Smith Mead Weed

1833–1920 (age 87)

Biography

Smith Mead Weed carved a reputation as a lawyer and statesman who put the commonwealth's needs before partisan conflict, serving in the New York legislature and advocating for honest railroading and fair taxation. He believed strongly in attentive governance and spent long hours in his Albany office and at home encouraging civic discourse.

His friends remember his booming laugh at community gatherings and his insistence that government remain accountable to ordinary citizens, a legacy now quietly honored at Riverside Cemetery, where his name rests beside many he guided in public life.