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CAMERON C. SMITH. Among the successful iron and steel captains in the great army of metal producers in Greater
Pittsburg [sic] is Cameron C. Smith, son of Joseph S. and Mary A. (Watson) Smith. He was born on a farm in Clinton
township, Butler county, Pennsylvania, April 24, 1861, and attended the district schools until he was 15 years
of age, and then attended the old Third ward school in Allegheny City one year, after which he completed his education
at Waynesburg College. During his college life he taught school and worked at farming a part of each year to earn
money sufficient to further his education. When through college he studied shorthand and secured a position as
an amanuensis in the office of Wilson Walker & Company, iron manufacturers, He was employed by them ten years,
during which time it was merged into the Carnegie, Phipps & Company, and that into the Carnegie Steel Company.
In 1893 he left their employ and engaged with the Reliance Steel Casting Company, a concern engaged in a smaller
business. He continued there six years and withdrew and organized the Union Steel Castipg Company, and built their
plant. This company was organized in 1899 with a capital of sixty two thousand five hundred dollars, but has now
grown to the large sum of one million five hundred thousand dollars, and is at present, perhaps, the most successful
plant of its kind in the country. Mr. Smith was secretary and general manager of the concern for the first yr of
its existence, when he was elected president, the position he still holds. It may be said that his knowledge of
men and what they are best calculate& to work at has made him wonderfully effective in the discharge of his
duties. In the selection of his men for the various departments he makes but few mistakes, and it is this fact
that causes him to successfully manage the extensive and successful business which this company now carries on.
He is a member of nearly all of the leading engineering societies in the country, and has made close friends of
a legion of the leading business men in all sections of the country.
Mr. Smith was united in marriage, in 1902, to Maud Forsaith, of Etna, Pennsylvania, and they now reside at No.
719 North Negley avenue, Pittsburg [sic].
Of his ancestry it may be said in this connection that he has descended from the German emigrant who came to America
in 1700. Joseph Smith, for many years prior to his death one of Pittsburg's most highly respected and public-spirited
citizens, was born in 1823, at Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, a son of Daniel Smith, who was born in
1799, at New Hill, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and was by trade a blacksmith,
In 1836 Joseph Smith moved to Pittsburg, where he worked at his trade until 1840, when he settled on a farm in
West Deer township, Allegheny county, and then turned his whole attention to farming in its various branches. In
1845, however, he returned to Pittsburg and retired from active labors and business. He was a Whig in politics
and an elder in the German Lutheran church. His father was a Revolutionary soldier. Daniel Smith married Eleanora
Shrom, whose father was also in the Revolutionary struggle, and their children were: George, Joseph, Frederick,
David, Jacob, William. Harvey, Henry, Ann and three who died in childhood. The mother of these children died in
1847, the father surviving until 1873.
Joseph Smith, son of Daniel and Eleanora (Schrom) Smith, was a mere boy when his parents removed to Butler county,
and there he spent the greater part of his life. On reaching manhood he decided to become a farmer, and thenceforth
became a successful agriculturist. Later he became possessed of a farm on which he made his home for a number of
years, and was recognized as one of Butler county's best, most thoroughgoing farmers. In 1881 he sold his estate
and moved to Sharpsburg, where he resided three years, and in 1884 went to Tarentum, retiring the same year from
all active business. At all times he took a keen interest in public affairs, and was ready to do all within his
power to further the best interests and measures in local government. His political principles were those of the
Republican party. He was a member of the United Presbyterian church.
He married Mary Ann Watson, and they became the parents of the following children: Mary E., born 1848, wife of
Anderson Hazlett; James C., born in 1850, married Mary Ann Woods; Elizabeth, born in 1851, died in 1862; John L.,
born in 1852, married Sadie Noel; David, born in 1854, died in 1862; Frank A., born in married Catherine Stepp;
Maria, born in 1856, died in 1862; Sadie A., born in 1857, wife of W. P. Wood: Waltçr D., born in 1858,
died in 1862; Cameron C. (subject), born in 1861, married Maud Forsaith; George W., born in 1862, married Ida Nease;
Alma, born in 1864, wife of A. N. Nevin, and Harry G., born in 1866, married Sarah Martin. Mr. Smith's death occurred
in 1898, and was widely and sincerely mourned, not alone by his family, but by the many to whom he was known as
a distinguished citizen and a man of marked integrity.
Mary Ann (Watson) Smith, the mother of the family just enumerated, was the daughter of James Watson and a granddaughter
of Thomas Watson, who was born in Ireland in 1759 and moved with his parents to Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, when
a boy. He served in the Revolutionary war, being taken prisoner at the battle of Brandywine. He Was confined at
Wilmington one month and on a British prison ship two months, He was later detailed to herd cattle for the British
army. On an occasion when the cattle stampeded he chased a two year old heifer so far into the woods that he was
lost sight of and thus escaped. He served under Lieutenant Colonel Bicker in Captain McGowan's company and enlisted
at Middletown, Pennsylvania. He married Sarah Culan, of Chester county, Pennsylvania, and they were the parents
of one son and one daughter - James and Rebecca. Thomas Watson died in Butler county in 1845.
James Watson, son of Thomas and Sarah (Culan) Watson, was born in 1795, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and in
1799 was taken by his parents to Butler county, where he became a farmer in Clinton township. He served in the
war of 1812. He married Mary, the daughter of John and Deborah (Rosebury) Davis. John Davis was born in in New
Jersey, and in 1798 moved to Butler county, Pennsylvania, where he was one of the first settlers. He was a farmer
by occupation. He enlisted in the Revolutionary, army at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, under Colonel Oliver Spencer
Holmes, in Captain Pierson's company, in December, 1776, and served throughout the entire war. He participated
in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, White Marsh, Connecticut Farms and Short Hills, He applied
for a pension October 2, 1820, which was granted (certificate 18,185, issued June 29, 1821, under Act of March
18, 1818, at the Pennsylvania Agency). His wife died in 1834, and he died in 1841.
The Pennsylvania Archives, page 661, Volume XXIV, third series, show that he entered a land warrant on April 29,
1776, in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, for twelve acres of land. Also on page 75, volume VI, fifth series, of
the same archives, show that he served hi the Seventh Class, Sixth Company, First Battalion of Cumberland county
militia, and was ordered out in 1783.
Colonel John Davis (father of the John Davis mentioned) was born in New Jersey and moved to Cumberland county,
Pennsylvania, locating near Carlisle about 1750. He reared four sons, Benjamin, Walter, Samuel and John, all of
whom served in the Continental army. Pennsylvania Archives, page 66x, volume XXIV, third series, state that he,
John Davis, entered land by warrant for twenty five acres September 7, 1753, in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania,
and for three hundred acres, July 7, 1785. The same record shows on page 626, volume VI, fifth series, that he
commanded the second class militia of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, serving from 1780 to 1782, inclusive,
The children born to James and Mary (Davis) Watson were as follows: Sarah; Deborah; Rebeëca; Mary Ann, who
was born in 1824, and married in 1847 to Joseph Smith; Maria Phcebe; John; Thomas; James; and Joseph The father,
James Watson, died in i868, and the mother, Mary (Davis) Watson, died in 1871.
From:
A Century and a half of
Pittsburg and her people.
By: John Newton Boucher
The Lewis Publishing Company
1908.
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