A. Wesley (Alanson Wesley) Smith was born in Wisconsin in 1854. The collection begins in 1876 the year that Andrew J. Smith, Midwestern preacher, farmer and father of A. Wesley Smith, moved his family from Dakota Territory to Neah Bay. The first year A.J. Smith worked as a baker for the Neah Bay Indian Agency. The next year he and his son taught in the Neah Bay Indian agency school until A.J. moved his family to Quileute to homestead near Dan Pullen. Several years later A.J.'s daughter would marry Dan Pullen and they would run the Pullen House in Skagway, AK. A. Wesley Smith filed a homestead in Quileute but he continued to teach at Neah Bay until 1883 when he was appointed as teacher at the newly established Indian agency school at La Push, WA. He remained a teacher there until 1905. In August of 1886 Mr. Smith and Harriet Gertrude Bright were married in Port Townsend, WA. She had been an assistant teacher to Mr. Smith the previous year. While he was teaching, he also farmed, served as Justice of the Peace, Clerk of the Quileute school district and at times as postmaster. In 1906 A.W. resigned from the Indian Service to devote full time to his family, homestead, public office and, in later years, to the Forks Cooperative Creamery of which he was president and record keeper. A. Wesley Smith passed away in Seattle, WA 24 January 1938.
From the description of Collection of A. Wesley Smith papers, 1853-1935 1876-1910. (Washington State Library, Office of Secretary of State). WorldCat record id: 244303159
