Nathan Brooks Smith

Nathan Brooks Smith is a native of the State of Massachusetts, born in Concord, January 17, 1850. He is the son of Joseph A. Smith, who was born in Concord in 1818, and still resides there, engaged in farming. He is a lineal descendant of Paul Revere, the hero of Revolutionary days. Mr. Smith's mother, Rebecca (Brooks) Smith, was born in Acton, a town adjoining Concord. She came of Puritan stock. Her grandfather, Seth Brooks, was a Sergeant in the Acton "Minute Men" and was in the "Concord Fight" of 1775. There were six children in the family, the subject of this sketch being the oldest. He received his education in the institutions of learning in his native city; and afterward engaged in railroading in Kansas and Nebrasks. Then he was book-keeper for Mr. Josiah Quincy, in Boston. Later, he went to Concord, bought a farm and engaged in general farming. That property he sold before coming to California. Upon his arrival on this coast, he located in Ventura County and engaged in sheep-raising, which proved a paying business. They had as many as 7,000 sheep at one time. This business he closed out, and, in 1882, with his partner, purchased his present fine fruit ranch of forty-five acres, on Ventura avenue. It is planted principally to walnuts, apricots, prunes and apples, but he also has a variety of other fruits. They are farming a large tract to wheat and barley, 4,000 acres being devoted to the cultivation of these crops, the yield being correspondingly large.

    Mr. Smith, in 1875, married Miss Agnes E. Tolman, a native of Concord, daughter of Benjamin Tolman, also a native of that city, and the owner of a large printing house. They have one son, Allen Tolman Smith, born in Concord in1880. Mr. Smith is a member of the Masonic fraternity. In politics he is independent.

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