SOCIALIST PARTY
SMITH, HERBERT LEE “HUB” (b. June 18, 1912, Claxon Ridge, Owen Co., Ky.; d. May 26, 1986, Owenton, Ky.). Herbert Lee Smith, a county sheriff and a hospital administrator, was the son of Elza and Susan Ora Smith. He married J. Ward Marston on June 4, 1932, and they had one child, Johnny Marston Smith. Hub Smith was a farmer in Owen Co. In 1942 he began his political career as deputy sheriff of Owen Co. and in 1948 became the high sheriff. He was appointed county Democratic chairman and accepted the position of administrative assistant to the Kentucky commissioner of finance in 1954. In February 1955, Smith was appointed state director of personnel. He was named the administrator of the Owen Co. Memorial Hospital (see New Horizons Medical Center) in 1956 and continued in that position for 15 years. Smith was also a director of the Peoples Bank and Trust Company in Owenton for 30 years and, for four years, director of the Burley Tobacco Association. When his health failed, he retired on December 30, 1971, and lived in Owen Co. until his death at age 74. He was buried at the Monterey Cemetery in Monterey. “Herbert ‘Hub’ Smith Remembered,” Owenton (Ky.) News-Herald, June 5, 1986, 1. Murphy, Margaret Alice, and Lela Maude Hawkins. The History of Historic Old Cedar Baptist Church and Community, 1816–2004. Frankfort, Ky.: Lynn, 2004.
Margaret A. Murphy
SMITH, MORGAN LEWIS, BRIGADIER GENERAL (b. 1822, New York; d. December 28, 1874, Jersey City, N.J.). Civil War veteran Morgan Smith left home at age 21 and taught school in Indiana. He then joined the U.S. Army and from 1845 through 1850 served as a sergeant and drill instructor at the Newport Barracks in Newport, Ky., using the alias of Mortimer L. Sanford. From 1850 until after the Civil War began, he lived on Saratoga St. in Newport while working as an Ohio River steamboat agent. During the war Smith led the 8th Missouri Volunteers in combat at Shiloh, at Vicksburg, and in several other engagements and was severely wounded. Gen. William T. Sherman said of him: “He was one of the bravest men in action I ever knew.” In 1866 U.S. President Andrew Johnson (1865–1869) appointed Smith U.S. consul in Honolulu, Hawaii. Returning in 1868, Smith was employed in Washington, D.C., dealing with claims against the government and contracting for mail routes. He also worked for a building association. Smith died while visiting in Jersey City, N.J., in 1874 and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. He was the older brother of U.S. General Giles A. Smith. Morgan Smith was one of the many nationally famous people who passed through Newport Barracks and resided in Northern Kentucky. Donnelly, Joseph L. Newport Barracks: Kentucky’s Forgotten Military Installation. Covington, Ky.: Kenton Co. Historical Society, 1999. Virtualology.com. “Morgan Smith.” www.famous americans.net (accessed June 25, 2007).
SMITH, SAWYER A. (b. April 9, 1883, Barbourville, Ky.; d. November 3, 1969, Park Hills, Ky.). Lawyer and politician Sawyer A. Smith was the son of George W. and Sarah McKinney Smith. Sawyer’s early education was at the Barbourville Baptist Institute in Barbourville. He earned his BA from Cumberland College at Williamsburg. On December 29, 1913, he married a classmate, Effie Barton. Smith taught in the Knox Co. schools for five years, then left teaching, returned to school, and earned a law degree from Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Ind. He began his legal career by forming a partnership with attorney Flem D. Sampson, who later became governor of Kentucky (1927–1931). Smith moved to Northern Kentucky, where he soon earned a reputation as one of the region’s best defense attorneys. He entered politics in 1908 and was elected as a Republican to the Kentucky legislature, where he served for two years. President Warren G. Harding (1921–1923) appointed Smith Assistant U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of Kentucky, a continuing under the administrations of presidents Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929) and Herbert Hoover (1929–1933). On August 31, 1933, Smith resigned and returned to his law practice. His most publicized case was his defense of 16-year-old Joan Kiger, who had been charged with the murders of her father, Carl Kiger (Covington’s vice mayor), and her six-year-old brother, Jerry. Smith won an acquittal by arguing that Joan was having a nightmare at the time of the killings and therefore could not be held responsible for the deaths. Smith died in 1969 at age 86 in the St. Charles Care Center, Fort Wright, and was buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Erlanger. “Honored,” KP, April 5, 1930, 4. “Post Editorial Read,” KP, February 10, 1930, 4. Reis, Jim. “A Distinguished Legal Career,” KP, October 3, 1994, 4K. “Schoolday Romance Ends in Marriage,” KP, December 30, 1913, 10. Tapp, Hamilton. Kentucky Lives. Hopkinsville, Ky.: Historical Record Association, 1966.
SNOW’S POND. During the September 1862 invasion of Northern Kentucky by the Confederate Army, one of the two Civil War skirmishes to take place in Boone Co. occurred at Snow’s Pond. The site is located roughly along the Old Lexington Pk. (see Covington and Lexington Turnpike) between Richwood and Walton, seven miles south of Florence, Ky. The pike is parallel to modern U.S. 25 (see Dixie Highway). There, on September 17, 1862, about 100 Confederate troops under the command of Col. Basil Duke of the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry were encamped at Snow’s Pond and were attacked by a Union cavalry force. One Union and five Confederate soldiers were killed, and one Union and seven Confederate soldiers were wounded. Civilian Larkin Vaughn, a local farmer, was killed by a stray bullet. Duke’s men captured 49 Union soldiers, who were marched off to Falmouth and later were exchanged. The Union Army camped at Snow’s Pond for three weeks afterward. The Confederates had left
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the carcasses of 13 dead mules in the water. The Union Army eventually discovered these remains, which explained why some of the federals camped at the pond had become sick. In recent years the Snow’s Pond site has been a hub of metal-detecting and artifact-hunting. Several items have been found, mainly lead bullets. On May 14, 1999, a Kentucky Historical Marker was placed at the site of Snow’s Pond, on land held by the Dixon family since the 1870s. Dixon, Daniel F. Snow’s Pond: The Forgotten Civil War Skirmish in Boone County, Kentucky’s Past. Mount Vernon, Ind.: Windmill, 1999. Goetz, Kristina. “Civil War Field Marked,” KE, August 9, 1999, C1. Rouse, Jack. The Civil War in Boone County. Mount Vernon, Ind.: Windmill, 1996.
SNYDER, MARION GENE (b. January 26, 1928, Louisville, Ky.; d. February 16, 2007, Naples, Fla.). Marion Gene Snyder was a real estate broker, a homebuilder, and, for many years, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. His parents were Marion Gustavus and Lois E. Snyder. Gene attended Louisville public schools and graduated from Louisville’s duPont Manual High. He earned both his LLB and JD degrees from the Jefferson School of Law (now part of the University of Louisville) in 1950 and set up his law practice in Louisville. In 1961 Snyder married Mary Louise Hodges, and they had one son, Mark. The couple divorced in 1973. Snyder entered politics in 1954 and served as Jeffersontown city attorney for four years and as Jefferson Co. magistrate for the next four. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 to 1965 (January–January) but was defeated when he ran for reelection in 1964. In 1966 he won the seat back and held it from January 1967 until January 1987. During his tenure in the U.S. Congress, he was instrumental in gaining approval for many projects in his home state, including the construction of Northern Kentucky University in Campbell Co. and the Snyder Freeway in Louisville. He worked tirelessly for a Licking River dam at Falmouth but was unsuccessful in obtaining funds for it. He retired from politics in 1986 and returned to his Oldham Co. farm. He married his second wife, Patricia Creighton Robertson, on April 10, 1973, and they became the parents of two children, Chris and Ginger. Snyder died in Naples, Fla., at age 79 and was buried in the Floydsburg Cemetery in Oldham Co., Ky. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. “Snyder, Marion Gene.” http://bioguide.congress .gov (accessed February 24, 2007). “Former Congressman Gene Snyder Dies,” CJ, February 17, 2007, 1. Kleber, John E., ed. The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 1992.
SOCIALIST PARTY. The Socialist Party was fairly strong in Northern Kentucky in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Branches existed in Covington, Latonia, Ludlow, Newport, and other urban areas; the party drew its largest support