Smith, John H. 1847-1930

SMITH, FOSTER, WYCKOFF, DICKSON

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 8/24/2012 at 08:16:43

The Grinnell (IA) Herald; April 4, 1930

PASSES AT A RIPE OLD AGE
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John H. Smith Dies Tuesday Lacking Two Days of Reaching His 83rd Birthday.
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WAS PIONEER SETTLER OF GILMAN COMMUNITY.
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Settled on 480 Acres of Open Prairie In 1879--Had Lived in Grinnell Since 1900.
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John H. Smith was born April 3, 1847 on a farm near Fairview, Illinois and died April 1, 1930, lacking just two days of reaching his eighty-third birthday. He was the fifth of nine children born to Jonathan and Ann Foster Smith, all of whom preceded him in death. His father was an early settler in Illinois from Ohio where is great grandfather, Lewis Foster, was a pioneer circuit rider in the Methodist church.

In 1879 John H. Smith was married to Mary A. Wyckoff and moved to Gilman, Iowa, to locate on 480 acres of open prairie owned by his father. At the time of his settlement there was but one tree on the entire farm; now a picnic of several thousand Norwegian settlers is held annually in a grove that he planted.

His was a unique and striking personality, characterized by a bluff warm heartedness and a hatred of sham and pretense. He was always ready to give assistance to a friend or neighbor and there are many who still remember how he risked his life in an attempt to rescue a man who had been buried by a cave-in of a well. His courage and honesty were unquestioned.

In 1900 he moved with his family to Grinnell where he lived for twenty-five years at 1005 High Street, and for five years longer at 720 Broad Street. He was made a Mason in 1871 at Fairview, Illinois, and a Knight Templar at Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1881. He was a charter member of the Eastern Star at Gilman and a member of Za Ga Zig Shrine Temple, Des Moines.

He is survived by his wife and two daughters, Miss Gretta Smith of Grinnell and Mrs. W.G. Dickson of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and two grandsons, Robert and Rolf Dickson. One daughter, Mabel, died in 1923.

Funeral services will be held at Fairview, Illinois, and interment will be in the Foster Cemetery near that place, where lie the bodies of his parents, grandparents and great grandparents.