John Day Smith is a son of the late Edward G. and Elizabeth B. Smith, a
nd was born in Litchfield on the 25th day oi February, 1845. He attended the common school and two terms at Litchfield AcademyIn 1862, when seventeen years of age, he enlisted in Company F, 19th Regiment Maine Volunteers. Mr. Smith served under all the generals who successively commanded the Army of the Potomac. He was at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bristow Station, Mine Run. the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Po River, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and the Weldon Railroad or Jerusalem Plank Road, where, on the 22nd of June, 1864, he was severely wounded. At the battle of Gettysburg his regiment belonged to Gibbson's Division of Hancock's Corps, which received the impetuous charge of Pickett's Division of Longstreet's Corps, and the regiment in this engagement lost in killed
and wounded nearly one-half of its number. After months of surffering in hospitals, he was discharged from the service, after Lee's surrender.Mr. Smith, while still suffering from his wound, prepared for college at the Waterville Classical Institute under Dr. J. H. Hanson and was graduated from Brown University in 1872. His scholarship in college is attested by his election to the Phi Beta Kappa society. He received the degree of Master of Arts from his Alma Mater in 1875. While preparing for college he taught school in Litchrield and Momuouth and at West Gardiner and Monmouth academies. After graduation from college he taught three years as principal of the Worcester. (Mass.) Academy. Failure of health compelled him to seek a milder climate in l876, and he was for several years in the employment of the government, in the Department of the Interior at Washington, and in the interest of the Department traveled extensively in many of the states of the Union. He then studied law in the latter city at the Columbian University, and was admitted to the bar.
In 1886 he removed to the city of Minneapolis, Minn., where he now resides and has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession. Mr. Smith is a member of the order of A. F. and A. M. and the G. A. R. In 1889 he was elected to the House of Representatives of the Minnesota legislature, and was a member of the Senate from 1891 to 1895, the last two years serving as chairman of the judiciary committee in that body. In 1893 he served as commander of the G. A. R. for the department of Minnesota. From 1880 to 1885 Mr. Smith was a lecturer on the law of evidence, torts and constitutional law in the Howard University and since 1890 he has belonged to the faculty of instruction in the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, an institution having more than two thousand five hundred students, lecturing on criminal law and American constitutional law.
He married July 20, 1872, Miss Mary H. Chadbourne of Waltham, Mass. She died May 3, 1874. On September 16, 1879, he married Miss Laura Bean of Deleware, Ohio. They have four children as follows, viz.: Mary Chadbourne Smith, born May 1, 1874; Elizabeth Lord Smith, February 4, 1881; Mabel Edna Smith, born August 14, 1884, and Edward Day Smith, born April 18. 1891. These children are all living. Mr. Smith is a member of the Calvary Baptist church in Minneapolis.
History of Litchfield and an Account of Its Centennial Celebrations, 1895 Augusta, Kennebec Journal Print, 1897