JUDGE MIKE E. SMITH, judge of the seventeenth judicial district, a well known and popular resident of Fort Worth, has during the past fifteen years risen to distinction at the bar of the state of Texas and is one of the best read and capable jurists practicing or holding judicial position at Fort Worth. His well trained mind and resources as a lawyer have been abundantly reinforced by his genial manners and engaging personality, which enable him to lay hold of men’s friendship and retain their good will and affection both for their own benefit and for his personal advancement.
Judge Smith was born at Granville, Jackson county, Tennessee, in 1868, being a son of Hugh B. and Frances (Dillard) Smith, who were also natives of Tennessee and are now both deceased. He attended school at Granville and later the Elmwood Academy, near that place. He began the study of law in the office of his uncle, Captain H. H. Dillard, at Cookeville, Tennessee, and was admitted to the bar in the latter place in 1889, when twenty-one years-old. His preceptor, Captain Dillard, is a prominent citizen and well known lawyer in Tennessee, having been a gallant Confederate soldier and having been brevetted major at the close of the war.
Judge Smith came to Texas in 1889 and located and opened his office in Vernon, where he continued a resident for six years. He was successful in his practice almost from the first, and also became prominently identified with public affairs in Vernon. He was elected to the office of mayor, and also served as city attorney. In December, 1894, he came to Fort Worth, where he soon found himself possessed of all the practice that he could well attend to, and where he entered into partnership with Hon. O. W. Gillespie, now congressman, and W. R. Parker. In 1900 he was elected district judge of the seventeenth judicial district, and is still serving in that capacity.
Judge Smith affiliates with the Knights of Pythias and other fraternal orders. He was married in 1892 to Miss Annette Bryan, a native of Bonham, Texas, and they have two children, Hugh B. and Ruth, who are in school.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 26.