Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in Jefferson County, 1931 Dr. U. S. Smith

"The Fairfield Daily Ledger"
Tuesday, September 1, 1931
Front Page

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

Dr. U. S. Smith

In his younger days, Dr. U. S. Smith, pastor of the Fairfield First Methodist church, was a hunter, trapper and lumber jack out in Oregon. When he was eighteen years old, he took a contract to cut 300,000 feet of fir timber--and did it in fifty days! During the season when the woods were green and there was no danger of spreading fire, he burned the trees down, and that's an ingenious trick. It was done by boring a two-inch auger hole slantingly into the tree, at the base, and meeting that with another hold (sic), 1½ inches in diameter, bored horizontally. Then a hardwood coal fire is dropped into the large hole and nature allowed to take her course. A three-foot tree would burn through in twenty-four hours. sometimes, when the fire reached the sapwood, it would go out, and it would require some axe work to finish the job. It if was desirable to direct the fall of the tree, the axe was used at the right time.

When the dry season came, it was necessary to cut the trees with a crosscut saw, requiring two men. Young Smith traded work with another man, working half the day for him, and getting a half day's work in return.

The Smiths had gone to the Cascade Mountains in Linn county, Oregon, from Davis county where Dr. Smith was born February 2, 1869. His father was a great hunter, and the move to the west was made because that country abounded in game. His father was Samuel Smith and his mother's maiden name Mary Smith. Dr. Smith was the second oldest of fourteen children. He attended the rural schools in Davis county before the migration to the west in 1882. They moved back in 1887 to the Iowa farm they had left, and Young Smith went to the Southern Iowa Normal school at Bloomfield, at that time headed by R. S. Galen, now of Mt. Pleasant. He spent two years there and then taught school for a year. He married Miss Eva May Patterson of Davis county, August 17, 1892 and in September entered the Iowa conference of the Methodist church. He was assigned to a pastorate at Montrose where he remained three years. In the autumn of 1894 he entered Iowa Wesleyan college to prepare himself further for the mninstry, remained in school for a year and was sent to Batavia as pastor in 1895. He was in Batavia two years, then back to Iowa Wesleyan, supplying the pulpit at West Burlington at the same time. The next fall he determined to give his whole time to school, but at Christmas time was assigned to Eddyville as pastor. The next spring--1900--he received his Bachelor's degree from the Iowa Wesleyan and was sent to Pulaski as pastor, but seven months later was made assistant to President John W. Hancher of Iowa Wesleyan in a special debt-raising campaign. When that was done he was made pastor at Montezuma, where he stayed four years and built a church. He next was pastor at Washington for seven years, building the church there. In 1914 he went to the First Church in Muscatine and was there five years. Then he was made president of Iowa Wesleyan, 1919, holding that office for eight years. During that time the campus was enlarged and landscaped, the capacity of Hershey hall was doubled, the enrollment grew to twice the numbers, the gymnasium and the P. E. O. Memorial library built. He resigned in 1927 on account of his wife's failing health. For four years she fought a losing fight with cancer, tenderly cared for by her husband and given every possible surgical and medical treatment. She passed away November 16, 1930. They have two children--Mrs. Edward W. Klopp of Des Moines, and Mrs. John L. Ewart of Fairfield.

Dr. Smith traveled abroad in 1910, visiting the Holy Land, Egypt and the principal cities of Europe. He was gone three months. He is a Mason and a member of the Lions club.