Background
Smith, William Orlando was born on June 13, 1859 in Reynoldsville, Jefferson Company, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of John Sprague and Susan Smith.
Smith, William Orlando was born on June 13, 1859 in Reynoldsville, Jefferson Company, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of John Sprague and Susan Smith.
Public school education.
He learned the printing trade, and worked as publisher of the Reynoldsville Herald from 1876 to 1879. He worked in the Government Printing Office in Washington, District of Columbia, from 1879 to 1884. He returned to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, in 1884 and successively edited the Punxsutawney Tribune and the Punxsutawney Spirit.
He worked as editor of the Bradford Daily Era in Bradford, Pennsylvania in 1891.
He purchased a half interest in the Punxsutawney Spirit in January 1892. Smith was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses (1903 to 1907).
He was not a candidate for renomination in 1906. After his time in Congress, he resumed his newspaper interests in Punxsutawney.
He died in Cleveland, Ohio on May 12, 1932.
Interment was at Circle Hill Cemetery in Punxsutawney.
Member Pennsylvania General Assembly, 1889-1897. Member Congress, 27th Pennsylvania district, 1903-1907.
Married February, 1880, Phebe Griggs, Martinsville, Indiana.