Henry Weston Smith

The Reverend Henry Weston Smith (January 10, 1827 – August 20, 1876) was an American preacher, doctor, and early resident of Deadwood, South Dakota.

Unlike most of the residents of the time, Smith was not interested in material riches; instead, he was the first preacher, of any denomination, in the Black Hills gold rush camps.

Biography Smith was born in Ellington, Connecticut, to Joshua Weston and Percey or Persey (Galpin) Smith of Berlin, Connecticut. In 1847, he married Ruth Yeomans, but both his wife and infant son died one year later. At the age of 23, Smith became a licensed "exhorter" and later a Methodist preacher. On February 23, 1858, while still in Connecticut, he married Lydia Ann Joselyn or Joslin, with whom he had four children. He subsequently moved to Massachusetts and, during the American Civil War, served with the 52nd Massachusetts Infantry, after which he became a doctor in 1867. The family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1876.

According to George V. Ayres, later a prominent merchant in the area, "Reverend Smith held the first church service in the Hills" at Custer City, on May 7, 1876, with 30 men and five women in attendance. Smith preached in Custer again the next Sunday, then offered $5 to Captain C. V. Gardner to accompany his wagon train to Deadwood, a three-day walk; as a Methodist himself, Gardner allowed Smith to come along without charge. In Deadwood, Smith became a street preacher, working at odd jobs during the week in addition to prospecting and mining, and also worked on the Boulder Ditch, a large project that did not pay many of those worked on it.

He was also depicted conducting the funeral of Wild Bill Hickok when in reality there was no preacher involved in his burial.