Son of John and Elizabeth (Bull) Smith.
Elizabeth is direct descendant of Col Thomas Bull 1744-1837
(courtesy Find A Grave contributor Neil Scheidt)


Levi Bull Smith was born at Joanna Furnace Feb. 8, 1806.
He received a liberal education, graduating at Princeton College in 1824. He subsequently studied law at the law school at Litchfield, Conn., and was admitted to the Bar of Berks county, Pa., Jan. 20, 1827. He married April 10th, of the same year, Emily H. Badger, a native of Bucksport, Maine (born Jan. 1, 1807), and a descendant upon the paternal side of the Buck family, of Puritan stock, who emigrated to New England in 1635. From 1829 to 1831 he was engaged in farming at the old Reading Furnace, in Chester county, and from 1831 to 1833 was in the mercantile business at Mount Airy, in Union township, Berks county. In the latter year he removed to Joanna, and became the partner in that works of his brother-in-law, William Darling, under the firm name of Darling & Smith. In connection with the manufacture of iron the casting of wood-burning stoves became the principal business. Mr. Darling, a prominent member of the county Bar, was an associate judge, and the active management devolved on Mr. Smith, who acquired eventually the interest of his partner, and admitted his sons into partnership under the firm name of Levi B. Smith & Sons. The manufacture of pig-iron exclusively was carried on with profit for many years before, during and subsequent to the Civil war, the estate passing into the sole ownership of one of the sons, Col. L. Heber Smith, in 1877, and the works discontinuing operations in 1905. Upon his retirement from the active management of the iron business he removed in 1863 to Reading, where the remainder of his life was passed. He was one of the founders of the First National Bank of Reading in that year, and was its president from its incorporation until his death. These institutions, being government depositories, and under the management of men of patriotic principles, not only built up an efficient financial system but materially aided in sustaining the credit of the government at the most critical period of its history, and promoting the public faith in the ultimate restoration of its authority. In those troublous times Mr. Smith's most ardent sympathies and active efforts were devoted to the triumph of his country's cause. He gave freely of his means for the raising and equipping of troops for the field, and his vigilant attention to the thwarting of the opposition schemes of the enemies in the rear. Personally Mr. Smith was of a genial and companionable disposition, possessing a marked and never-failing trait of humor, which made his presence at all times enlivening and agreeable. To be just to all men and faithful to his own was the ruling principle of his character and life. After a brief illness the end came to him at his home Aug. 8, 1876, when a few months advanced in the seventy-first year of his age. His estimable wife died Dec. 16, 1882. They had ten children: (1) Nancy Valeria, born March 14, 1828; married June 12, 1855, William Hiester Clymer, whom she survived, dying Aug. 17, 1901, leaving six children. (2) Elizabeth Frances, born March 19, 1830, married June 15, 1869, the Rev. Elias J. Richards, D. D., a talented and eminent clergyman of the Presbyterian denomination, for upward of twenty-five years pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Reading, whom, together with their only child, Jane Ellis (born April 8, 1870), she survives. (3) Bentley Howard. (4) William Darling. (5 and 6) Levi Heber and Emily Annetta. (7) Mary Badger, born March 19, 1840, died May 22, 1864. (8) Horace Vaughan, born Aug. 20, 1842, died July 23, 1878. (9) Thomas Stanley. (10) Edward Hunter, born April 17, 1847, died Sept. 7, 1856.

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