Introducing 2009 Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame Inductee…
William Henry Smith (1855-1917)
William Henry Smith was born in Llano County, Texas on September 10, 1855 and died in Wolf Point, Montana on January 1, 1917. During his lifetime, he lived the cowboy way of life that defined the western heritage and was very instrumental in the early cowboy and ranching way of life in eastern Montana. He was a member of the legendary Texas Rangers in the early 1870’s, the oldest state law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction that was founded in 1823.
He trailed cattle to Montana four different times with his brothers, James and Drew, and the fourth time he decided to stay in Big Sky Country. He rode the trails pushing cattle north, embedded the cattle industry into Montana’s demographics and provided livestock enforcement services with cowboy pioneers Granville Stuart and Teddy Blue Abbott. In 1884 he began work as a stock inspector for the Montana Stock Association.
Of German descent, William married Fannie Trexler, who was half Assiniboine and half German, and they had five children.together. With the beginning of a young family, Fannie became ill and passed away, leaving William with five young children to raise. As was done in many cases like this in those days, William married Fannie’s sister Nellie and they had 7 children of their own while raising his older children, her nieces and nephews. As was also custom at the time, William and Nellie also raised the children of one of Nellie’s other sisters following her death, so the William Smith family actually became a family of 14 children. Life at the Smith’s was busy to say the least. The children grew up loving life, one another and especially their Wolf Creek ranch.
He built one of the first homes in “new town” near the present corner of Benton and 5th Ave. South that was completed in December 1910. In 1913 he built a rooming house on the south side of Main Street. It was managed by William’s brother Ed and his wife Hattie. It was later sold to Jim Terry and became known as the Terry Rooming House, the Terry Hotel, and later the Point Hotel.
He was featured in an article published in the Western Horsemen describing his early years in the Rangers, the experiences, obstacles and tribulations of herding thousands and thousands of cattle along cattle trails that stretched the length of the United States from the Mexican border to just below the Canadian border.
His love for the cowboy and ranching way of life was passed on to his offsprings, the majority of them who have had their own farming and ranching operations and living the life that the West has become famour for. This has continued for several generations and many of his descendants today still actively participate in rodeoing, ranching and the western lifestyle that provides the cornerstone of the MCHF&WHC’s mission.
