Smith was a Missouri native,[citation needed] graduated from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) in 1888[1] and married Clara Alexander of Lynchburg.
[2] An 1899 advertisement in the Richmond Planet announced that the school offered courses in “phonographic, penning, commercial, English…”,[3] and a 1908 publication lauded Smith as “one of the pioneers” in the work of training African Americans in business principles.
[4] He later served as president and manager of Smith's Business College in Lynchburg where he taught stenography and bookkeeping.
In 1910, Smith left that position to join the faculty of the National Religious Training School (a predecessor of North Carolina Central University).
[8] They later moved to Kansas City, Missouri and in August 1933 Smith was hit in the hip by a stray bullet shot by fleeing bank robbers.