Smedley, Joseph Melton, Sr. (sold)
Joseph Melton Smedley, Sr. (June 7, 1902 - July 12, 1973) was a Florida-based atlas and map publisher active in the Postwar period. Smedley was born in Florida and spent most of his life in his home state, though the full details of his biography are difficult to discern. The 1930 Federal Census shows him and his wife Mina living in Atlanta, Georgia, while his World War II draft card places him in Columbia, South Carolina working at a radio station. Spotty records list him as a wage worker or traveling salesman, but in the Postwar period, Smedley and his family settled in Daytona Beach, Florida. He maintained a business in DeLand, which issued a variety of city and county maps, plat maps, and land ownership atlases of cities and counties throughout Florida. Although his firm's output ranges from c. 1954 - 1971, it was most active in the mid-late 1960s.
From Citrus Trees to a Commuter Community.
This is an unrecorded 1971 J. M. Smedley sectional map of Citrus County, Florida. It depicts the county at a time when it was growing rapidly, changing from a sparsely populated rural area to an exurban community for nearby cities, particularly Tampa. (more details)