Joseph Showalter Smith

Joseph Showalter Smith ( born June 20, 1824 in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, † July 13, 1884 in Portland, Oregon ) was an American politician. Between 1869 and 1871 he represented the state of Oregon in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Joseph Smith attended the public schools of his home. In the spring of 1844, he passed over the Oregon Trail in the later Oregon Territory, where he worked as a teacher in Salem. In his new home, Smith studied law. In 1853 he moved to Olympia in today's Washington State.

Smith was a member of the Democratic Party. In 1856 he was elected to the House of Representatives in Washington Territory, where he was president of the house. Between 1857 and 1858 he was a federal prosecutor in Washington Territory. In 1858 he returned to Salem. In the following eleven years he worked there as a lawyer.

In 1866, he competed unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In the congressional elections of 1868, Joseph Smith was chosen for the state of Oregon in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he replaced Rufus Mallory on March 4, 1869. He exercised his mandate only one legislature from long until March 3, 1871. After the end of his time in Congress, Smith moved to Portland, where he worked as a lawyer. In 1882 he ran for governor of Oregon. But He was defeated by Republican Zenas Ferry Moody. Smith died two years later and was buried in Portland.