Oliver H. Smith

Who was Oliver H. Smith?

Oliver Hampton Smith was a United States Representative and Senator from Indiana. Born on Smith's Island, near Trenton, New Jersey, attended the common schools and moved west, eventually settling in Lawrenceburg, Indiana in 1818. He is also believed to have been born at the Smith Family Farmstead in Upper Makefield Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1820, commencing practice in Connersville. From 1822 to 1824 he was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives and was prosecuting attorney for the third judicial district, 1824-1825.

Smith was elected to the Twentieth Congress and was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1828; he was then elected as a Whig to the U.S. Senate and served from March 4, 1837, to March 3, 1843. While in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Engrossed Bills and a member of the Committee on Public Lands. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection and moved to Indianapolis where he resumed the practice of law. He declined to be a candidate for Governor of Indiana in 1845 and engaged in the railroad business in Indianapolis.