Misplaced Pages

The topic of this article may not meet Misplaced Pages's notability guideline for biographies. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "William Pruden Smith" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

William Pruden Smith (March 4, 1876 – January 20, 1923) was a prominent attorney and the City of Miami's ninth mayor.

Biography

Smith spent his early career in Jacksonville, Florida where he practiced law. He and his wife had a house in Miami as early as 1908. Mr. Smith moved to Miami in 1911 where he become the third member of the successful partnership, Shutts, Smith, and Bowen. He had to leave the practice in 1919 when he was elected Mayor of Miami. Later, Smith joined another law firm with former State Representative, Simon Pierre Robineau.

Notably, he was admitted to the U.S.Supreme Court Bar in 1916.

Smith was commander of the Dade County Guard, the local volunteer militia. The County Guards were authorized by the Florida legislature in 1917 to replace the Florida National Guard, which had been called up for service in the regular United States military during World War I.

He was later a captain in the US Army, assigned to General Staff during World War I.

Philanthropic and civic activities

Smith was active in the Elks Club. He is cited as having made the call to organize a veteran's group in Miami after World War I. The group became the first American Legion post of Florida, Miami's Harvey W Seeds American Legion Post #29.

See also

• List of mayors of Miami
• Government of Miami
• History of Miami
• Timeline of Miami
• UT alumni

References

Notes

1. City Manager's Report to City. City of Miami. 1926. p. 6.
2. "Shutts & Bowen LLP, A Centennial History" (PDF). Shutts & Bowen LLP. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
3. Martindale's American Law Directory. New York. 1921. Retrieved September 26, 2023.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
4. Journal of the Supreme Court, US. October 21, 2023. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
5. "Florida Memory". Florida Memory. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
6. Staff (January 21, 1923). "William Pruden Smith Dead". Miami Herald (1): 4.
7. Morales, Ralph (2018). Harvey W Seeds American Legion Post #29 History (1st ed.). ISBN 978-0692128497. Retrieved September 4, 2023.

Bibliography

• Miami City Directory. R.L. Polk & Co. 1919.
• Morales, Ralph (2018). Harvey W Seeds American Legion Post #29 History. Miami: Harvey Seeds Press. ISBN 978-0692128497.
• E. V. Blackman (1921), Miami and Dade County, Florida, Washington, D.C.: V. Rainbolt, OCLC 1580474

External links

• People of Lawmaking in Florida
• Findagrave

This article about a mayor in Florida is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• v
• t
• e

• Florida lawyers
• Mayors of Miami
• 20th-century mayors of places in Florida
• 20th-century American lawyers
• United States Army personnel of World War I
• 1876 births
• 1923 deaths
• Florida mayor stubs
• Miami stubs