Caleb Blood Smith

Caleb Blood Smith, the first citizen of Indiana to hold a Presidential Cabinent position, was born April 16, 1808, in Boston, Massachusetts. His family moved to Ohio in 1816, and he attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1825 – 1826. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1828, and began practicing law in Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana. In 1832, he founded and edited Indiana Sentinel. Smith was a member of the State House of Representatives from 1833 to 1837, and again in 1840 and 1841. He was elected as a Whig to Congress and served from March 4, 1843 to March 3, 1849. In his final term in Congress, he served as chairman of the Committee on Territories. President Zachary Taylor appointed Smith a member of the board investigating claims of American citizens against Mexico. Smith then settled in Cincinnati, Ohio and again practiced law. In 1861, he was a member of the failed peace convention in Washington, D.C. whose goal was to devise a means to avoid the imminent war. At the 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Smith seconded Abraham Lincoln’s presidential nomination. In return, President Lincoln appointed Caleb Smith Secretary of the Interior in his Cabinet. He served from March 5, 1861, until he resigned January 1, 1863, for health reasons. He became a judge of the United States District Court for Indiana and served in that position until his death on January 7, 1864, in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. He was buried in the City Cemetery in Connersville, Indiana.

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