About Me
Smith Brothers Fisheries of Port Washington Wis. was one of the midwest's true family-run institutions. The family run business has been around since 1848, Gilbert Smith first cast his net into the cool blue waters of Lake Michigan. It grew from a simple fishing operation into a conglomerate of small business ranging from the fishing tug, Oliver H. Smith, to Fish Markets, to restaurants in trendy Los Angeles, to the flagship restaurant and Fish Market in Port Washington. Eventually, Smith Brothers created Fish Day, the worlds largest one day Fish Fry, which is held the second weekend in July every summer. Fish Day is a bit of Americanna in itself, but that deserves its own web page.The label above (circa 1934) is an example of Smith Bros. marketing genius: the use of a stylized font, based on Delos Smith's signature, and the cartoon figure of a fisherman carrying home a large fish on his back. In reality, there really was a guy living in Port Washington, who unwittingly posed for a portrait carrying a sturgeon. What is not well known is that the man was the town drunk, and he was a fisherman. He was not however, a Smith, for those of you who were wondering... Today, there is a statue, based on the same fisherman, known as the "Fisherman's Statue" in "Rotary Park" in Port Washington. This statue has a plaque which lists the names of all the known commercial fishermen from Port Washington, including many a Smith.
