Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1889

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 221
M. R. SMITH, M.D., a leading physician residing in Cone, Iowa, is a native of the Hawkeye State, and was born in Burlington, Feb. 24, 1840. He is descended from good old Revolutionary stock, his maternal grandfather, Mr. Middlebrook, having been a Colonel in the Revolutionary War. He was a man of wealth, and was a slave-holder in Connecticut at the time of his death. Many of his descendants are people of prominence and wealth in the Eastern States, where they engaged in manufacturing. His paternal grandparents, Harvey and Susan ( Booth ) Smith, were of the old Puritan stock, and resided in Connecticut.

The parents of our subject, James H. and Jane ( Middlebrook ) Smith, came to Iowa in 1836, settling in Fort Madison, where the father was employed on the paper now known as the Burlington Hawkeye, in which employment he remained for several years. In the meantime he purchased a farm in Lee County, and also bought a claim, which had been entered by another man. In 1839, he removed to Burlington, where our subject was born, and later the home was gladdened by the presence of a daughter, Mary E., born Dec. 25, 1846, who is now living with her mother in Lee County. With his family he later removed to Connecticut, where he resided for fifteen years, engaged in editing a paper, after which he returned to Iowa in 1856, settling on the farm which he had purchased in Lee County, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1877, at the age of sixty-four years. His wife is still living on the farm in Lee County.

Our subject has received a liberal education. When a boy he attended the Mills School at New Haven, Conn., and in after years took a varied course of study at Denmark, under the direction of Henry K. Edson, who is now professor in the college at Grinnell, Iowa. Wishing to study medicine, in the winter of 1859-60 he attended the medical college in Keokuk, which was then the Iowa State University, but did not graduate from that institution. Leaving school he embarked in the drug business at West Point, which he prosecuted for three years, and then attended the American Eclectic Medical College, then known as Physio-Eclectic College, being graduated in the class of ' 76. For four years previous to the time of his attendance at that college, he was engaged in the drug business at Nichols Station, and since completing his studies has prosecuted his profession for ten years in Cone, building up an extensive and lucrative practice.

On the 14th of November, 1867, Dr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Theresa Salmon, a daughter of Adolphus and Anna M. ( Sagner ) Salmon, who were the parents of six children: Theresa, wife of our subject; Gustavus, who is living in Beatrice, Neb.; Edward J., an attorney-at-law at Newton, Iowa; Albert A., whose home is in Albuquerque, N.M.; Theodore M., Professor of Music and Principal of the musical department of the Pittsburgh Female College; Adolphus H., who died at his home in Newton, Iowa, in 1887. By the union of Dr. and Mrs. Smith three children have been born: Lilian E., born Aug. 5, 1869, now attending the Pittsburgh Female College and Conservatory of Music, will graduate on the 15th of June, 1889, after which she will accept a chair in the college which has been offered her, and also expects to complete her studies on the pipe organ; Daisy T., born June 22, 1871; and Augustavus A., Jan. 15, 1874, are both at home. Dr. and Mrs Smith, and also their daughters are members of the Presbyterian Church. In early life he was a Republican, and voted for Lincoln, but in later years has cast his ballot with the Democratic party. He is numbered among the respected citizens of Muscatine County, and holds an enviable place in the medical world.

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