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- Claud DeNel "C. D." Smith
- Early Grand Junction druggist, pioneer, and businessman who founded the C. D. Smith Drug Company. He was born in Las Animas, Colorado on August 22, 1879 to Burrel and Amelia (Reynolds) Smith, who traveled from Oberlin, Ohio in 1865. His father was listed by the US Census as a stock-grower and also served as postmaster. In 1882, his father sold some 3,000 head of cattle and his ranch located in the San Luis valley and moved to Gunnison. C. D. Smith acquired his public education in Gunnison and later in the Chicago National Institute of Pharmacy. When he was 15, he accepted his first position in a drugstore and was made manager of the store in 1896. In 1897, he accepted a position with his uncle of H. Reynolds and Co. in Greeley, CO, and was later promoted to the position of head prescription clerk. He passed his examinations before the Colorado state board of pharmacy in 1901, and became one of the youngest licensed pharmacists in the state. In 1900, when 21 years old, he formed a partnership under his employer under the firm name of C. D. Smith & Co., intending to establish a store in Seattle, Spokane, or El Paso. He ended up settling in Grand Junction after an opportunity arose to take over the Adams Drug Store. He obtained sole possession of the business in 1902, which he would run until his death. In June 1904, he married Gertrude Cartmel, who was an accomplished musician, in Golden City, Missouri. Together they had four children, Burrell Douglas Smith, Melbe Irene Schmidt, Claud DeNel Smith Jr., and Sterling True Smith. He quickly expanded his retail operations, purchasing and consolidating two drug stores in Fruita in 1904, opening a second store in Grand Junction at the corner of 2nd St. and Colorado Ave known as the Depot Store, and two drugstores in Palisade in 1905, which were also consolidated. In 1908, an additional Grand Junction store was added to the chain with the purchase of the Wolhfort Drug Company. In 1907, the business was officially incorporated under the name of C. D. Smith Drug Company. On March 5, 1912, C. D. Smith organized the Western Drug Company to engage in drug manufacturing. The C. D. Smith Drug Company also opened several wholesale drug stores, which were conducted seperate from the retail establishments. The first wholesale drug house in Grand Junction was opened on October 1, 1910. Another store was added in De Beque in 1910, and an additional Grand Valley store was purchased in 1911. By this point, the C. D. Smith Drug Company had command over seven stores and was recognized as the state's largest drug institution. Over the next decade, C. D. Smith would continue to expand his business and branch out to other avenues. In 1916, he organized the Western Candy Company as the first wholesale candy firm in western Colorado, which was sold to the Miller Candy Company in 1917. At the time, he employed some 50 people. Around this time, he decided to withdraw from the retail field and focus on the wholesale business, which was developing rapidly. Outside of the drug industry, he was associated with the banking interests of Grand Junction. He was one of the organizers of the United States Bank and Trust Company in 1903, and served as the institution's vice president from 1906 to his death in 1939. For many years he was also the state treasurer of the Colorado Pharmacal Association. He was involved with a number of other businesses and businessmen in the Western Slope, including oil shale tycoon Harry Lewis Brown, who operated the Index Oil Shale Company. Together, they opened a laboratory and sold products derived from the byproducts of the shale refinement process, including a medicinal salve and a fertilizer, called the Index Soil Vitalizer, made of shale residue. According to Mesa County Oral History Project interviewee Armand de Beque, both of these products were found by the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to be carcinogenic and were taken off of the market, though he claimed that later testing showed that they were perfectly safe. On November 9, 1939, he passed away in his home on 536 N. 7th St. following an extended illness. Services were conducted at the Martin Funeral Home by Rev. Merle Lloyd Edwards of the First Presbyterian Church, and he was buried in the Masonic Cemetery. Pallbearers included former business associates F. O. Garrison, C. A. Dewey, G. L. Richardson, B. C. Reynolds, W. D. Ela, and A. C. Milne. Honorary pallbearers included E. F. Woods, A. M. Schmidt, Henry Tupper, Fred Mantey, O. H. Ellison and Guy V. Sternberg. *Photograph of C. D. Smith from the C. D. Smith Co. brochure "80 Years of Progress", published 1980.