SMITH, Richard, journalist, born in the south of Ireland, 30 January, 1823. His father, a farmer of Scottish ancestry, died when Richard was seventeen years old, and the widow and her son emigrated to this country and settled in 1841 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Richard apprenticed himself to a carpenter and builder until he could secure a better opening. On reaching his majority, he gained employment on the " Price Current," of which he soon became proprietor, and greatly improved it, making it virtually a new publication. He accepted also the agency of the newly organized Associated press, and was the first man in Ohio to transmit a presidential message over the wires. About 1854 he purchased an interest in the Cincinnati "Gazette," the oldest daily in the city, which was then in a languishing condition from lack of proper management. Selling the " Price Current," he concentrated all his energy on the " Gazette," which became prosperous under his direction, especially during the civil war. But in 1880 its interests and those of the Cincinnati " Commercial " indicated the financial and political wisdom of their union, and accordingly the first of the following year they were consolidated under the name of the "Commercial Gazette." Richard Smith is the vice-president of the new company. He exercises much influence, journalistic and political, throughout Ohio. Though he is often jocularly referred to as "Deacon," he is only a lay member of the Presbyterian church.