Biography of Ole H. Smith
Ole H. Smith, born on May 11, 1846, near Christiania, Norway, moved to America in 1869. Initially settling in Rushford, Minnesota, he later moved to Dell Rapids, South Dakota, in 1876, where he became a pioneer merchant and eventually president of the Granite City Bank. Smith also excelled in the livestock industry, raising Hereford cattle and Poland-China hogs on a 900-acre farm. A staunch Republican, he served as mayor of Dell Rapids from 1896 to 1898. Smith was married three times, first to Albertha Olson, then to her sister Jacobina Olson, and finally to Anna Strom, with whom he had a child, Bergliot M.