Philander Smith (November 23, 1809 – February 24, 1882) was an American real estate agent and philanthropist.

Philander Smith College Philander Smith College is a private historically black college in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and is a founding member of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). Philander Smith College is accredited by ...

is his namesake.

Biography

Philander Smith was the son of David Smith, whose 1801 sawmill in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

gave name to the village of Smith’s Mills (now the town of Adams). Among the early settlers at

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated ...

, Smith and wife Adeline provided financial assistance to

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

missions in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, China, and Japan. Smith died in Oak Park on February 24, 1882, and was buried at

Forest Home Cemetery Forest Home Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in the Lincoln Village neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is the final resting place of many of the city's famed beer barons, politicians and social elite. Both the cemetery and ...

in Forest Park, Illinois. His widow Adeline continued to give away his $125,000 fortune to a number of causes for a dozen years after his death. Her gift that year to the Methodists' Walden Seminary in

Little Rock, Arkansas ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

resulted in its immediate renaming as

Legacy

* In 2003, the Historical Association of South Jefferson ountymoved into the former Philander Smith House at 29 East Church Street in Adams, New York. * With the 1866 marriage of his daughter Sarah, Mr. Smith became father-in-law to famous Christian Zionist

William Eugene Blackstone William Eugene Blackstone (October 6, 1841 – November 7, 1935) was an American evangelist and Christian Zionist. He was the author of the Blackstone Memorial of 1891, a petition which called upon America to actively return the Holy Land to th ...

. * Adeline M. Smith was memorialized in ''The Gospel in All Lands 1895,'' p. 519, so she probably died that year. The eulogy lists the many donations she made to the church.

References

* McCabe, C. C
"A Faithful Steward"
in ''The Gospel in All Lands'' (New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1895): 519
Philander Smith College: HistoryPhilander Smith College: Mission

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Philander 1809 births 1882 deaths 19th-century American philanthropists