SMITH, ROBERT--Was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, April 23, 1787. Of his early life we know but little. He was twice married. He first joined the Presbyterian Church, (O.S,) and for many years, both in Kentucky and Illinois, he was a useful and worthy member of that denomination. It was quite late in life that he changed his church relation. The main reason for the change was that he was thrown into a section of country remote from his own denomination. For a length a time prior to this he had been impressed that it was his duty to preach the Gospel. To enter the ministry in his church was impossible, for lack of literary attainments. In the spring of 1841 he was received as a candidate by Mackinaw Presbytery, and in 1842 he was licensed to preach. He was a man of good natural talents, possessed of an unaffected, native dignity, which gave weight to his preaching, and made him friends. He took a deep interest in the mission established by our church in Peoria. He talked much of it during his last illness, expressing strong confidence that God would answer the prayers which had been offered in its behalf. For the last five years of his life he passed through severe bodily afflictions, and during the last two years he was entirely blind. His labor as a minister was not in vain. Many professed religion through his instrumentality. He suffered much pain during the last years of his life. He expressed strong confidence in God, and died in full hope of a blessed immortality, at Peoria, Ill., December 29, 1862.
[Source: The Presbyterian Historical Almanac, and Annual Remembrancer of the Church. For 1865, by Joseph M.Wilson, Volume seven, pages 241-242]