Robert V. Smith was born in Cork, Butts County, Georgia, to Jane or Virginia Rowe and Robert Wilson Smith, who had moved to the area from South Carolina. Robert W. Smith's own father, also Robert Smith, had been born in Ireland in 1760, fought in the American Revolution, married Ferguson Wilson of South Carolina, and died in Butts County, Georgia, in 1853. Robert V. Smith married Clara V. Webb in 1883 and had several children, including Mabel Smith (Mrs. John B.) Kelton, mother of the donor.