Hezekiah Bradley Smith (July 24, 1816 – November 3, 1887) was an American inventor and a Democratic Party politician who represented New Jersey's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for one term from 1879 to 1881. Birth, early career, and marriage Smith was born in Bridgewater, Vermont, on July 24, 1816. After completing an eighth grade education, he was trained as a cabinet maker and set up shop in a former tannery building. Smith left the Woodstock District in 1846, taking with him Eveline Verona English, whom he married in a civil ceremony in May 1846, in their Boston hotel room. Smith and his wife moved first to Manchester, New Hampshire, where Smith made a living carving wooden patterns while learning the machine business. In July 1846, their first child, Ella, was born. In the spring of 1847 in Manchester there was a scarlet fever epidemic known as 'ship fever', and Eveline took the child Ella and returned to Woodstock. They would never again live together as husband and wife. Separation Smith moved on to Lebanon, New Hampshire, where he began to manufacture items to other people's specifications, including such items as the Howe sewing machine. Smith took the first sewing machine ever to be found in Woodstock and gave it to Eveline, herself a renowned tailor, ensuring her own independence. Smith later moved on from Lebanon to Boston, Massachusetts, where he began manufacturing woodworking machinery of his own design. He subsequently moved his business to Lowell, Massachusetts. However, he continued to visit his wife in Woodstock, fathering three sons with her: Elton (born in 1848), Eugene V. (born 1851) and Edward A. (born 1853). In Lowell, in the summer of 1854, Smith was introduced to Agnes Mitilda Gilkerson (1838–1881). Gilkerson was a mill girl working in a textile factory and living in a boarding house. Smith hired her as his confidential secretary, then sent her to Mrs. Rodgers' finishing school. By 1859, Gilkerson would convince Smith that she should go further with her education. Smith sent her to live with the family of the manager of his Philadelphia sales office. There Gilkerson attended Penn Medical University, graduating in the spring of 1861 with a degree in medicine, with a major in chemistry. Wife abandoned and expunged In 1865, Smith visited with Benjamin Shreve in Medford, New Jersey. Shreve had a $100,000 investment in his deceased