Smith himself grew up in Davis County, and later studied at the Southern Iowa Normal School in Bloomfield.
Upon turning eighteen, Smith began teaching country school and read law with M. H. Jones, a Bloomfield lawyer.
Five years later, Smith passed the bar exam and moved to Harlan on horseback to practice law alongside George W. Cullison, his former instructor at the Southern Iowa Normal School.
He was subsequently elected to the Harlan school board for a single term as a member, and the body's president.
He had previously run for the office in 1897, and lost to Joseph Martin Emmert by eleven votes.