Humphrey "Yankee" Smith

Humphrey Smith commonly known in his lifetime as "Yankee" Smith (b. 1774 New Jersey - d. May 5, 1857 Clay County, Missouri) was the unofficial founder of the city of Smithville, Missouri, and a remarkable figure in the earliest history of the State of Missouri.

In regional hyperbole of the time, Smith was known as the "only" Yankee (Federalist or "Union sympathizer") in Clay County, Missouri, a key section of the far-flung Kansas City Metropolitan Area, location of many sites and incidents relative to the eventual American Civil War. "Yankee" Smith is described thus in the section about Smithville in an Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri published in 1901:

A passage in the 1907 autobiography by Humphrey Smith's son, Calvin Smith (b. December 23, 1813 Erie County, New York - d. October 1, 1909, Kansas City, Missouri) expands on that explanation of Humphrey Smith's activism and points out the epitaph was not engraved until after the American Civil War. This portion of Calvin Smith's book is evidently engraved on his father's tombstone with only slight modification:

While no photograph of Humphrey Smith may be extant, a photograph of "four generations" of male descendants (Calvin Smith >> Erastus Smith >> Jewel Smith >> Delwin Smith) is included on page 24 of Calvin Smith's 1907 autobiography.

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