The Cordova daily times., 1921-02-24
DEATH CLAIMS
 MILTON SMITH
 RAILROAD MAN

LOUISVILLE, Ky, Feb. 24 (by As sociated Press).-Milton H. Smith, president of the Louisville & Nash vile railroad, died here yesterday after an illness of several months. He was 85 years of age and had been president of the Louisville & Nash vile railroad since 1891.
 Milton Hannibal Smith was for thirty-five years chief operating of ficer of the Louisville & Nashville railroad, which he helped to make one of the principal railway systems i of the south, owning and operating more than 5000 miles of trackage. 1 The principal lines of the company extend from Cincinnati, through Louisville, Nashville, Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile to New Or. leans; from Cincinnati by way of Cincinnati to Atlanta; and from Nashville to St. Louise.
 1 He was born in Green County, N. r., September 12, 1886. His father, a farmer, a short time later re- moved with his family to Chautauqua County, N. Y, and then to Illinois, where the boy grew to manhood. Farm life proved irksome to the future railway president, and before he reached the age of twenty he had mastered the art of telegraphy and taken a position at Holly Springs, Miss, in the office there of the Mississippi Central railroad
 When the Civil war began he en- tered the military railway service, being first stationed at Holly Springs. His work here attracted the atten- tion of his superiors and after the fall of Fort Donelson and the battle of Shiloh he was transferred to Jackson, Tenn, as master of trans portation on all military roads in the occupied districts of the south.
 At the close of the war he became agent at Louisville, for the Louis will & Nashville railroad, which at that time was operating less than three hundred miles of line. Three years later he was advanced to the post of general freight agent.
 MT. Smiths service with the Louis vile & Nashville continued with but one Interruption until his death, and the story of the way in which this came about is told by his friends to illustrate the dominating personality he possessed and his impatience with opposition in a course he thought right.
 At Montgomery, Ala, during the yellow fever epidemic along the gulf coast in 1878, shot gun quarantine was established. No trains from the south were permitted to enter the city under any condition.
 MT. Smith as the chief traffic of ficer of his company went to Mont gomery and sought to have the quar- antine modified to permit passenger trains to pass through without stop. ping and with windows closed He failed. Then he issued order plac- ing an embargo against the move ment of all trains from the north in Montgomery and within five days the city's food supply began to run low.
 Urgent appeals were made to him to permit the movement of trains with supplies into the city. They were met with the reply that when quarantine against the movement of trains through Montgomery, bearing refugees from the fever stricken dis tricts of the south had been modified, all his embargoes would be lifted. Montgomery authorities would not agree to this, and carried their ap- peal to Hermann Newcomb, then president of the road. He issued or ders revoking the embargoes. MT. Smith resigned.
 He was at once offered and accept cd the post of general freight agent for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, place he held for three years. His next post was general agent for the Pennsylvania lines, at New York, which he held until he went back to the Louisville & Nashville as chief operating officer, with the title of vice-president Jan. 1, 1882. The title of president at that time was held by the chief financial officer. | In 1883 during a financial crisis 1 he was given the title of president