Smith, John Paris

Smith, John Paris, a Presbyterian minister, was born in York County, Pa., Jan. 29, 1822. He graduated at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, in 1842, studied theology at Princeton, N.J., was licensed by Donegal Presbytery in 1844, and ordained and installed pastor of Owensborough (Ky.) Church.. He preached successively at Bardstown, Ky.; Vincennes, Richmond, and Hopewell, Ind.; and afterwards undertook a temporary labor in behalf of the United States Christian Commission in the army, whence he returned sick, and died among his kindred in York, Pa., July 4, 1864. The Indianapolis Presbytery recorded the following minute: "Brother Smith was an honored and useful member of presbytery, was well known and greatly confided in in all our ecclesiastical councils. Taken off in the prime of life, while pastor of a flourishing Church, the lamentations of his people follow him to his grave." See Wilson, Presb. Hist. Almanac, 1865, p. 120;. 1866, p. 170. (J.L.S.)