Two topics dominated when the Martha’s Vineyard Farm Bureau recently hosted state representatives: housing and the possibility of building an animal processing facility on the Island.

Elisha R. Smith, an Oak Bluffs farmer for more than three-quarters of a century and for more than two decades the president of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, died last Friday at his home in Vineyard Haven at the age of 90. It was thanks to his determination, hard bargaining and skill at dealing with people that, in 1992, the society acquired the land that is the site of today’s Agricultural Hall. The acquisition of that West Tisbury Panhandle property where the annual fair is held was one of the proudest moments of his life, Elisha Smith said.

Death came to George A. Smith of Oak Bluffs yesterday morning in the house in which he was born seventy-nine years ago. He was the son of Elisha and Elizabeth Wilbur Smith.

His travels took him to nearly every state in the union and thus entitled him, perhaps, to be called the greatest wanderer of the Vineyard since whaling days.