HARRIET C. SMITH was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in December of 1842. She married William H. Smith around 1860, and gave birth to her first child, William Henry Smith Jr., on March 20, 1862. By 1870 four more children had arrived, Carrie, Virginia, Augustus D., and Charles N.; sadly, Carrie had died before her fifth birthday. The family was still living in Philadelphia when the 1870 Census was taken. William Henry Smith was then working as a harbor policeman. In April of 1873 another daughter was born, Sue G. Smith. The family moved to Camden, New Jersey shortly after her arrival. The 1874 City Directory shows the family at 729 Carman Street in Camden. By 1877 the family was living at 726 Federal Street. Harriet's son Charles N. Smith died in 1877, another son, Howard M. Smith had been born in 1874 and by the end of 1877, Harriet Smith had given birth again, to Clarence S. Smith. The Smith family was still residing at 726 Federal Street when the 1880 Census was enumerated in June of that year. Another son, Walter H. Smith, had recently been born. Two more sons would follow, Crawford M. Smith and Roy A. Smith. Howard, Walter, and Roy would all go on to public service in Camden. The 1882 City Directory shows that the family had moved to 14 South 8th Street.

Although the 1880 Census states that William Smith Sr. worked as a clerk, his really occupation was that of a "policy writer", that is to say, he was engaged is the illegal lottery business, popularly know in our time as "the numbers racket. Known in and about Camden as "Policy Bill", he was arrested a number of times during the 1880s and had been given a one-year prison sentence in early 1883, which was reduced in February to a $100 fine and a $1000 bind not to go back into the business... which he promptly did. The Directories of these times are interesting. In the 1882 edition, . William Jr. was also working, as a clerk. The family was still at that address in 1885. William Sr. working as a salesman, William Jr. as a baker. The Smith family remained at 14 South 8th Street until  1889. "Policy Bill" was arrested again during police raids in January and May of 1886.
 
On September 9, 1886 William Henry "Policy Bill" Smith Sr. died, leaving Harriet Smith to take care of nine children, five of them under the age of 15. One of the ways she kept the family going was by staying in the family business, of "policy", and she would have a number of encounters with the law through the rest of the decade and the 1890s. Her house was raided in the first part of 1887, and she attempted suicide in June of that year. In November of 1889, the Smiths were living in the unit block of North 10th Street when there home was again raided.

William Jr. was already working, and by 1890 second son Augustus D. Smith found work as a blacksmith. By August of 1890 Harriet Smith and family had moved to 741 Carman Street. Except for a brief interruption in the 1890s, the Smith family and their descendants would remain on this block into the 1960s. She soon got into a conflict with some of her neighbors, which ended in the courts, with no apparent resolution other than the neighbors seem to have moved off the block. Son Howard was running in some fast company as part of the "Tenth Street Gang" in 1890 but managed to stay out of serious trouble, which is more than can be said of fellow gang member Gilbert Boulton, who. a few years later as a member of the then notorious "Spider Gang", earned a trip to state prison for assaulting a policeman. 

As best that can be determined as of this writing, Harriet Smith stayed out of trouble until 1895. The 1894 City Directory has Harriet Smith and her family at 758 Federal Street, the 1895 edition has them at 750 Federal Street. Harriet Smith lived at that address until at least 1899. Virginia Smith had married William N. Ferrell in 1887 and lived for the most part in Gloucester County until her death in 1924. Harriet Smiths daughter Sue Smith had married John Warner Kinsey Jr. on November 26, 1892. They already had a daughter together, Ethel, born on March 21, 1892. The marriage ended in divorce, with Sue Smith Kinsey retaining custody of her daughter.

In April of 1895 Harriet Smith was indicted by the grand jury in Camden. She was tried and on May 24 sentenced to a year in prison. Although claiming ill-health, she received no support from Camden's medical community nor the sentencing Judge. Her sentence was commuted on July 16, 1895 by the New Jersey State Board of Pardons, on the grounds that others who had been tried at the same time she was had escaped imprisonment, and to be honest, on the basis of her sex. Her son, Howard M. Smith, had married Helen Goldy Penn the day before. The young couple moved in with Helen's family at 822 Kimber Street.

Before the month of July 1895 was out, daughter Sue Smith Kinsey was due in from of a judge on "policy" charges. Both Harriet Smith and her daughter were arrested again is September of 1895, and indictments were brought. These charges and those made against others were quashed when it was found that the evidence had been falsifies by a paid operative of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, an anti-alcohol (some would say extremist) group with an unfortunately large following and financial resources. Harriet and Sue were arrested again on February 10, 1896. 

Augustus Smith died in Camden on November 17. 1896 and was buried at Harleigh Cemetery. Sue Smith Kinsey married Harry J. Wagner Sr., on August 23, 1897. They set up house at 747 Carman Street, and as indicated above, they and there descendants remained on that block into the 1960s. 

In October of 1898 the Harriet Smith and her sons were under indictment again, and appear to have all moved to Philadelphia to escape prosecution. In 1900 Census Harriet, and her sons William H. Jr., Walter, Clarence, Crawford, and Roy were living at 506 Hope Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Smiths reappear in Camden City Directories in 1903. 

The 1904 City Directory shows that Harriet Smith had returned to Camden an was living at 609 North 6th Street with sons William H. Jr., Roy, Crawford, and Clarence, as Clarence's wife Mary and daughter Harriet F. Smith. Sadly, Clarence, an steel construction worker employed by the Camden Iron Works, was killed when he fell from a 40 foot tall gas tank being erected in Moline, Illinois in 1907. 

Harriet Smith's three youngest sons remained in Camden. Son-in-law Harry Wagner was politically active, and possibly due to his influence and possibly due to the fact that the Camden Police Department's baseball team needed a pitcher, Howard M. Smith was appointed to the Camden Police Department on March 20, 1906. He was a very active policeman from the beginning. His courage and skills were recognized and he was promoted to detective on January 1, 1918. He served in this capacity until his retirement on January 1, 1933, much of the time spent being on loan to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office where he investigated and solved many homicide cases.

Harriet Smith died in on February 6, 1908. After services at her home at 609 North 6th Street, she was buried at Harleigh Cemetery on February 10, 1908, 

Harriet Smith's three younger sons also stayed in Camden. Walter Smith, was appointed to the Camden Police Department on April 30, 1914. By 1925 he too had been promoted to Detective, and was still serving in that capacity as late as 1933. The youngest brother, Roy A. Smith, served as a member of the Camden Fire Department from 1910 to 1933, before retiring on disability. Crawford M. Smith worked as a steel construction worker like his brother Clarence, followed his sister Sue to the 700 block of Carman Street. he died in 1941. Crawford also had stayed in the "family business", i.e., numbers, and was indicted in 1934, and sentenced to prison time for refusing to testify against Fred Klosterman and his brother Joseph Klosterman.

Elsie Kinsey aka Elsie Smith was briefly married to William Howell Tatem Jr., the son of Camden Fire Department member William Howell Tatem, and the nephew of Camden's Chief of Police, James E. Tatem. She eventually remarried and lived out her days in Wildwood with her second husband, Magnus Ekstrom. Oldest son William H. Smith lived in Camden into the 1930s. He died in Philadelphia on June 28, 1941.

Sue Smith Wagner's son, Harry J. Wagner Jr., served as a member of the Camden Fire Department for 39 years and 8 months, reaching the rank of Acting Chief of Department. Her son Roy A. Wagner owned Roy's Cafe on Federal Street and employed his brother Phil Wagner and George C. Wagner as bartenders.

Clarence S. Smith's daughter, Harriet Florence Smith, married John F. Bryant, the grandson of John Foster, who served as Chief of Police in Camden from 1899 until his death in 1906... a peculiar case where the paternal grandparents were on one side of the law and the maternal ones often on the opposing side. 

Harriet Smith's great-grandson was J. Kenneth Crane, the son of Laura Smith Crane, whose father was Howard Smith. He served as Chief of Police in Collingswood, New Jersey  from 1963 to 1973.