Biographical Sketch of Oliver H. SMEDLEY (1893); Chester County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris . *********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl- vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila- delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 430-1. "OLIVER H. SMEDLEY, whose parents were Bartholomew and Margaret (Hoopes) Smedley, is another agriculturalist who has spent a long and active life on the farm where he was born, tilling the broad acres formerly owned by his ancestors, and finding in his annual round of labor a contentment more satisfying if not so intense as that enjoyed by the 'globe trotter,' so called, who visits all climes and is apparently at home in every land. Mr. Smedley was born October 3, 1839, on the old homestead in East Goshen township, this county, and received his early education in the public schools of his neighborhood, which was afterward supplemented by an ex- tended course in the State Normal school at Millersville. After complet- ing his studies he engaged in farming on the home place which passed into his possession in 1864, and has since given his time exclusively to agri- cultural pursuits. His farm contains one hundred and nineteen acres of valuable land, and is well improved and kept in good condition. Politi- cally he is a republican and takes an interest in all public questions, though taking no active part in politics. In religion he is a Presbyter- ian and a member of the West Chester church of that denomination. He is also a member of Goshen Grange, No. 121, Patrons of Husbandry, and takes an active interest in all questions affecting the interests of the farmers of this country. "On October 25, 1865, Mr. Smedley was wedded to Mary E. Megilligan, a daughter of James and Hannah Megilligan, of the city of Wilmington, Dela- ware. To Mr. and Mrs. Smedley has been born a family of four children, two sons and two daughters: Frank B., who married Emma Hendrickson, and now resides in East Goshen; J. Eugene, who is now at Colorado Springs, Colorado; Margaret H. and Bertha M., both living at home with their parents. "The Smedley family is of English descent and was planted in America about 1683, by George Smedley, a Quaker, who came from Derbyshire, and settled at Darby, Pennsylvania. Jesse Smedley, paternal grandfather of Oliver H., was a native of Delaware county, this State, and passed all his active and useful life in that county, dying at Media, in 1850. He married and reared a family, one of whom was Bartholomew Smedley (father), who was born in Delaware county, but in 1838 removed to Chester county, and settled in the eastern part of East Goshen township, where he resided until his death in 1864. He was a farmer all his life and on coming to this county purchased the farm now owned by his son, the subject of this sketch. In politics he was first a whig, but soon after the organization of the Republican party in Pennsylvania he became attached thereto, and ever after gave it an active support. Religiously he was a Quaker, in which faith he had been reared, and in 1838 he married Margaret Hoopes, a daughter of Israel Hoopes, of New Garden township, and to their union was born a family of five children, two sons and three daughters: Oliver H., whose name intro- duces this sketch; William, now deceased, married Ella Sharpless, of East Goshen township, who is also dead; Anna Mary; Anna E., became the wife of Marshall Way, burgess of West Chester; and Philena H. "Oliver H. Smedley is a first cousin of John G. Smedley, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume, and to that sketch reference is made for additional ancestral history of the Smedley family in America."