Alfred Wilson Smiley and Ellen J. Mead

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Husband Alfred Wilson Smiley ^{1 2}

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           Born: 16 Jul 1843 - near Union City, Erie Co, PA 1 2
     Christened: 
           Died: Aft 1913
         Buried: 

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         Father: John Smiley (1814-1894) 2
         Mother: Rachel Wilson (1813/1814-1906) 2

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       Marriage: 30 Oct 1866 3

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Wife Ellen J. Mead ³

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            AKA: Ella Mead 1
           Born: 9 Oct 1848 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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         Father: Rev. O. L. Mead (      -      ) 3
         Mother: Emmaline Judson (      -      ) 3

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Children

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1 M Roger Mead Smiley ³

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           Born: 3 Feb 1870 - Union City, Erie Co, PA 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Pearl Elizabeth Traver (      -      ) 3
           Marr: 15 Oct 1903 3

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General Notes: Husband - Alfred Wilson Smiley

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He received his early education in the district schools, and worked while a boy on the farm and in his father's grist mill and learned the trade of a miller, continuing at that occupation until he was seventeen years of age. On August 28, 1859, the first oil well, called the "Drake" well, was struck near Titusville, Pennsylvania, and it was from this that the petroleum business was launched on its astonishing career. Becoming imbued with the excitement of the time Mr. Smiley went to Titusville in the spring of 1860, and being a strong, active boy of seventeen years he soon found employment in drilling oil wells not far from the original discovery of the "Drake" well, and thus began his career in the oil business, which has been his life occupation. He was later assistant to his brother, T. J. Smiley, in Titusville, holding a position as clerk at the platform of C. H. Ames & Company, commission merchants, and in 1863 secured employment with the commission firm of Whitcomb & Standard, in Franklin, Pennsylvania. While in this latter position he became personally acquainted with John W. Steele, "Coal Oil Johnnie". Mr. Smiley was stationed in the office at the gate entrance to the yards and was in charge of all the oil received, and held the position until July 1, 1864, when he was transferred to the mercantile freight department, at that time in charge of R. C. Veveridge, and remained there until February 1, 1865, when he accepted a position with the Adamantine Oil Company and was engaged in securing leases of oil lands throughout the country, remaining with the company until July 1, 1865, when he became timekeeper and paymaster for a force of men building the Pithole and Miller Farm Pipe Line, which was the beginning of his experience as a pipe-liner. Shortly after settling in Pithole he ventured all of his savings, a few hundred dollars, in a well on the Morey farm and in a few weeks sold his interest for twenty thousand dollars, and then purchased one-fourth of a well on the Heiner farm, another one-fourth interest in a well on the Rooker farm, and an eighth interest in one on the Holmden farm. The price of oil was at that time five dollars per barrel, and all of the wells in which he was interested proving successful, his income for a few months was between five and six hundred dollars a day. Disposing of his holdings in September, 1865, he found himself possessed of fifty thousand dollars, all made in about four months. He held his position as timekeeper and paymaster until the first two-inch pipe line between Pithole and Miller Farm was completed about the first of October, 1865, and was then made assistant superintendent and general agent of the line. In the early days of pipe lines all oil was handled from the wells in barrels, and each pipe line had dump tanks to which the oil was hauled by wagons, then dumped into the tanks and pumped away. Mr. Smiley was the first man to suggest and to put in operation the idea of connecting direct to tanks at the wells. He remained with the Pithole and Miller Farm line until the failure of the proprietor, Samuel Vansyckel, in the latter part of 1866, having in the meanwhile lost, by unsuccessful ventures, a large portion of the money he had made in the first year of his operations.
In the spring of 1868 he went to Shamburg, Pennsylvania, where he built and successfully operated an oil refinery until 1869 in partner-ship with P. R. Gray, and on April 1, 1870, he became the agent at Shamburg for the Titusville Pipe Company, owned by the Em-pire Transportation Company. Early in 1872 this latter company bought control of the Mutual Pipe Company and Mr. Smiley was made superintendent of the Mutual line. The Empire Transportation Company, soon after this purchase, also acquired control of the Union line at Parker, which was extended to Butler, and on October 1, 1873, the Mutual, Union, and Butler lines were reorganized under the name of the "Union Pipe Company" with Mr. Smiley as superintendent of the Foxburg division with an office in Foxburg, Pennsylvania, in which position he remained until Oc-tober, 1877, when the company was absorbed by the "United Pipe Lines" which was controlled by the Standard Oil Company, and on January 1, 1878, he severed his connection with the company. In 1876 Mr. Smiley was one of the organizers of and became a member of the first board of directors of the Foxburg, St. Petersburg and Clarion Railroad Company, which soon after its completion was merged under one management with the Emlenton, Shippensville & Clarion railroad. About this time he was also one of the organizers of the Foxburg, Kane and Bradford Railroad Company. These roads were later consolidated as the Pittsburgh, Bradford & Buffalo railroad, and the road from Clarion Junction to Kane was completed. The Pittsburgh & Western railroad was at the time a narrow gauge road running from Allegheny to Butler, and this road secured the Parker and Karns City road and soon after the whole narrow gauge system from Allegheny to Kane was consolidated as the Pittsburgh & Western and made standard gauge from Allegheny to Foxburg. On February 1, 1878, Mr. Smiley commenced the construction of the Fox Farm Pipe Line and after its completion managed the line until the death of William L. Fox in 1880, after which it was leased to the United system. During the summer of 1884 he was under negotiation with the British government for his services to superintend the building of a water pipe-line in the Soudan from Berber on the river Nile across the Nubian desert to Suakim on the Red Sea, intended to furnish water for the English army, and the matter had progressed to the stage of his terms being accepted and his being in readiness to start for London, when the material for the line collected at Suakim was destroyed by the forces of the Mandi and the project was abandoned. Mr. Smiley in 1885 built a pipe line in Ohio from Maxwell to Lowell for George Rice, in competition with the Standard Oil Company, and about August 15 of that year returned to Foxburg and entered the buying department of the Joseph Seep Purchasing Agency, being transferred September 1, 1885, to the Edenburg (Knox) office, where he remained until February 1, 1892, on which date he was again transferred to the office at Foxburg, Pennsylvania.
He was a Democrat in politics, and in 1886 was elected to the state legislature for Clarion County, serving in the session of 1887, and being re-elected served in the session of 1889. He was again elected in 1894 and served in the session of 1895, being the first man ever elected to the office a third time from the county. In 1902 he was the Democratic nominee for congress in the twenty-seventh district of Pennsylvania, composed of the counties of Clarion, Jefferson, Indiana and Armstrong, and although defeated of election, the district being strongly Republican, he reduced the Republican majority from nine thousand, five hundred and eighty-eight to five thousand, four hundred and ten. In 1904 he was the Democratic presidential elector for the twenty-seventh district of Pennsylvania and received in the state three hundred and thirty-five thousand, two hundred and nine votes. He was a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and was also a member of the Knights of the Maccabees. He was a member of the Sons of Rest and also a member of the Ancient Order of Egyptian Monks. He resides in Foxburg, Pennsylvania. [GPHAV, 730]

1 A. J. Davis, History of Clarion County, Pennsylvania (Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., 1887), Bios li.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 730.

3 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 732.