Orson K. Smith

Candidate Biography:

Orson Kirk “O.K.” Smith
Born: 1820 in New York
Married: Rowena Mitchell (m. 1851)
Died: February 1871 in Cayucos, CA

1870s: Deputy U.S. Marshall

• Smith was the first State Assemblyman to represent Fresno County after its incorporation.
• Was presumed to have died while traveling from his home at San Simeon to San Luis Obispo when, near Cayucos, the horse cart he was driving was swept into the ocean. "The wagon and some papers were picked up near Morro Rock..."

Source: History of Political Conventions in California, 1849-1892 by Winfield J. Davis (1893)