J. H. D. Smoot
Founder of the Alexandria lumber business that operated continuously for two hundred years under successive Smoot-family names: J.H.D. Smoot, W.A. Smoot, Smoot Lumber & Coal, Smoot Lumber.
J.H.D. Smoot established the firm that became Alexandria’s longest-running lumber concern. Sources differ on the founding date — the company itself cited 1822 as its origin year, while a contemporaneous historical marker dates the planing-mill operation to 1858 [1] ALXnow, 'Smoot Lumber yard closing,' 2023 Website [2] HMDB, Smoot Lumber Co. Planing Mill marker Government record . The firm operated from successive sites along Alexandria’s industrial waterfront and rebuilt much of Washington and Alexandria after the Civil War. It supplied millwork to the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the Smithsonian, and Mount Vernon.
Documentary detail about J.H.D. Smoot himself is sparse in readily available sources; this entity is a research scaffold for the W. A. Smoot, Lewis Egerton Smoot, and Albert Smoot generations who carried the firm through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Sources
- 1.
ALXnow, "Alexandria's Smoot Lumber yard closing today after 200 years in business," December 1, 2023.
- 2.
Historical Marker Database, "Smoot Lumber Company Planing Mill," Alexandria, Virginia historical marker, accessed 2026.
Government record https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=129201 →
See a fact we missed?
Biographies are built incrementally. Family letters, descendants' corrections, and primary-source tips are the most valuable additions.