Smalley, P. J. (Palemon Jared), 1842-1912.

Palemon Jared Smalley was born on December 25, 1842 in Williamsburg, New York, the first of four sons born to Edmund Jewett Smalley and Frances Frick. At the age of four, Smalley's father moved the family to Sheboygan, Wisconsin and Smalley grew up on a number of farms and fledgling enterprises between Sheboygan, Lyndon, and Manitowoc until 1857 when Smalley's father bought a foundry in Manitowoc. Shortly thereafter Palemon Jared Smalley left the school he was attending in Sheboygan, joined his family in Manitowoc, and began studying law as a clerk in the office of William Nichols. In 1859 Smalley went to Caledonia, Minnesota to look at a parcel of land his father had bought near Yucatan. He stayed in Caledonia two years working variously as a court transcriber, a clerk for the county board, and a teacher before he returned to Nichol's law office in Manitowoc.

During the Civil War, Smalley enlisted with Company C of the Fourth Regiment of the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry that was attached to the Army of the Gulf and took part in the occupation of New Orleans and the Red River expedition. When the 15th infantry regiment of the Corps d'Afrique was organized in August 1863, Smalley transferred to that unit as its regimental quartermaster and remained with that unit through its subsequent designations as the 5th Regiment Engineers and the 99th Regiment of the U.S. Colored Infantry. Smalley spent the majority of his service as a clerk having first been assigned to the headquarters of General Henry Hayes Lockwood, then as an assistant to various quartermasters until he eventually served as the depot quartermaster in Alexandria at the closing of the war. He was mustered out in April of 1866.

On March 21, 1865 Smalley married Emma Girault Winburn, whom he had met while quartered in her mother's boarding house on Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans. Following his military service Smalley floated between a number of professions first moving back to Manitowoc, Wisconsin where he worked as a partner in his father's foundry and as a teacher; to New Orleans where he worked for the Freedmen's Bureau during 1868; to St. Louis during 1869 where he unsuccessfully tried to open a law office but where he also began writing editorial columns; and finally back to Manitowoc in 1870 where he sold farm implements for his father, worked again in the family foundry, and practiced law more successfully by collecting claims for the Smalley manufacturing company.

In 1875 Smalley moved his family to Caledonia, Minnesota where he practiced law in partnership with James O'Brien. Smalley dissolved this partnership in 1878 when he bought the Caledonia Argus and began the work of a newspaper publisher and editor, work for which he considered himself "best fitted." Under his direction, the Argus achieved a statewide reputation for honest reportage and forthright, independent editorial opinion.

In 1891 Smalley served as clerk for the Minnesota House of Representatives and the family moved from Caledonia to St. Paul. About the same time Smalley became secretary for the State Central Committee of the Minnesota Democratic Association and also wrote editorial columns for the St. Paul Daily Globe . He continued with the Globe as it underwent several changes in management until the summer of 1898. Following his departure from the Globe he was appointed secretary of the Dairy and Food Commission by Governor Lind in 1899, and then joined the staff of the St. Paul Dispatch in 1900. In 1906 the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa where Smalley had accepted a position as associate editor of the Sioux City Tribune . Smalley returned to St. Paul in 1911 due to an illness and died on November 26, 1912 following a surgical operation. Prior to his death he wrote a series of articles for the Minnesota Tax Commission.

Smalley had ten children, nine of whom survived him: Victoria (b. October 28, 1866), Edmund Walker (b. December 27, 1867), Henry Read (December 27, 1867-1868), J. Frank (b. August 1870), George (b. June 1872), Flora (b. November 1874), Harvey D., Maude G., Lotta C., and Ralph E. Emma Winburn Smalley died in St. Paul on April 7, 1924.

From the guide to the P. J. Smalley papers, 1863-1944 (bulk 1887-1912)., (Minnesota Historical Society)