Smith, Caleb B. (Caleb Blood), 1808-1864

Lawyer, statesman, jurist, and U.S. representative from Indiana.

Lawyer, politician, and judge. Smith came to Indiana in 1834. He served in the Indiana House of Representatives, the United States House of Representatives, as Secretary of the Interior under Lincoln, and U.S. Court Judge for Indiana.

Representative from Indiana.

Indiana lawyer, state legislator and U.S. Representative who served as President Lincoln's Secretary of Interior, 1861-1862.

Caleb Blood Smith, lawyer, congressman, and Secretary of the Interior. Smith was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives, and was reelected in 1834, 1835, and 1836. He represented Indiana in the Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirtieth Congress serving on the Committee of Foreign Affairs, and chairing the Committee on Territories. Known for his staunch opposition to the Mexican War, he refused another nomination and left Congress in 1849. He practiced law in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was president of Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad. In 1859, he moved to Indianapolis where he became one of the most active Republicans, campaigning for Lincoln during the presidential elections. When President Lincoln formed his cabinet, he appointed Smith Secretary of the Interior. In December 1862, he resigned the position, and was then appointed U.S. Judge for the Indiana District. He died in office in 1864.

His son Walton John Smith served as Chief Clerk of the Department of the Interior, and then Clerk of the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. In 1866, he was with the U.S. Legation in Lima, Peru.

Charles William Spooner was son of William L. Spooner (1818-1889), Cincinnati lawyer, judge, and civic leader who had studied law in Caleb Blood Smith's office. In 1863-1865, Charles William Spooner served as acting Ensign aboard the U.S.S. Reindeer No. 35, which was part of the Mississippi Squadron. After the war, he studied at Cincinnati College and was partner in his father's law firm. In 1870-1873, he traveled in Germany, Scandinavia, France and Switzerland, with the purpose of studying the foreign languages. He then lived in New York.

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