JEROME SMITH

SMITH

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/20/2020 at 14:37:50

JEROME SMITH has been a successful farmer and stock-raiser in Adams county since the year 1872. He was born in Steuben county, New York, October 19, 1848, and is a son of William and Jane (Jones) Smith, also natives of the great "Empire State." The paternal grandparents were natives of Scotland. Our subject was reared to the occupation of a farmer, and received his education in the Genese Wesleyan Seminary. He resided with his parents until his marriage, which occurred November 4, 1868, to Miss Lydia Jane Bellinger, also a native of Steuben county, New York, and a daughter of Steuben county, New York, and a daughter or William Bellinger, who was descended from Dutch ancestors. After his marriage Mr. Smith resided upon the farm which had been his father's and which his grandfather had pre-empted from the Government in 1808. In 1872 he removed to the West and settled on his present farm in Jasper township, Adams county, Iowa; he first purchased eighty acres of wild land, on section 13, on which stood a small log cabin; for three years this furnished shelter, and in fact made a very comfortable home; the land was improved, and later on eighty acres were added to the first purchase; the farm is now one of the best in the township in point of quality of land and improvements. Mr. Smith makes a specialty of the raising of live-stock, and has gone into the dairy business quite extensively. The shade trees which add so much to the appearance of the place were planted by Mr. Smith, and the ornamental trees were set out by him when they were quite small. The Smith family consists of four children: Ethel, Algy, Jerome, Minnie L., and La Verne B.; Edith died at the age of thirteen years, in 1887; William was nine years old when he died in the same year.

In his political opinions Mr. Smith adheres to the principles of the Republican party; the people of this township have elected him Justice of the Peace for several terms, and he has discharged the duties of the office very satisfactorily.