William Orlando Smith

Smith was born in Reynoldsville, Pennsylvania on June 13, 1859.[1][2] He learned the printing trade, and worked as publisher of the Reynoldsville Herald from 1876 to 1879.[2]

He worked in the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C., from 1879 to 1884.[1] He returned to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, in 1884 and successively edited the Punxsutawney Tribune and the Punxsutawney Spirit.[1]

He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1889 to 1898.[1] He worked as editor of the Bradford Daily Era in Bradford, Pennsylvania in 1891.[1] He purchased a half interest in the Punxsutawney Spirit in January 1892.[2]

Smith was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses (1903 to 1907).[3] He was not a candidate for renomination in 1906. After his time in Congress, he resumed his newspaper interests in Punxsutawney.[3]

He died in Cleveland, Ohio on May 12, 1932.[1] Interment was at Circle Hill Cemetery in Punxsutawney.[1]

• William Orlando Smith at Find a Grave

• United States Congress. "William O. Smith (id: S000635)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• William O. Smith at The Political Graveyard

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.