Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in Jefferson County, 1931 Edgar Russell Smith

"The Fairfield Daily Ledger"
Monday, July 6, 1931
Front Page

Who's Who In Jefferson County
By Herbert F. McDougal

EDGAR R. SMITH

Not many families have lived in Jefferson County for six generations, but E. R. Smith is a member of one that has that distinction. His great grandfather was a pioneer here, and his grandson is of the rising generation.

Mr. Smith himself was born in Birmingham, August 25, 1869. His father was J. N. Smith, known throughout this part of the state as a buyer of horses cattle and hogs. For 40 years he bought livestock and shipped it, sometimes by the train load. He dealt also with the government, furnishing animals for the Indian agencies.

His grandfather, Greenup Smith, was the first treasurer of Jefferson county after Iowa was admitted to the union.

The Smiths moved to Fairfield from Birmingham when E. R. was six years old. He attended the public schools, went to Parsons college academy, from which he was graduated in 1887; took his degree from Parsons College in 1891 and then read law in Leggett & McKemey's office before going to the University of Iowa law school from which he was graduated in 1895.

He came back to Fairfield to set up his office and gave himself diligently to the practice of his profession. But one day he chanced to make a land deal which yielded him a profit of $100, and that turned his attention to real estate of which he has since owned 128 parcels. During thirty-five years, he has practiced law, engaged in the real estate business, made hundreds upon hundreds of abstracts and farm loans and has done fairly well in all lines.

As benefitting a member of a pioneer family he is much interested in local history, and is a source of information to which newspaper men turn with satisfaction. His office has all the aspects of an historical museum. An ox yoke is a treasured possession and occupies a prominent position near his desk. A 25-gallon copper kettle that has yielded many a gallon of lard and cooked bushels of apples into butter, is employed as his wastebasket. On the walls are pictures of prominent men of long ago. One scarcely can find a place on a window seat for the accumulation of Indian relics, old gourds cut into dippers to match the Old Oaken Bucket of yore and such pioneer plunder. A bear trap guards one corner while in his private office is a copy of the Declaration of Independence, signed by a member of his family. He can trace his ancestry to a Revolutionary soldier, and thereby is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Before Currier & Ives lithographs became a fad he was picking them up in second-hand stores of the cities he visited merely because they attracted him. Now he has a considerable collection of them.

Perhaps his outstanding trait is amiability. He likes people. He faces life with a smile and is rarely ruffled. A financial depression is something to philosophize about and to meet without quailing. His good nature is infectious, and good for such times as these.

He is likely to express his liking for you in unique ways. Maybe he'll drop around to your house some day when you away from home, and set out an ornamental tree or two in your front yard. Maybe he'll stop you on the street and give you a handful of gourd seed. At Christmas he always gives each of his tenants some present and it is likely to be something unusual. One year it was jack-rabbits, specially ordered from the west.

He is a member of the Golf and Walton clubs and enjoys them both. His connection with the bar association gives him a contact from which he gets much pleasure. He travels a good deal on business, and makes every journey a pleasure trip as well, always bringing back some pleasant experience.

Mr. Smith married Miss Sue Blair Sept. 28, 1898. They have four children--Miss Eloise, who is a teacher in the Rockford, Ill., schools; Booker, associated with his father in business; Maryalyce, with the Madden stores in training to be a buyer and Russell Jr., a student at Parsons college.