Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith (Brentwood, New Hampshire, November 23, 1806; Deering, Maine, October 14, 1876) was a U.S. lawyer, legislator, and telegraph pioneer and financier.

[1][2] Samuel Morse came to Smith hoping for his support to obtain a grant from Congress to build an experimental telegraph line.

Smith offered to become Morse's counsel, publicity man, and promotional agent for his invention.

[4] Relations between the two men quickly soured however, due to Smith's frequent unfounded claims against Morse.

In a letter to his own agent, Mr. Kendall, of January 4, 1851, Morse wrote, "Please tell me how matters stand in relation to [F. O. J. Smith].

Ezra Cornell and John James Speed became Smith's agents for the Morse patent in the Northwest—Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, Cornell and Speed organized the Erie and Michigan line to connect Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee.

Smith wanted a link to the eastern seaboard without using the Magnetic Telegraph Company's New York, Albany, and Buffalo main line in which Morse had a substantial interest.

Before the Trans-Atlantic cable, Smith played a strategic role in forwarding the latest European news to northeast newspapers when ships docked in Halifax before sailing to Boston and New York.