Charles Chapin Smith was born in New York State, sometime around 1810, in Ontario County, New York.  He was likely the son of William and Phebe (Stringer) Smith.

In Abt. 1845 he married Mary Jane Broom, the widow of neighbor George Fewlass, and they had at least two children: Mary Jane, b.1846, who married Robert H. Lewis; and Charles Ackley Smith, b. 1848, who married Eliza "Liday" Arnetta Smith (his first cousin Obadiah Smith's daughter) in 1871.

Charles Smith's death date, as well as that of his wife, are currently unknown.