J. L. Smith (Hualapai Smith)

J. L. Smith, also known as Hualapai Smith, (1817? – January 19, 1887), a Forty-Niner, and an Arizona pioneer, a ferry and steamboat landing operator on the Colorado River, Hualapai Smith's in Sonora after 1865 into the 1870s.

Nothing is known of the date and location of his birth or his life before he came to California in 1849, nor much of his life before he came to Arizona Territory in 1862. There he earned his nickname Hualapai Smith "by being the first man to enter the Hualapai Valley."[1]

After 1865, he acquired the site of an old ferry crossing in Sonora, that he revived and made a steamboat landing and woodyard, for the Colorado Steam Navigation Company. This place was called Hualapai Smith's or Smith's Ferry, located 30 miles below Fort Yuma and 3 miles below Pedrick's and 20 miles from Yuma.[2]

J. L. Smith's death and a brief biography is recorded in the January 22, 1887, Arizona Sentinel of Yuma, Arizona:

"Sheriff Nugent returned from Phoenix on Thursday morning. He informs us of the death on Wednesday in the asylum, of J. L. Smith, well known throughout the Territory as "Hualapai" Smith, an appellation which he earned by being the first man to enter the Hualapai Valley. In the days of long ago he was Sheriff of Santa Barbara County California, and until about four years ago was a man of great energy. He came to the coast in '49 and for the past 25 years has resided in the Territory. One year ago he had a stroke of apoplexy which caused the loss of his mind. His age was about seventy."[1][3]: 98, 113 

References
  1. The Arizona Sentinel, Saturday, January 22, 1887, p. 3
  2. The Arizona Sentinel; Saturday, December 7, 1872, p. 3
  3. Examination of the early history of Santa Barbara County, California shows none named Smith was Sheriff between 1850 and 1862. A J. S. Smith asked to be appointed sheriff in 1854 but was denied and another appointed. An I. L. Smith was appointed as a roadmaster that year. A John L. Smith was elected Superintendent Public Instruction in 1857. see, History of Santa Barbara county, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Thompson & West, Oakland, Cal. 1883
  • J. L. Smith, 1870s Photograph of J. L. Smith taken in the 1870s. If taken in 1870 he would 53 years old if the January 22, 1887, Arizona Sentinel is correct. From the Sharlot Hall Museum, Photograph collection, accessed June 27, 2015.
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