Francis Shubael Smith I (December 29, 1819 – February 1, 1887) partnered with

Francis Scott Street Francis Scott Street (October 20, 1831 – April 15, 1883), with partner Francis Shubael Smith were the owners of Street & Smith publishing company in New York City. New York Dispatch He was born in New York City in 1831, but moved to New Br ...

and started the publishing firm of

Street & Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among t ...

Biography

He was born at 1798 Division Street in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and was the fourth son of Mary Reed (1781-1864) and Moses Rogers Smith (1768-1847). Moses was a

sailing master The master, or sailing master, is a historical rank for a naval officer trained in and responsible for the navigation of a sailing vessel. The rank can be equated to a professional seaman and specialist in navigation, rather than as a military ...

in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

, and served in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. Moses met Mary Reed in the West Indies, they eloped and sailed to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. In 1832 Francis was apprenticed to the printer of the ''New York Albion''. After completing his apprenticeship he worked at various papers including the '' New York Weekly Dispatch''. He then became a reporter at the ''Dispatch'' and then an editor. He married Mary Jellett Duff (1838-1885) around 1853, and had the following children: Francis Shubael Smith II (1854-?); Cora Anna Smith (1855-1945) who married George H. Gould; George Campbell Smith (1859-?); and Ormond Gerald Smith (1860-1933). He partnered with

in 1855 to buy a failing magazine."The Press: New Bottles"
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''. August 20, 1945. They then bought the '' New York Weekly Dispatch'' in 1858. He published over 20 of his own short stories in the newspaper and many of his poems. He retired around 1877, and

died in 1883. His son Ormond took over the business after his Francis's death. He died on February 1, 1887, at the Windsor Hotel in New York City of

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

. His funeral was held at Zion Church on Madison Avenue in New York City.

Publications

*Pictorial life and adventures of Eveleen Wilson, or, The trials of an orphan girl *Life & adventures of Josh Billings: With a characteristic sketch of the humorist *Daisy Burns: the Fortunes of a Mill Girl (1887) *Poems for the Millions *The Young Magdalen and other Poems

References

*Cora Smith Gould; Biography of Francis Shubael Smith *''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''; February 2, 1887; " Francis Shubael Smith, who with Francis S. Street has been proprietor of the New-York Weekly for nearly 30 years, died yesterday morning at the Windsor Hotel of apoplexy". *''The New York Times''; April 18, 1933; "Ormond G. Smith, Publisher, Dead; President of Street & Smith and Founder of Many Popular Magazines". 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) American pulp magazine publishers (people) American paperback book publishers (people) Street & Smith 1819 births 1887 deaths 19th-century American journalists American male journalists 19th-century American male writers {{US-business-bio-1810s-stub