Volney V. Smith | |
Order: | 3rd |
Office: | Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas |
Term Start: | 1873 |
Governor: | Elisha Baxter |
Predecessor: | James M. Johnson |
Successor: | Harvey Parnell (1927) |
Birth Name: | Volney Voltaire Smith |
Birth Date: | 28 September 1841 |
Birth Place: | New York |
Death Place: | Lewisville, Arkansas |
Party: | Republican |
Profession: | Soldier, politician |
Spouse: | Mary Jane |
Term End: | 1874 |
Volney Voltaire Smith (September 28, 1841 – April 17, 1897) was an American politician who served as the third Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas from 1873 to 1874. He served as president of the Arkansas Senate in 1873.[1]
He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War including with a "colored" infantry unit.
He was a delegate to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention of 1874. He and other Republicans refused to sign the document produced. He made a claim to the governorship in waie of the Brooks-Baxter War but fled after an arrest warrant was sworn out for him and U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant chose not to intervene.
He was born in 1841 to Delazon Smith, a newspaper editor and Democratic Party politician, and Eliza Voke Smith. His second cousin was politician and mayor of Chelsea, Massachusetts Edward J. Voke.
He died in the state's mental institution.[2]