John Walter Smith (5 February 1845-19 April 1925) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-MD 1) from 4 March 1899 to 12 January 1900 (succeeding Samuel K. Dennis and preceding John P. Moore), Governor of Maryland from 10 January 1900 to 13 January 1904 (succeeding Lloyd Lowndes Jr. and preceding Edwin Warfield), and a US Senator from 25 March 1908 to 3 March 1921 (succeeding William Pinkney Whyte and preceding Ovington Weller).
Biography[]
John Walter Smith was born in Snow Hill, Maryland in 1845, the cousin of Ephraim King Wilson II. He worked in the lumber business and as a bank director before serving in the State Senate from 1890 to 1899, as Governor from 1900 to 1904, and as a US Senator from 1908 to 1921. He promoted education, labor, and healthcare reform; he guaranteed free textbooks for all students, implemented workmen's compensation, encouraged a merit system for promotions, and built a psychiatric hospital. He died in 1925.