History of Smithville

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The town took its name for Thomas Smith who erected the first house in 1818, which was a cabin on the north-west side of Portage Rd around where he laid out a village in 1831. However, due to low grounds the area was vacated. Then on May 25, 1836 David Birney, Sr., Joseph Musser, John Shroll, and Luther Carey laid out a new 41 lot village. The survey and plat was done by Campbell Bell.

David Brenizer put up the first building.

The first store in the original settlement was opened in 1818 by Reasin Beall. The first store in the current village was opened in the spring of 1837 by Judge Smith Orr and Jonathan Casbier[1]

  1. Douglass, Ben. History of Wayne County, Ohio. Indianapolis: Robert Douglass Publisher, 1878. pg. 681.