SMITH, Francis 0smond Jon, congressman, born in Brentwood, New Hampshire, 23 November, 1806" died in Deering, Maine, 14 October, 1876. He was educated at Phillips Exeter academy, admitted to the bar, and practised in Portland. He was a member of the legislature in 1832, president of the state senate in 1833, and sat in congress from December of the latter year till 1839, having been chosen as a Whig. During his later life he was connected with many local and national improvements, was instrumental in establishing the Portland gas company, and the York and Cumberland and Portland and Oxford Central railroads, the latter having been mainly built by him. But his greatest public service was the introduction of the Morse electric telegraph, which owes much of its success to his labor. He published "Reports of Decisions in the Circuit Courts-Martial of Maine" (Portland, 1831)" "Laws of the State of Maine" (2 vols., 1834)" and "Secret Corresponding Vocabulary" Adopted for Use to Morse's Electro-Magnetic Telegraph" (1845).