Draft:William T. Smithers

William T. Smithers (1853 – September 15, 1911) was a Delaware lawyer who served as Secretary of State of Delaware from 1909 until his death in 1911.

"Smithers, Delaware's secretary of state and legal adviser of the governor, had been working on some state papers and reading law and other books touching thereon until about midnight, when he retired, but soon began to suffer violent pains in side and arm. It was the phase of heart disease known as angina pectoris, which not only shocks the system but causes intense pain. For nearly a half hour the secretary of state was in agonizing pains which were recurring. Drs. E. S. Anderson and E. F. O'Day were both summoned, living close by, and reached his bedside just before death stopped the suffering.

Dr. A. W. Lightbourne, pastor of The People's Church, In which Mr. Smithers taught one of the largest Bible classes in Delaware, arrived at the house before the physicians, and was close beside through the last.

Chief Justice James Pennewill was a schoolmate and associate in the law of Mr. Smithers.

Smithers, after attending school at Reynold's Academy In Wilmington, where the present chief justice was his schoolmate, went to the Boston Conservatory of Music, where he completed his course in music at the age of 22. While still a youth he was on the stage for some time, being of fine physique and voice, and then wrote several light operas and musical works before deciding to settle down to law. Mr. Smithers resumed his studies in Delaware by registering as a law student with his step-father, Republican Congressman Nathaniel B. Smithers, again with James Pennewill, and they were admitted to the bar three years later.

Smithers was 58 years old and was born in Frederica, he being the son of Joseph and Mary Townsend Smithers. His grandfather, William Townsend, twice refused the office of governor when tendered him by a unanimous party. William T. Smithers lost his father in childhood, but later when his mother married his father's cousin, Congressman Nathaniel Barratt Smithers, he found a step-father who was all a father could have been to the ambitious young man.

William T. Smithers held his step-father in such high esteem that he wrote a booklet on the life of N. B. Smithers and was called upon to speak from excerpts of this work in several cities where Delaware societies exist, principally New York and Philadelphia. His wife, who was Miss Elizabeth Pennewill, daughter of the late John Pennewill, and one son, William Townsend Smithers, a young newspaper-man, survive him."