Pueblo County, Colorado
Josiah "Si" Smith

Contributed by Karen Mitchell and Jean Griesan. Photo by Floyd Kelling.



Josiah “Si” Smith
Josiah “Si” Smith, one of the first permanent residents of Pueblo, was living in the county when the first census was taken. Smith was born September 2, 1829, in Dayton, Ohio, and came west in 1848. For the next ten years he lived in Wyoming, California, and Oregon. He returned to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1858. That same year he was with a party which located at the mouth of the Fountain where the old trail from Santa Fe to the Laramie plains crossed the Arkansas. The next Spring they planted crops; a party of disillusioned Missourians came along and tried to seize the crops to feed cattle. A pitched battle ensued and several Missourians were killed. Smith served as sheriff 1964 – 1865, was a deputy U.S. Marshall, was named Justice of the Peace in 1858 and served from time to time in the fall years. He was police judge in 1881. His occupation was given as stockraiser. He died October 22, 1904, at his home at 609 East Fifth Street.

JOSIAH F. SMITH.
Notably among the "old-timers" in Southern Colorado is Josiah F. Smith, a prominent citizen, and the present Police Judge of Pueblo. He was raised in Dayton, Ohio, where he was born September 2, 1829. He came West in 1848, and for ten years traded among the Indians through Wyoming, California and Oregon. In 1858, he returned to Missouri, going to St. Louis, where he lived more than two years. Coming West again in 1860, he located in Southern Colorado, on the Fontaine qui Bouille, at a point which became a village, known as Fontaine City, but which is now covered by East Pueblo. Mr. Smith has been prominently connected with the varied changes and growth of Pueblo from its very infancy. In 1866, he pre-empted a quarter-section of land bordering on Santa Fe avenue, which he afterward sold in town lots, realizing considerable money therefrom. He was Sheriff of Pueblo County in 1864-65. He was a Deputy under Gov. Hunt when he held the office of United States Marshal. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1859, when Colorado was a part of Kansas Territory, and has since held that office at various times in Pueblo County. He was elected to the office of Police Judge in May, 1881. Few men have been more intimately associated with the history of Southern Colorado, and few have figured more in the shifting scenes of Western life than Josiah F. Smith. The Judge has not been unmindful of his individual interest. He has long been interested in the stock business, and by his various enterprises has grown quite wealthy. Long may he yet live among the people whose growth he has watched, and whose vicissitudes he has shared for over twenty years.  History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado O L Baskin & Co., Chicago, 1881 


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