William SMITH Biography - Berkeley County GenWeb
Berkeley County, West Virginia Biography of William SMITH


         William SMITH was the father of the Smith family on Tuscarora in Berkeley County, Virginia/West Virginia. Together with George W. Horner, father of the Horner family in the vicinity of Arden, they moved from Adams County, Pennsylvania, in 1852 to Berkeley County. They traversed the Shenandoah Valley as far south as Staunton and in the vicinity of Richmond, looking for suitable locations to purchase homes. Not finding a location as well suited to their needs as the ones in Berkeley County, they returned and William purchased a farm near Salem Church on Tuscarora.

         William Smith, together with William Wilen, the father of undertaker John Wilen of Martinsburg, were elected to the West Virginia Legislature as members of the House of Delegates at Wheeling (then the capital of West Virginia) January 17, 1865; they have the distinction of being the first Delegates to represent Berkeley County after it became part of West Virginia. William Smith also represented Berkeley County in the Fourth and Fifth Legislatures.


    Submitted by Marilyn Gouge and extracted from History of Berkeley County, West Virginia, 1928

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