PROF. WILLIAM J. SMITH, merchant, is a son of Lawrence and Mary J. (Overstreet) Smith, who were born in North Carolina and Tennessee in 1807 and 1818, respectively. The father immigrated to Tennessee about 1815, and settled in Maury County, and there died in 1879. William J., our subject, was born in Giles County, July 28, 1837, and after fitting himself for college at Pisgah, Tenn., completed his education in Lebanon University, at Lebanon, Tenn., and entered North Carolina University in 1862. In the late civil war he served in Company B, Forty-eighth Tennessee Infantry, and was captured at Port Hudson, but was soon paroled. After the battle of Missionary Ridge, he was in Gen. J. K. Johnston's army and later in Hood's army. He was captured at the second battle of Nashville and taken to Camp Douglas, and there held until the close of the war. For fifteen years subsequent to the war he taught school in Alabama, and was pronounced a competent and successful educator. Since 1881 he has resided in Lynnville, Tenn., and he and his brother, C. A. Smith, are associated in the merchandise business, the style of the firm being Smith Bros. Our subject is also engaged in farming; and in 1873 was married to S. E. Scruggs, at Portland, Ala. Prof. Smith is a Mason and is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and his wife of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.