Willis R. Smith

Willis was the son of Daniel Smith, of Westchester County, New York.

When a young man he married in Westchester County, and shortly thereafter moved to Cayuga County, New York.

Willis and his wife lived in Amawalk, New York, and in 1818, they were added as members to the Friends Church in Scipio, New York. In 1824 he and his family left New York and moved to Ohio arriving in Greenwich Township on May 6.

He had been a schoolteacher in New York, where he graduated from college, which profession he followed after settling in Greenwich, and from his small earnings saved enough to purchase 100 acres of land. The condition of his health permitted him to do but little work on the farm, and this resulted in his giving closer attention to school interests. Satisfactory to himself, his services were most beneficial to the community, for boys who became distinguished men received their lessons in reading, arithmetic and penmanship from this pioneer teacher. Willis, assisted by his wife, gave instruction in writing to a number of young men (some of them married), in the winter of 1824-25. About a dozen men attended this school. It was held evenings, in his house, which he fitted up for the purpose, with writing desks made of slabs, which were fastened to the wall as sloping shelves. Some of these, then, young men have become well off. All of them have owned farms in the township and been successful in life.

He and his wife were members of the Friends Church in which Willis was a minister.

He was a mathematician of some note, and was as well educated as any of his contemporaries in the County. " The Society of Quakers … settled on the Firelands in the township of Greenwich about the year 1831. They built a Log church and about ten years later built a large frame church. It was located one-half mile east of the township center. This soon became an active and important station on the Underground Railway. While there were homes here and there in other townships in the southern part of the Firelands which were stations, I know of no other locality, where, with few exceptions, the entire community were friendly to the negro. And just here I want to record the names of some of those heroes. At the head of the Society was Willis R. Smith, who at that time was the principal preacher. He was liberally educated for an Episcopal minister. ("The Firelands Pioneer I," 1899)