Smith, George A.

SMITH, COOLEY, KENNEDY, IRELAND, CADY, TREDWAY

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Date: 2/18/2003 at 09:46:15

1911 Biographical Index to Wolfe's History of Clinton County Iowa, by P. B. Wolfe.
GEORGE A. SMITH, M.D.
Herein we record the life of one who has brought exceptional abilities and attainments to the practice of one of the noblest professions and who has correspondingly had a career in that profession which has been extraordinary. Among the physicians of this section of the state non ranks higher, either in a professional way or personally, than does Doctor Smith.
George A. Smith was born in Center township, Clinton county, Iowa, July 6, 1854, the son of John Henry and Emily (Cooley) Smith. His paternal grandparents were natives of Albany county, New York, where they lived and died, and were of German descent and residents of a German community. His grandfather was a wagonmaker by trade. His maternal grandparents were Thomas and Ann (Kennedy) Cooley, and were residents of Hartford, Connecticut, where their daughter Emily was born. This grandfather was the officer in charge of the United States arsenal there. In the early forties they came to Kane county, Illinois, and later removed to Black Hawk county, Iowa, residing at Waterloo until their death.
John H. Smith and Emily Cooley were married in Illinois in 1851, where he was engaged as a locomotive engineer, and was one of the first to run over the Chicago & Northwestern railroad to Dixon, Illinois. He later came to Clinton county, Iowa, and went to farming on government land, at which he continued until the Civil War. He then recruited Company A; Sixteenth Iowa Volunteers, and was its first captain. He received rapid promotion on account of gallant service, being advanced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was mustered out in that capacity at the Grand Review in Washington in 1865. Because of physical hardships endured in Southern prisons he did not feel equal to the hard labor of farming and in 1865 the opened a flouring mill at Camanche and was engaged in that business for several years. Then he was appointed to a position in the United States internal revenue service which he held for some years but has now retired to a farm in Camanche township where he is spending his old age in small fruit farming and finds in it much enjoyment. He is now eight-four. In 1865 he was elected as state senator for four years. Before this he had served as a member of the first board of supervisors of Clinton county when organized. His wife died in 1893. She had borne to him seven children, of whom three are living. He has been a man of much priminence and influence, and the recollection of his life has been an inspiration to his children.
George A. Smith attended the schools of Clinton county, and took his professional course at the State University, graduating in 1881. He then located in Camanche, was there four years and then in 1885 came to Clint, where he has since practiced. During five years of this time he operated a drug store in connection with his practice, but aside from this had devoted himself to his profession with great success. He has made his name a s physician widely known in this section of Iowa. He has always taken an active part in politics, but was never a candidate for office until this spring when he ran for mayor of the city of Clinton. He was school director from 1897 to 1903. In 1891, under President Harrison, he was United States Examining surgeon. In 1985 and ‘96 and in 1902 he was physician to the board of health, and in 1903 was city physician. During the Spanish-American war he was appointed by president McKinley a brigade-surgeon, ranking as major and was in command of the field hospital of the Second Division, third Army Corps, at Chickamauga, Georgia. He was given special command to precede and arrange a reception hospital for Gen. Fitzhugh Lee’s command on its arrival at Havana, but was prevented by typhoid fever. He is a member of the Clinton County and Iowa State Medical Societies, and of the American Medical Association and the Second District Medical Society. In his fraternal relations he is a Mason, a charter member of the Odd Fellows at Clinton, and one of the organizers of Lodge No. 199, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks , at Clinton.
Mr. Smith was married on October 4. 1882, to M. Nettie Ireland, a daughter of A. B. and Mary (Cady) Ireland. A. B. Ireland was a pioneer in Iowa, first locating in Belle View in 1847, spending the years from 1849 to 1852 in California, returning to Camanche on the latter year, and was one of the first doctors in Clinton county. He was a man of prominence and influence and succeeded John H. Smith as senator from this district. He and his wife are dead. Dr. and Mrs. smith are the parents of two children, Mabel Ireland, born September 8, 1884, wife of Carlos G. Tredway, of St. Louis, and Homer Ireland, born July 7, 1890, now a student in Iowa State University.
The Doctor is one who has many warm personal friends, gained by the geniality of his nature. He is respected by the member of his profession and has a strong and powerful influence in the county. He is one of whom his city is justly proud, both as a man and because of his professional record.