Colonel Milo Smith, Clinton

COLONEL MILO SMITH, financier, soldier, and one of the first railroad pioneers west of Chicago, was born on the 25th of January, 1819, in Shoreham, Addison county, Vermont. His ancestors were among the oldest families of the state, and came originally of a good old Saxon stock. He is the son of James Smith, and grandson of John Smith, a revolutionary hero, well known in his day for his disinterested patriotism and sterling integrity. The mother of Colonel Smith was a lady of great personal worth and benevolence, who was highly esteemed in all the relations of life; her maiden name was Sarah Cochran. The family estate descended from the grandfather, who received it in consideration of services rendered during the war of independence. The original and only deed of the property is dated 1798. The farm upon which James Smith lived and died, at the age of eighty-five, was given to him in his boyhood; the domain is still in possession of the family, the property having been inherited by one of the sons. The longevity of this family is most remarkable : of eleven children, all but one attained the age of eighty-five. Colonel Smith, like his ancestors, is a man of strong and vigorous constitution, of a solid, compact organization, and a clear and active intellect.

His early education was received in the public schools, supplemented by a thorough and liberal course of instruction in the Newton Academy, a scientific and literary institution of some eminence in his native town.

During the four years subsequent to the age of sixteen his time was devoted alternately to laboring on the farm in summer, and in teaching school in winter.

At the age of twenty he left home, and, following the star of empire westward, reached Chicago in 1840. In this locality he devoted a few years, both as teacher and likewise as land surveyor, and subsequently settled in Belvidere, Boone county, Illinois. In 1848 when the first railroad enterprise was originated west of Chicago, he assisted as civil engineer in the construction of the first one hundred miles of the Galena and Chicago Union railroad. In 1852 he was appointed chief engineer and superintendent of the Elgin and State Line railroad. In all these responsible positions his sterling qualities and marked ability have been conspicuously displayed. In 1855 he came to Iowa, and was made chief engineer and superintendent of the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska railroad. In this position his ability as a financier, and his skill as an engineer, were severely tasked. During the panic of 1857, all the directors having abandoned the road, Colonel Smith carried the company successfully and triumphantly through that financial crisis. To facilitate transportation, and utilize the entire line already completed, he built a bridge across the east half of the Mississippi river, and constructed, at the same time, a boat-transfer to convey loaded cars over the west half. The enterprise was crowned with entire and perfect success. Although unprecedented and hitherto unknown to the engineering fraternity, the impediment to be overcome was the periodic rise and fall of the river of more than eighteen feet. It was necessary that the surface of the stream should be brought (when needed) on the same horizontal plane with the railroad track ; in short, it was a problem for the engineer to bring into practical harmony or union this rising and falling bosom of the river with the land-track of the road. By a most ingenious device Colonel Smith solved the problem, and was the first to bring it into practical application. The undertaking had been previously denounced by the oldest engineers as an impossibility, and the president of the road himself had so little faith in the success of the enterprise, that he pronounced its author crazy. The same opprobrious epithet, it will be remembered, was likewise applied to Mr. Stephenson, the father of railways. The world has too few such crazy men.

It is not easy, at this day, when the railroad system is thoroughly organized and acknowledged successful, to appreciate how onerous and responsible those duties were. The respective rights of the public and the road were yet undefined, and the immense labor of organization had all to be performed without the light of precedent or example. Although the company justly recognized that one mind must control the whole untrammeled by its interference or conflicting opinions, yet the bold and original plan practically executed by Colonel Smith was by many sound and cautious men deemed a hazardous and even chimerical experiment, likely enough to bankrupt its stockholders. In his broad and comprehensive grasp of railroad interests he has few, if any, equals, and certainly no superiors. Hence for years he may be said to have been the autocrat of western railways, carrying his plans with little opposition, and using his influence with such discretion that neither employes nor stockholders ever preferred just ground of complaint against his management. It may not be inappropriate, in this connection, to call attention to a fact not generally known, that the American Zanzibar trade, on the east coast of Africa, is almost monopolized by a Salem, Massachusetts, man, Captain John Bertram, formerly president of the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska railroad, at the time Colonel Smith held the position of chief engineer and superintendent. It was chiefly through the action of this gentleman himself that the trade recently has been transferred to Boston, having been many years controlled by him against all American and foreign competition. Against the antagonism of such masterly minds as this Colonel Smith carried the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska railroad through the panic of 1857, and continued to superintend the operation of the road after its completion to Cedar Rapids until leased to the Galena and Chicago Union railroad.

In 1862, a call having been made for three hundred thousand men, Governor Kirkwood, without his knowledge or solicitation, commissioned him colonel of the 26th Iowa Infantry. His military career has been equally varied and honorable, and characteristic of the man. He did not seek a position, but his country claimed his services, and duty and patriotism assigned him a place in the Union army.

His regiment formed a part of the first division of the fifteenth army corps, and continued in service until the close of the war. He was with General Sherman in his movements in and around Vicksburg and Atlanta, and in his march to the sea; and during eighteen months he was in command of the first brigade of the first division of that corps. His distinguished services have won for him just encomiums from his brother officers and government officials. Although his acknowledged military talents and ability justly entitled him to promotion, yet the marked modesty of his character induced him to decline all advancement and remain with the men he had led to the field. Prominent and foremost in all civil enterprises, and equally so in military undertakings, he led his men in all the services they rendered, as three honorable wounds will ever bear sufficient record and ample testimony. Since the close of the rebellion he has been engaged in various railroad enterprises, and in building up Clinton, the city of his adoption. His energy, foresight, thoroughness of action, and ability to overcome all obstacles, are proverbial. Nothing that he undertakes is a failure. From the moment that he grasps an enterprise, be it regarded by other minds as a chimera, or at best but of doubtful expediency, from that moment it acquires a life, a character and a success. He has invariably declined every solicitation to take office, preferring the reputation of a worthy and private citizen.

In politics, Colonel Smith is a decided republican, although not strictly a partisan.

His religious views are liberal, and although not a member, is a regular attendant of the Episcopal church.

In 1847 he married Mary J. Dodge, of Shirley, Massachusetts, who was lost on the steamer Atlantic, on Lake Erie, in 1852. He was again united in matrimony with Miss D. E. Oatman in 1854. After a few years of conjugal happiness, this lady died in 1868. He is now living with his third wife, formerly Mrs. C. A. Baker, to whom he was married in 1869. He has no children living.

Colonel Smith is emphatically a self-made man. He may be described as the embodiment of the genius of young America. Bold and successful in all his undertakings, by his never-questioned ability and indefatigable industry he has secured wealth, and at the same time maintained a high reputation for integrity and benevolence.

Source:

The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Iowa Volume.

Chicago and New York: American Biographical Publishing Company, 1878