Obadiah Smithers was a businessman in the small village of Chapelvale. He was the husband of Clarissa Smithers and the father of Wilfred Smithers. He was in general ill-tempered and arrogant, and he was dismissive of the Chapelvale villagers and Winifred Winn. In order to further "progress", he made a deal with Percival Bowe's law firm to buy the village of Chapelvale for the lime sitting under it. The law firm (Jackman Donnings & Bowe) assigned Percival's daughter (Maud Bowe) to watch him. He had assigned his son and the local gang of bullies to harass Winn, who was bothering his plans.