Alexander Smets

Not to be confused with the scientist Alexander Smits.

Alexander Smets
Smets, pictured around 1860
Born	Alexander Augustus Smets October 12, 1795 Nantes, France
Died	May 9, 1862(1862-05-09) (aged 66) Indian Springs, Georgia, U.S.
Resting place	Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Philanthropist, banker
Spouse	Anne Watt (1820–1854; his death)

Alexander Augustus Smets (October 12, 1795 – May 9, 1862) was a French-born co-founder of the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah, Georgia, United States. A banker and philanthropist, he was also a large landowner in Georgia and one of the state's wealthiest people.

Life and career

Smets' former home, built in 1853 at 2–4 East Jones Street

108 West Broughton Street in Savannah, Georgia, part of today's Alexander Smets Range

Smets was born on October 12, 1795, in Nantes, France, the son of Barthelemy Martin Smets, a native of Mechelen, Belgium, and Jean Marie Antoinette.

At the age of eighteen, he was enlisted in the French Army and was stationed at La Rochelle. He was promoted to lieutenant, such was his dedication to the role he was initially given, but the war ended before he could serve in the role.

Smets' friend, Charles Maurel, a merchant in Savannah, Georgia, persuaded him to return to the United States with him during a visit to France. Smets arrived in Savannah on November 20, 1816.

His early career was not entirely notable; a partnership formed shortly after his arrival in Savannah was dissolved, after which he moved into the lumber trade on his own. He was successful, and in 1849 he retired "with a fortune ample enough to satisfy his desires."

On March 29, 1820, he married 22-year-old Annie Watt, with whom he had nine children, including: Hortensia (born 1824), Eliza Jane Laura (1833), Uranie Cornelia (1836), Lucy Ellen (1839) and Pauline Hortense (1842).

In 1839, Smets co-founded the Georgia Historical Society, in which he became a close friend of Israel Keech Tefft.

Between the mid-1840s and mid-1850s, Smets had built what is now known as the Alexander Smets Range of properties stands between 102 and 108 West Broughton Street in downtown Savannah. He lived with his family at today's Alexander A. Smets House at 2–4 East Jones Street which was built in 1853. It is now named Morris Hall, part of the Savannah College of Art and Design. He also became a large land owner, including a plantation on Hutchinson Island in the Savannah River. He was also a slave owner.

On November 2, 1859, Smets was elected a member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

During his life, Smets accumulated a large library, regarded as "one of the most valuable and extensive collections of books ever offered to the American public."

Death

Smets died on May 9, 1862, in Indian Springs, Georgia, after a short illness. He was 66. He was initially buried, on May 11, in Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery, where he was joined the following month by Israel Tefft, but on March 6, 1919, his (and the rest of his family's) remains were removed from the Smets Vault to Bonaventure Cemetery, where he is now interred alongside his wife, who predeceased him by eight years.