Orson Kirk (Captain O.K. Smith in GQC’s journal) Smith

Born in 1821 in New York. Led a company of packers from Great Salt Lake City to California in October 1849, traveling part of the distance with Captain Jefferson Hunt's company. Pioneer settler of Tulare County, California, in 1852. Elected county sheriff in 1853. In 1856 and 1860 elected to the California state assembly. Moved to San Luis Obispo County in 1866. Appointed census marshal of San Luis Obispo County in 1870. Disappeared under suspicious circumstances, possibly the victim of foul play, in 1871. (Annie L. Morrison and John H. Haydon, History of San Luis Obispo County and Environs, California [Los Angeles: Historic Record Co., 1917], 68–71; Eugene L. Menefee and Fred A. Dodge, History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California [Los Angeles: Historic Record Co., 1913], 1:14, 164–66; Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare, and Kearn, California [Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1891], 163, 172, 174; 1870 U.S. Census for the State of California.)