Date of Birth: 
About Axel Smith
- Axel Christian Smith (8 May 1744 – 20 June 1823) was a Norwegian priest and topographer. He was born in Stavanger as a son of merchant Anders (Andreas) Smith (1716–1772) and his wife Sophia Amalia Prahl (1704–1765).
- He was married twice; his two wives were sisters.
- He was a great-grandson of artist Anders Lauritzen Smith and an ancestor of Chief Justice Carsten Smith.He enrolled at the University of Copenhagen in 1761, and graduated with the cand.theol.
- degree in 1768.
- He returned to Norway and worked in Vinger and Elverum before being hired as a curate in Elverum and Trysil in 1773.
- During his time, there was a significant growth of forestry in Trysil, and the area became a parish of its own in 1780.
- He is also credited with bringing the potato to the district.
- In 1785 he penned the topographical-economical work Beskrivelse over Trysild Præstegjeld i Aggershuus Stift i Norge.
- Even in modern times this has been used as a historical source.
- It was printed in two parts in 1796 and 1798.
- By that time, however, Smith had become vicar in Elverum and dean of Østerdalen deanery, in 1787.
- From 1795 to his death he was the vicar in Øyestad.
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