Vintage

BARTOW SMITH T.

BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY

(1861- aft. 1904)

Opelika, Lee County, Alabama

BARTOW SMITH T., of Opelika, Ala., was born Nov. 15, 1861, near Opelika.

His father was JOHN SMITH T., who died during the Civil war; his mother was FANNIE PENDERGRASS, of Jackson county, Georgia. BARTOW SMITH T. and JOHN SMITH T. were the only children of the family.

JOHN was three years younger than BARTOW and was a wholesale grocery merchant at Opelika. BARTOW SMITH T. received his early education in the public schools at Opelika. Possibly his mental and physical vigor may be accounted for by the fact that he assisted on a farm until fourteen years of age. Leaving the farm he entered the grocery store of RENFRO Brothers of Opelika and often assisted at the livery stable, warehouse or bank. Persistent industry added to a noble honesty won to him many strong friends.

By careful attention he gained a thorough insight into commercial life. For thirteen years he remained with RENFRO Brothers. Leaving RENFRO Brothers he entered the cotton warehouse business and his status among the farmers was seen very forcefully when out of 21,000 bales of cotton housed in five warehouses in Opelika, he received 7,000 bales. In addition to running a cotton warehouse he conducted a dray line, was a dealer in sewer pipe and a manufacturer of brick, and cultivated a large farm on the outskirts of Opelika.

He was a member of the Pythian order and also of the Methodist Episcopal G1urch South, of Opelika. His friends were numerous, his intimates many, and his enemies none. Excessively modest, unpretentious and genial he quietly strengthened by deeds of unrecorded kindness, the cords of affection that bound man to man. Opelika had no more noble citizen in her long list of eminent men. ⁱ