Levi Lathrop Smith

Levi Lathrop Smith was an Oregon Territory original settler of present-day Olympia, Washington, arriving with Edmund Sylvester in 1846. Smith died of drowning in 1848,

Biography Smith was born on March 6 in New York State. He was a Presbyterian divinity student. He later emigrated to Wisconsin where he became "attached to a half-caste girl, a catholic. To marry under these circumstances would be a violation of rule, and he made another to remove to Oregon."

Smith and Sylvester arrived in Newmarket, Oregon in October 1846. On October 20, Smith took claim to the land next to Budd Inlet, while Sylvester claimed Chambers Prairie.

In 1847, Smith built the first cabin near the shore, naming the establishment Smithfield; it was approximately , located near present-day Capitol Way between State and Olympia Avenues. but did not live to take his seat.

On August 30, 1848, and drowned. Epilepsy had previously affected his health. Sylvester, as the surviving member of the partnership, abandoned his claim for Smith's land. Smith's final journal entry is dated August 29, 1848.

Works