Smith, George A.

SMITH, COOLEY, KENNEDY, IRELAND

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 2/14/2003 at 20:09:30

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

GEORGE A. SMITH, M. D.

One of the most progressive and successful physicians in Iowa is Dr. George A. Smith, of Clinton, who is a native of this county. He was born on a farm in Center township, July 6, 1854. His parents were Colonel J. Henry and Emily P. (Cooley) Smith, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. The father is still a resident of Camanche, but the mother died at her home in that place in May, 1892. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1834, and was a daughter of Thomas Cooley, a prominent politician, who held the position of superintendent of the United States arsenal in Hartford for many years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Ann Kennedy, was of Irish extraction and a direct descendant of one of the passengers of the Mayflower.

Dr. Smith spent his boyhood and youngmanhood in Lyons and Camanche, where he attended the public schools. Later, he took a course at the Clinton Business College and the Iowa State University. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a carpenter and builder, and followed that occupation for four years. When nineteen years of age, he commenced teaching school, to which profession he devoted his attention for several years. He was also clerk and manager of a drug store for three years.

However, having decided to make the practice of medicine and surgery his life work, Dr. Smith entered the office of Dr. A. B. Ireland, of Camanche, now deceased, and later, entered the medical department of the Iowa State University, from which institution he graduated in March, 1881, with the degree of M. D. During the succeeding four years he engaged in the practice of his profession in Camanche, and in connection conducted a drug store. In July, 1885, he removed to Clinton, and since then has devoted his entire time and attention to his professional duties, building up one of the best practices in eastern Iowa. He gives special attention to surgery and obstetrics, and has for many years been surgeon for the great lumbering firms of W. J. Young & Company and C. Lamb &
Sons, and for Curtis Brothers, sash, door and blind manufacturers. He has been alone in practice, with the exception of one year—1889—when he was associated with Dr. A. H. Smith, now deceased, the partnership terminating at the latter’s death.

In 1891, under President Harrison’s administration, Dr. Smith was appointed United States examining surgeon for pensions, and was a member and secretary of the board for Clinton county and vicinity. He is a member of the Clinton Medical Society in which he has held the offices of president and secretary, and is also a member of the Iowa State Medical Society, in which he served as Chairman of the section on practice of medicine in 1897. In 1893 he was a member of the board of state examiners for the commencement of the medical department of the State University. He has contributed many able articles on medicine and surgery to various periodicals; was associate in charge of the department of medicine of the Iowa Medical Journal for several years after its establishment; and is now state correspondent for Iowa, for the Medical Standard, of Chicago. He is chairman for the Second District for the Iowa Physicians’ Protective Association, and chairman for Clinton county of the legislative committee of the Iowa State Medical Society. He is an expert examiner for life insurance and represents many companies and fraternal organizations. He made a reputation as such by his very successful work as Medical Director of the Economic Life Association, of Clinton, that company being the one that built the Economic Theatre in this city. His skill and ability as a general practitioner of medicine and surgery are widely recognized, and he enjoys a large and lucrative practice.

On the 4th of October, 1882, at Camanche, Dr. Smith was united in marriage with Mary Antoinette Ireland, youngest daughter of Dr. A. B. Ireland, deceased, and they have two children: Mabel I., born August 8, 1884, at Camanche, and Homer I., born July 7, 1890, at their home, No. 506 Camanche avenue, Clinton.

At the beginning of the Spanish-American war, Dr. Smith tendered his services to the government as a surgeon, and early in June, 1898, was appointed and commissioned a brigade surgeon with the rank of major, by President McKinley. He was assigned to the Sixth Army Corps, but owing to peace negotiations commencing soon afterward, this corps was not organized, and he was transferred to the hospital service at Camp George H. Thomas, Chickamanga Park, Georgia. He was soon advanced to the command of the Second Division, Third Army Corps, Field Hospital, which position he filled until the hospital was discontinued. Not long after this he was taken ill with typhoid fever, and, after a brief sojourn on Lookout Mountain, he returned home, and the war being ended, he was honorably discharged September 30, 1898.

The Doctor is connected with a number of civic societies, being a member of the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Independent of Foresters, of which he is High Physician for the High Court of Iowa, the Mystic Workers of the World, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Knights and Ladies of Golden Precept, of which he is the Supreme President.

Dr. Smith has always been a political student and an ardent but conservative Republican. Since boyhood, he has been an active worker for the party, and is recognized as one of its most influential members, in county, district and state. He commenced as a drummer boy in the campaign of Grant against Seymour, and has taken a prominent part in every election since. He has attended nearly every delegate convention since arriving at his majority. He was district alternate to the national convention at St. Louis in 1896 for the Second District of Iowa; and as chairman of the Clinton county Republican central committee that year, succeeded by careful organization, and tireless energy, in placing the county in the Republican column, by a majority of nearly one thousand for McKinley, although it had been reliably Democratic for many years. In 1900 the Doctor was prominently mentioned for the nomination for congress from the Second District, but recognizing the claims of the present incumbent—Captain J. N. W. Rumple—he gracefully seconded his nomination in the convention, and did yeoman service for his election during the campaign. He has never been a candidate for an elective office, except that of director for the Independent School District of Clinton, to which position he has been twice elected. He is now a member of the board and was its president in 1900. He was also elected by the city council of the city of Clinton as physician to the board of health in 1889.