Francis Marion Smith

Francis Marion Smith (February 2, 1846 – August 27, 1931) (once known nationally and internationally as "Borax Smith" and "The Borax King" ) was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Oakland, California.

Frank Smith created the extensive interurban public transit Key System in Oakland, the East Bay, and San Francisco.

Early mining career

Francis Marion Smith was born in Richmond, Wisconsin in 1846. He went to the public schools and graduated from Milton College. At the age of 21, he left Wisconsin to prospect for mineral wealth in the American West, starting in Nevada.

In 1872, while working as a woodcutter, he discovered a rich supply of Ulexite at Teel's Marsh, near the town he would found ten years later, Marietta, Nevada. He staked a claim, started a company with his brother Julius Smith, and established a borax works at the edge of the marsh to concentrate the borax crystals and separate them from dirt and other impurities.

Francis Marion

Francis Marion (February 26, 1732 – February 27, 1795) was a military officer who served in the American Revolutionary War. Acting with Continental Army and South Carolina militia commissions, he was a persistent adversary of the British in their occupation of South Carolina in 1780 and 1781, even after the Continental Army was driven out of the state in the Battle of Camden.

Due to his irregular methods of warfare, he is considered one of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare, and is credited in the lineage of the United States Army Rangers. He was known as the Swamp Fox.

Early life

In 1732, Francis Marion was born on his family's plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina.[1] Around the age of 15, he was hired on a ship bound for the West Indies which sank on his first voyage; the crew escaped on a lifeboat but had to spend one week at sea before reaching land.[1] During the following years, Marion managed the family's plantation.[1]

French and Indian War

Marion began his military career shortly before his 25th birthday. On January 1, 1757, Francis and his brother, Job, were recruited by Captain John Postell to serve in the French and Indian War and to drive the Cherokee Indians away from the border. In 1761, Marion served as a lieutenant under Captain William Moultrie in a campaign against the Cherokee which destroyed many Indian villages and burned crops to starve the Cherokee into surrendering.