www.FranzosenbuschHeritageProject.org                     Home

Smith, William Sooy

William Sooy Smith, Civil War general and structural engineer.
Born July 22, 1830, Tarlton, Ohio; died March 4, 1916, Medford, Oregon.

Smith worked his way through Ohio University and graduated in 1849; he then procured an appointment to the US. Military Academy at West Point. He ranked sixth in the class of 1853; Philip Sheridan and John B. Hood, who would later become noted Civil War generals, were among his classmates. A year later. Smith resigned his commission to become a construction engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Smith returned to Ohio and was commissioned as a colonel. Eventually he was made chief of the cavalry forces in the West under Generals US. Grant and W. T. Sherman. In March 1864 he led 7,000 troops in a raid from Memphis to West Point, Mississippi, where he was badly defeated and driven back to Memphis. Ill health forced him to resign his commission on July 15,1864 and he retired to his farm in Maywood, Illinois.

After he recovered. Smith made major contributions to engineering, concentrating on foundations and structural engineering. He had a hand in the construction of virtually every tall building in Chicago between 1890 and 1910. Among the most significant was the Chicago Public Library main building (now the Chicago Cultural Center) on Michigan Avenue between Washington and Randolph Streets. Smith was responsible for the design and testing of the building's foundations and was so accurate there has been no appreciable settling in the building to this day.

Smith also served as an engineer on several bridge projects. He designed the world s first all-steel bridge over the Missouri River at Glasgow, Missouri. He retired to Medford, Oregon, where he died at age eighty-six. His grave remained unmarked until the West Point Society of Chicago placed a monument in his memory in 1969.

---

Numerous sources were used in the compilation of these entries including but not limited to:

• From "Nature's Choicest Spot" ... a Guide to Forest Home and Germany Waldheim Cemeteries prepared by The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest.

• Graveyards of Chicago by Matt Hucke and Ursula Bielski -- a book which describes many of the Chicago area cemeteries.