Thomas Alexander SMITH, Congress, MD (1850-1932)

1850-1932

SMITH, Thomas Alexander, a Representative from Maryland; born near Greenwood, Sussex County, Del., September 3, 1850; moved with his parents to Ridgely, Md., in 1856; attended the public schools and Denton (Md.) Academy; taught school in Delaware, Maryland, and Michigan; returned to Ridgely, Md., where he was postmaster from August 4, 1885, to November 25, 1889; engaged in the mercantile business; member of the board of school commissioners for Caroline County 1889-1893; member of the State senate in 1894 and 1896; was chief of the Maryland Bureau of Statistics and Information 1900-1904; first vice president of the National Association of Labor Statisticians in 1903 and 1904; member of the board of State aid and charities in 1904 and 1905; one of the founders of the Bank of Ridgely and served as its first president; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-ninth Congress (March 4, 1905-March 3, 1907); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1906 to the Sixtieth Congress; was a delegate to the Farmers’ National Congress of the United States held at Madison, Wis., in 1908 and at Lincoln, Nebr., in 1910; land commissioner of Maryland 1908-1912; appointed internal revenue agent for the district of Maryland in 1915 and served until January 1, 1920; retired in 1922, and resided in Ridgely, Caroline County, Md.; died in Newark, Del., May 1, 1932; interment in Denton Cemetery, Ridgely, Md.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present