Probate Record: William Henry Smith

This is my second blog post about my great great grandfather William Henry Smith. I recently listened to a well known genealogy speaker who shared his daughter's blog, with us - his listeners. The speaker shared with us how his daughter has written multiple blog posts with digital sources for each of her direct ancestors (going back probably 4 or more generations). This inspired me to do the same.

Previously, I have written posts about random people and places - which is fine because lots of people are in the queue but I just want to focus myself for a bit and write at least one article for each of my direct line of ancestors. I will include my grandparents and go on several generations from there. This is a good way for me to focus. Focusing or narrowing down can be hard because I always want to include everyone in my family tree - because: 1) they are my family; 2) my direct ancestors of course did not live in isolation - their sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, etc were their family.

In February 2012, I checked out the website www.genlighten.com  It is a genealogy site that links up people who are living in a certain part of the US that are interested in offering their research services in specific areas, such as: birth, death, marriage records, or cemetery look ups, etc. I found Kim Stankiewicz of Chicago, Illinois. Her services included Chicago probate records. So, I emailed her my request for the probate record of William H. Smith.

Well, luck was on my side and she was able to find "my" William H. Smith who died 21 September 1903 Chicago, Illinois. She digitally copied 79 pages of his probate record. There were more pages that included receipts for his business but nothing of substantial importance. She did a wonderful job. I was and still am very happy to have worked with her.

Now, onto the probate record. But, first I need to give you some background on William. He came to Chicago from Brooklyn, New York and became involved in newspaper circulation for several of the Chicago newspapers. He made his living for 20 years distributing newspapers to many of the citizens of Chicago.

After circulating for 20 years, he decided to make a career change. He purchased a lease on part of a three story building that was located at 292 E. Erie St. in Chicago, Illinois (which is at the corner of Erie and State St). He then proceeded to open a saloon (as they called it back then) at the said address. He ran this saloon until he died in 1903. This is the reason for the extra pages of receipts in his probate record.

This is a current look at the corner of Erie and State Streets in Chicago. The saloon was sold to G. A. Nagel 29 February 1904 for $2,500. G. A. Nagel purchased the lease on the building where the saloon was located, the furniture, stock and fixtures, etc. A side note - Fred R. Smith, his son later purchased and operated different saloon at 4936 Broadway in Chicago.

purchase of W. H. Smith saloon

One of the interesting things about this probate record is that after assessing William's assets (excluding the value of several lots he owned in Chicago) the sum total of his worth was $35,593.04. This is not his total value because as I said he owned several lots that I never saw a value recorded for. This is a fair amount of money for someone who came from Brooklyn and seems to have made his way on his own in Chicago.

I did find a website that listed what $35,000 dollars in 1903 would be worth today in 2013. $35,000 would be worth $921,052.63 dollars. Adding the fact that William was only 56 years old when he died, it appears that he worked hard and made good use of his time in making a good life for himself and his family. I was rather surprised by his monetary worth but I didn't know William, so I guess if I had known him - I wouldn't of been surprised.

The value of W. H. Smith and his adult children (Roberta is a child, so no signature)

Three lots that W H Smith owned. 

These three lots were not given a monetary value in the probate record. They were mentioned in relation to deeds, taxes and city assessments but not given a value otherwise. The amount of $33.11 is the taxes paid on the three lots in the Given and Gilberts Subdivision.

There is much more contained in William's probate record but I will close this post with the information I have thus given. I will be adding more information from this probate record to my future posts about his wife Mary A. Carbine Smith, as well as his children.