George P. Smith – Big Problems Attracted Him – 1915
George P. Smith
An article in The Daily Missoulian on April 9, 1915 was a plea for help for a segment of Missoula’s unemployed men. Mr. George Smith, the writer, was the owner and operator of Missoula’s first Gas Company, located on River Street, near the Milwaukee Rail Road line that ran through Missoula’s South Side. The area near the Gas Company and the Missoula River – the ‘jungle’ – attracted many unemployed men since it was handy to the Rail Lines, was out of the way, and was not distant from Missoula’s Downtown area. Often described as Vags or Hobos, these men were generally not welcomed in the area and were sometimes the subject of harassment by the hostile local citizenry. This was true even during parts of the second half of the century when the economy sagged and unemployment was rife. Typically, the summer months in the Missoula area offered many transient men short term employment in the woods, logging and fighting fires and even harvesting agricultural products. While these men may have been welcomed in the short term by businesses and farms in need of hired hands, they were expected to move on when the seasons changed. Mr. Smith was an experienced businessman when he wrote his letter, had seen a fair portion of the country and recognized that many of the men in the hobo camp next door to his Gas Company were willing and capable of working.
As a problem solver, Mr. Smith did what he could when he wrote the letter below:
Telephone Smith If You Would Hire Man
In Sympathy With Jobless Fellows, Gas Man Offers Services Free
George P. Smith of the Missoula Gas company has opened a free employment bureau and stated today that he could furnish men for any and all work waiting to be done, in or out of the city, at short notice. Mr. Smith guarantees that the men he sends will be first-class workmen and that they can be secured for a reasonable wage.
“As you know,” said Mr. Smith, “I live at 704 River street, right close to the ‘jungles,’ where all the men who reach Missoula on the Milwaukee trains and stop here hunting for work, congregate. This camping ground is only a stone’s throw from my residence and so I have had a good chance to observe the thousands of men who have come and gone this winter. As a general rule they are good, honest workers, out of a job and willing to accept any kind of position. Many of them come to the house but very few have been beggars. They want work and most of them will refuse food or help unless given an opportunity to work and pay for it.
“I have already been able to find places for some of the men but now that more help is being needed about town and in the country I thought it would be a good scheme to let it be known that there are plenty of good men to be had at short notice. They will welcome any sort of work in town and be as glad to go into the country for steady employment.
“My phone number is 563. I will be glad to answer any calls and can guarantee to find a man in short order. There will be no charges for such service as it is always a pleasure to find these poor, but worthy fellows a place. Many of them are hungry and have not had a real bed to sleep in for weeks. Those who can find employment for some of them will be doing for brothers in distress.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/348997494
George P. Smith died in 1928 in Missoula. His obituary below appeared in the Daily Missoulian on April 18, 1928.
George P. Smith Taken By Death
President of First Gas Company
George P. Smith, aged 86 years, president and manager of the first gas company in Missoula; a railroad, light and water plant and gas plant builder in many states, died at a local hospital early yesterday. Mr. Smith, who had been in failing health for three years, had been a patient at the hospital for two weeks.
Mr. Smith, born at Lockport, N. Y., in 1842, spent the major portion of his life in New York and Michigan. In Michigan for a period of years he followed in the footsteps of his father in the lumber business. At one time when $40,000 worth of saw logs were being transported to the sawmill a storm broke over Lake Michigan and the log raft was whipped to pieces and the cargo of logs lost. They drifted to every part of the lake.
For many years Mr. Smith was the financial advisor and business partner of General Alger, later governor of Michigan. It was Mr. Smith who nominated Alger for governor when he was elected. Alger later became secretary of war.
Mr. Smith was a big builder. He built electric and steam roads in New York. He built electric light plants in many states from the north to the south. Some were in New York, Michigan, Ohio, Mississippi and even down in Mexico.
“At one time,” Mrs. Smith, the widow said last night, “he built a railroad from Niagara Falls to Buffalo. J. P. Morgan wanted the road and made an offer which Mr. Smith would not accept. Morgan sent word for him to accept the offer or he would be ruined financially. Morgan wanted the road for a feeder for the New York Central.
“Mr. Smith would not accept the offer and Morgan did not ruin him,” Later the associates of Mr. Morgan came around to buy the road at my husband’s figures and said they wanted to take their hats off to the only man who had ever beaten them at their own game.
“Mr. Smith said he had thought in early life that he was a Democrat until he went to Washington with his father to hear Lincoln’s inaugural address. When he had heard Lincoln he was a Republican and remained one until his death.
“Mr. Smith was active in politics, perhaps more in his younger days than his later years in Missoula. He was a loyal American and placed his country above everything else. He had a most forgiving nature and was happiest when he was confronted with some big problem. It was the bigger problems which always attracted him.”
Mr. Smith came to Missoula more than 20 years ago. Here he built the first gas plant for Missoula and also the Missoula Belt Line railroad connecting link between the Milwaukee and Northern Pacific lines, the shortest railroad in the United States. He retired from business about five years ago.
When Mr. Smith built the gas plant here, he, with a brother, Henry H. Smith of Bay City, Mich., were the principal shareholders.
Mr. Smith is survived by his wife, three sons and two daughters. The sons are George, Jr., and Ralph Smith of Pennsylvania; and Ben Smith. The latter, who had served on the Mexican border, went to Canada to enlist at the outbreak of the World war and has not been heard from since. The daughters are Mrs. Anna Maxwell of New Jersey and Miss Margery Smith of LaSalle, N. Y.
The body is at the Marsh & Powell undertaking place. The funeral services will be held at 2 o’clock Thursday afternoon at the First Methodist Episcopal church. Rev. Charles M. Donaldson will conduct the services and burial will be in Missoula cemetery.
The Smith home is at 640 River street.
George Smith’s career had spanned many decades before he ever came to Missoula.
He can be seen in records for Tonawanda N. Y.’s centennial magazine of 1965. Tonawanda is near Buffalo, N. Y.
https://archive.org/stream/northtonawandace00flei#page/40/mode/2up
“In January of 1885 a progressive citizenry with George P. Smith as founder organized the first municipal water works system after many offers were considered by private concerns.
“Mr. Smith was a man of many plans for his village. He organized two trolley companies, building lines to Buffalo an operating service in both Tonawandas. He had franchises for cross town lines, but did not use them. He also built the only “skyscraper” at Webster and Tremont street, the Smith Hotel and assisted in the development of other portions of the business section.”
In Michigan he was a director for the Michigan Pipe Company and the Tawas and Bay County Railroad Company. His younger brother Henry B Smith stayed in Bay City Michigan and became wealthy as an owner and investor in lumber mills, sugar plants, pipe and water works plants, and a First National Bank. Beloved as a philanthropist, Henry had a Great Lakes freighter built in his name which was sadly lost in a storm on Lake Superior with all hands on board.
George P. Smith and his Gas Company were also the subject of another article that appeared on this website. See Link below on Missoula’s Shortest Belt Line Railroad: