Francis Asbury Smith (1860 - 1940)

SMITH, FRY, TEELE, STACY, MCCUNE, NEAL, PECK, MESSENGER, HAINES, HARDMAN

Posted By: Karen Brewer (email)
Date: 1/2/2020 at 00:52:30

The Osceola Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa
April 25, 1940, Page 6

Francis Asbury Smith, son of Geo. W. Smith and Sarah Jane Fry, was born in Butler county, Missouri, April 15, 1860, and departed this life April 18, 1940, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. R. E. Teele in Exeland, Wisconsin, aged eighty years and three days.

At an early age he came with his family to a farm near Afton, Iowa, living there a few years and from there they moved to a farm a mile north of Liberty, where his parents lived the remainder of their lives.

Born during the trying times just preceding the Civil War, his father who was an ardent republican, and later a Civil War veteran, nick-named him "Link" for Abraham Lincoln then a republican candidate for president, by which he was familiarly known.

On March 4, 1884, he was united in marriage to Vesta A. Stacy of Liberty. To this union were born three children, Leslie R. of Truro, Mrs. Elsie M. McCune of Ionia, Iowa, and Mrs. Verna J. Teele of Exeland, Wisconsin.

The greater part of his married life was spent on the farm west of Liberty which he owned at the time of his death.

Not long after the death of his wife in 1913, he decided to make his home with his children and friends. For eleven years he lived with his daughter, Elsie, near Charles City, Iowa, going from there to Exeland, Wis., last October.

He was one of a family of ten children, one brother John, and two sisters Mrs. Zella Neal and Mrs. Margaret Peck, preceding him in death. He leaves to mourn his passing, three brothers, James L. of Chariton, Iowa, Ira of Lansford, North Dakota and Edd of Medicine Lake, Montana, and three sisters, Mrs. Frances Messenger of New Virginia, Mrs. Ornida Haines of Norwood and Mrs. Eva Hardman of California. Also three beloved grandchildren, David, Velma and Edith Teele, and several nieces and nephews.

He was a member of the Odd Fellows lodge at New Virginia.

Link was an industrious man, just in his dealings with others, keenly interested in politics and world events, a kind father and husband, hospitable, delighting in the making of new friends, he had a wide circle of acquaintances who will miss him.

Funeral services were held at the church at Liberty Sunday afternoon, April 21, and burial at the Liberty cemetery.