THE INVENTOR, GEORGE SMITH

by Claudia Tompkins

Entry T91 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

George Henry Smith was born June 16,
1880 to parents John and M. (Thompson)
Smith. He married Laura Callie (Abbott)
March 4, 1899. Laura's parents were Mr. and
Mrs. A.E. Abbott. George and Callie, (as she
was addressed in Mullen) had one daughter,
Alice Blanche who married Joe Payne.

An article from the Hooker County file
relates in full George's inventions, assuming
that the clipping is from the Hooker County
Tribune is as follows: May' 1927 - "George
Smith, inventor and patentee of a number of
useful mechanical contrivances, returned
home a few days ago from Omaha where he
spent a month assisting a manufacturing firm
in building one of his new dishwashing
machines. It had been the good fortune of the
writer on a previous occasion to see the work
of the original pattern of this new invention,
which has been doing high-class work at the
Legion Cafe since management of this popu-
lar hostelry passed into the hands of Mr. and
Mrs. Smith, but the real thing that now serves
in its place is a world beater. The drudgery
of the kitchen, with the possible exception of
wash day, has been removed and if the merits
of Smithy's dishwasher ever becomes gen-
erally known, he is destined to become the
idol of womankind. It is a simple machine, yet
so thorough in the plan of construction, that
the human hand rests while it washes and
dries the dishes, pots, kettles and pans. His
late machine is built of heavy galvanized
sheet iron, about 4' long and 3' wide and is
large enough to serve the average hotel, as a
complete cleanup when it is filled to capacity,
requires but 3 or 4 minutes. Mr. Smith has
had a number of very flattering offers for his
patent right, also several offers on a royalty
basis, none of which have yet been consider-
ed. Another of his inventions is a never failing
pump rod puller which was put on the market
about a year ago. A hog ringer and pig forceps
are also on the list of his patents. "

George Smith died in Grand Island No-
vember 17, 1934. The burial was in the
Mullen Cedarview Cemetery.