HAPPY 125TH (Quasquicentennial) ANNIVERSARY

William H. Smith (1854-?) and Comfort D. Porter Smith (1858-?) first came to Joplin in 1874 from Bowling Green, Kentucky.  William took a job as assistant cashier with the Joplin Savings Bank of East Joplin, the first bank established in Joplin.  He was a member of the “Old Settlers’ Association of Joplin” that included pioneer residents and their families.

Mr. Smith went on to be the director of the Joplin Trust Co. and secretary and treasurer of the Gilchrist Porter Realty Co.  He was also one of the originators of the Joplin & Pittsburg Railway Co., an electric inter-state line that extended to Pittsburg, Kansas.  The J&P was the main rival of the Southwest Missouri Railroad, another interurban passenger railway.

In 1877 the Smiths engaged in the hotel business in Ensenada, Mexico and afterward in banking and merchandising in San Francisco, California.  The Smith’s returned to Joplin and William engaged in the real estate business with John H. Taylor, his brother-in-law.  They were among the most important of the real estate dealers in the city, handling city properties, lands, farms, mining property, and so forth.