CLARK LYMAN SMEDLEY

     Clark Lyman Smedley, an alert and enterprising business man, is the president and treasurer of the Smedley Company and of the firm of Smedley Brothers & Company, engaged in the trucking, moving and storage business in New Haven. Connecticut claims him as a native son. He was born September 28, 1848, and is a son of William L. and Julia C. (Marsh) Smedley. The family was founded in America prior to the Revolutionary war, in which representatives of the name took part, the early family home being at Morris, where Clark L. Smedley was reared and educated. However, at an early age he began providing for his own support as an employe in his father's store, there remaining for seven or eight years. Parental authority did not make the task an easy one. He arose at four o'clock in the morning and worked hard all day, and his preliminary business training was thus most thorough. He afterward, started through the country, buying and selling cattle and horses, leaving home when fifteen years of age.
     In 1863 Mr. Smedley came to New Haven, where he began to speculate in merchandise, making his purchases in New York city and selling in New Haven. In 1865 he started in his present business on a small scale at the corner of Orchard street and Whalley avenue, having at that time seven or eight horses, and originally he and his brother William Walter and their father did all of the work. Something of the marvelous growth of their patronage is indicated in the fact that they now employ one hundred and twenty-five men and utilize two hundred horses and fifteen automobile trucks. The firm also utilizes about a dozen buildings in the conduct of the various lines of their business. The business has been thoroughly systematized and divided into four departments, the trucking, wagon, automobile and storage departments. They continue to deal in horses and ship as many as forty carloads annually. The business has now been in existence for fifty-three years and in their employ they have one or two who have been with the company for forty years. The father and brother of Clark Lyman Smedley have passed away, and he is at the head of the business as the president and treasurer of the Smedley Company, formed in 1894, and of Smedley Brothers & Company. The careful direction of his interests with sound judgment and reliable methods have made his business one of the foremost enter-prises of this character in southern Connecticut, and his efforts have been crowned with well deserved prosperity. His son, Harry S., is assistant treasurer of the company and manager of several departments of the business.
     Mr. Smedley is an independent voter and exercises his right of franchise in support of the measures and movements which he deems of greatest worth to the public. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the New Haven lodge of Elks and of several social clubs, and he attends the Congregational church. For fifty-four years he has made his home in New Haven and throughout the entire period he has so directed his activities that he enjoys in full measure the confidence, goodwill and high regard of a circle of friends that is almost coextensive with the circle of his acquaintance.

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