November 7, 2024
5pm-6pm
The 1890s Tallahassee Street Railway and the speaker is J. Doug Smith | Past President and Past Treasurer of the Tallahassee Historical Society, Author, and Historian
J. Doug Smith is a seventh-generation Tallahassee native whose ancestors first came to Spanish East Florida in 1799 and to Leon County in 1828. He is a 1971 graduate of Leon High School whose interest in his hometown history began in earnest in 2013.
After working for over 35 years in the manufacturing industry, primarily in software systems implementation as a business systems analyst, Smith, after spending sixteen years living in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, working in the aerospace industry, retired in 2015 and returned to Tallahassee.
Smith became interested in George W. Saxon, his second great-granduncle and the founder of Capital City Bank when he discovered many of his relatives on both sides of his family had, throughout the years, worked at the bank and served in varying capacities and on the board of directors. So, although Smith is not related to Capital City Bank’s “Smith Family,” he no less feels a shared kinship.
Over the last nine years, Smith has traveled throughout the southeast researching George Washington Saxon and Tallahassee’s history, and during that time, served for six years on the board of directors of the Tallahassee Historical Society. He served one year as its president and treasurer and continues to serve as an active member, recently honored by the historical society with a lifetime membership. He served on the historical society’s 2024 bicentennial committee and was a member of Leon County’s Visit Tallahassee 2024 bicentennial history committee.
Smith was one of the keynote speakers at the City of Tallahassee’s 2024 Bicentennial Birthday in March 2024 and has worked with local television station WCTV on their “Tally Back Then” historical photo series. In addition, he has aided in the research of three other books about Tallahassee’s history and continues his interest in uncovering and writing about Tallahassee’s rich and varied past.
Free for members/admission for nonmembers
Must preregister online
21+ event
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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81107099820
Meeting ID: 811 0709 9820
