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.
Maud Bowe did not find the gang of bullies adequate for the job of harassment and eventually hired toughs from London to harass Winifred. In a discussion, Smithers finally got angry with Bowe. However, they remained partners until the day in which the land of the villagers was to be lost, when the deeds to Chapelvale were found.
Smithers stated that he was ruined, and that is all we can conclude based on the information given. Although Percival Bowe threatened to cause him to lose all, Bowe was presumably put in jail before he could carry out his threat.