 7, 1859
	Democratic	George Baldwin Smith (incumbent)	961	70.77%	+8.79%
	Republican	Frank A. Haskell	397	29.23%
Plurality			564	41.53%	+17.58%
Total votes			1,358	100.0%	-13.94%
	Democratic hold

Madison Mayoral Election, 1860
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, April 3, 1860
	Democratic	George Baldwin Smith (incumbent)	724	50.21%	−20.56%
	Republican	David Atwood	718	49.79%
Plurality			6	0.42%	-41.12%
Total votes			1,442	100.0%	-6.19%
	Democratic hold

Wisconsin Assembly Dane 5th District (1863)

Wisconsin Assembly, Dane 5th District Election, 1863
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, November 3, 1863
	Democratic	George Baldwin Smith	841	53.77%	−6.91%
	Republican	Joseph Hobbins	723	46.23%
Plurality			118	7.54%	-13.82%
Total votes			1,564	100.0%	+4.41%
	Democratic hold

U.S. House of Representatives (1864)

Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District Election, 1864
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, November 8, 1864
	National Union	Ithamar Sloan (incumbent)	15,148	60.31%	+5.88%
	Democratic	George Baldwin Smith	9,969	39.69%
Plurality			5,179	20.62%	+11.76%
Total votes			25,117	100.0%	+4.30%
	National Union hold

Wisconsin Assembly Dane 5th District (1868)

Wisconsin Assembly, Dane 5th District Election, 1868
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
General Election, November 3, 1868
	Democratic	George Baldwin Smith	1,198	53.79%
	Republican	David Atwood	1,029	46.21%
Plurality			169	7.59%
Total votes			2,227	100.0%
	Democratic hold

U.S. House of Representatives (1872)

Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District Election, 1872
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, November 5, 1872
	Republican	Gerry Whiting Hazelton (incumbent)	13,408	53.22%	−1.29%
	Democratic	George Baldwin Smith	11,784	46.78%
Plurality			1,624	6.45%	-2.58%
Total votes			25,192	100.0%	+19.76%
	Republican hold

Madison Mayor (1878)

Madison Mayoral Election, 1878
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
General Election, April 2, 1878
	Democratic	George Baldwin Smith	1,499	100.0%
Total votes			1,499	100.0%
	Democratic hold

References

^ "A Loss to Wisconsin: Death of Gen. George B. Smith, a leading lawyer and Democratic politician" New York Times, September 22, 1879, at 2. Reprinting article from the Milwaukee Sentinel, September 19, 1879.
"Smith, George Baldwin", Dictionary of Wisconsin History
^ Gen. David Atwood, Speech to the Wisconsin Historical Society, November 10, 1879. Reprinted Report and Collections on the State Historical Society of Wisconsin for the years 1877, 1878 and 1879 vol. VIII. Madison, Wisconsin:David Atwood, 1879, p. 111–120.
"Gen. George B. Smith". Waukesha Daily Freeman. September 25, 1879. p. 2. Retrieved May 29, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "George B. Smith". Green Bay Advocate. September 25, 1879. p. 7. Retrieved May 28, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
Letters of George B. Smith, Wisconsin Historical Society
"The Official Canvass". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. December 10, 1853. p. 2. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
"The City Election". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. March 2, 1858. p. 3. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
"Dane County Complete - Official". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. November 10, 1858. p. 2. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
"The City Election Yesterday". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. March 8, 1859. p. 3. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
"Six Majority for G. B. Smith!". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. April 4, 1860. p. 1. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
"Dane County Official". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. November 12, 1863. p. 1. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Wisconsin U.S. House Election Results" (PDF). Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 5, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
"Democrats Again Carry Madison". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. November 4, 1868. p. 1. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
"Gen. George B. Smith Elected Mayor, Without Opposition". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. April 3, 1878. p. 1. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

George B. Smith at Find a Grave

Wisconsin State Assembly
Preceded byAlexander A. McDonell	Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the Dane 6th district 1859 – 1860	Succeeded byCassius Fairchild
Preceded byGeorge Hyer	Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the Dane 5th district 1864 – 1865	Succeeded byJames Ross
Preceded byLevi Baker Vilas	Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the Dane 5th district 1869 – 1870	Succeeded byAlden Sprague Sanborn
Legal offices
Preceded byExperience Estabrook	Attorney General of Wisconsin 1852 – 1854	Succeeded byWilliam Rudolph Smith
Political offices
Preceded byAugustus A. Bird	Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin 1858 – 1861	Succeeded byLevi Baker Vilas
Preceded byHarlow S. Orton	Mayor of Madison, Wisconsin 1878 – 1879	Succeeded byJohn R. Baltzell

v t e Attorneys general of Wisconsin
Territory	Baird Wells Jackson Lynde H. Smith
State	Brown Coon E. Estabrook G. Smith W. R. Smith Bouck Howe W. Smith Gill Barlow Sloan Wilson Frisby C. Estabrook O'Connor Mylrea Hicks Sturdevant Gilbert Bancroft Owen Haven Blaine Morgan Ekern Reynolds Sr. Finnegan Loomis Martin Broadfoot Fairchild Thomson Honeck Reynolds Jr. Thompson La Follette Warren Miller La Follette Hanaway Doyle Lautenschlager Van Hollen Schimel Kaul

v t e Mayors of Madison, Wisconsin
Village presidents	Collins Seymour Mills Abbott Tenney Mills Bergen
Mayors	Fairchild Bird Smith Vilas Leitch Keyes Sanborn Atwood Proudfit Bowen Hill Gregory Pinney Jones Orton Smith Baltzell Spooner Conklin Stevens Moulton Keyes Conklin Doyon Bashford Rogers Corscot Alford Dye Hoven Whelan Hoven Bull Groves Curtis Schubert Heim Kayser Sayle Kittleson Schmedeman Law Kraege Howell Forster Bareis Nestingen Hanson Reynolds Festge Dyke Soglin Skornicka Sensenbrenner Soglin Bauman Cieslewicz Soglin Rhodes-Conway

Mayors of Madison, Wisconsin

Village presidents

Mayors

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