Forty-nine-year-old Henry Weston Smith was born in Ellington, Tolland County, Connecticut. His early years were marked by personal tragedy and spiritual awakening. In 1847, at age twenty, he married Ruth Yeomans, but both his wife and their infant child died the following year. This loss may have deepened his faith; by age twenty-three, Smith had become a licensed “exhorter” in the Methodist Church and soon a full-fledged preacher while still in Connecticut.
Smith’s life took further turns. On February 23rd, 1858, he married Lydia Ann Joslin (or Joselyn), with whom he had four children. The family relocated to Massachusetts, where Smith served during the American Civil War with the 52nd Massachusetts Infantry, enlisting in 1861. After the war, he pursued medicine, becoming a doctor in 1867, and the family moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Despite these varied pursuits—as a soldier, physician, and even prospector—Smith’s true calling remained the pulpit.
In 1876, news of gold discoveries in the Black Hills of South Dakota drew thousands of fortune-seekers, transforming the region into a volatile frontier. Feeling a divine summons to minister to these souls in a land devoid of organized religion, Smith left his family behind and joined a wagon train from Cheyenne, Wyoming. He walked much of the journey on foot, arriving in the Black Hills in May 1876 as the first preacher of any denomination in the area.
Smith’s initial service was held on May 7th, 1876, in Custer City, South Dakota, attended by twenty-nine men and five women—a modest but historic congregation. He soon moved to the burgeoning camp of Deadwood, where he built a simple cabin and supported himself through mining, prospecting, and odd jobs like contributing to the Boulder Ditch project. Never seeking wealth, Smith preached outdoors on Main Street, often near stores or saloons, drawing crowds of curious miners who sometimes removed their hats in respect. On Sundays, he traveled to outlying camps, earning a reputation as an “earnest worker in his Master’s Vineyard” in a place where Christian values were scarce.
Smith’s ministry was short-lived, however. On the morning of Sunday, August 20th, 1876—just weeks after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which heightened tensions with the Sioux—Smith preached in Deadwood before setting out for Crook City, about nine miles away, to deliver another sermon. Despite warnings about traveling alone and unarmed amid reports of Native American raids, he proceeded on foot. He tacked a note to his cabin door: “Gone to Crook City to preach, and if God is willing, will be back at three o’clock.”
Later that day, his body was discovered alongside the road, three to four miles northeast of Deadwood, by a local resident. Smith had been shot through the heart from ambush, dying instantly. Notably, his body was not mutilated, and he had not been robbed—his watch, money, and an undelivered sermon remained in his pockets. This led to immediate speculation: many blamed Sioux Indians, part of the ongoing conflicts following Little Bighorn. Others suspected lawless whites, perhaps thieves or saloon owners who viewed Smith’s conversions as a threat to their profits from vice.
Smith’s body was returned to Deadwood, where a funeral was held the next day at his home. With no other clergy available, C. E. Hawley, a member of his flock, presided, using a borrowed Book of Common Prayer. He was initially buried in Deadwood’s first hillside cemetery, Ingleside, without a full Christian service due to the town’s isolation. Later, his remains were relocated to Mount Moriah Cemetery, where a life-sized statue now marks his grave.
The murder shocked the community, coming just weeks after the killing of Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood. It underscored the perils of the frontier, where ministers like Smith operated without protection.
Though Smith spent only a few months in the Black Hills, his impact was profound. In 1914, the Society of Black Hills Pioneers erected a monument near the murder site on the road between Deadwood and Spearfish, blaming “Indians” for his death. Due to highway improvements, the monument was relocated in 1994, and a time capsule from 1914 was opened and reburied with new items. On August 20th, 1995—exactly 119 years after his murder—a new Preacher Smith Monument was dedicated, featuring a reading of the sermon he had intended for Crook City, delivered by local historian Reed Richards.
Smith’s story has endured in popular culture. He was portrayed by Ray McKinnon in the HBO series Deadwood (2004–2006), though the show took liberties, depicting his death as a mercy killing due to a brain tumor rather than murder.
Nearly 150 years later, both the motive and the perpetrator in Preacher Smith’s murder remain a mystery.
Crime Immemorial 