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History of Story County, Iowa Vol 2 by William O. Payne, 1911

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Page 411 of 507

in the lumber business for a part of the year on the Allegheny river. He conducted a large retail lumberyard at Andalusia, Illinois, from 1860 until 1883, when he removed to Toledo, Iowa, where he continued in the same line until the time when death claimed him on the 30th of May, 1894. He was a member of the United Brethren church and was a stalwart republican throughout his entire life. A strong, rugged man both mentally and physically, he proved himself an important factor in the public life and the affairs of the communities in which he lived. His wife, a woman of strong personality, had but meager educational advantages in her girlhood but was determined that all of her children should be well educated and bent every energy toward accomplishing this purpose, so that all are now college graduates. They owe much to their mother for what she did for them and they sacredly cherish her memory. She survived her husband for a few years and passed away October 21, 1900.

In their family were six children. The eldest, Dr. E. R. Smith, now of Toledo, Iowa, was born in Venango county, Pennsylvania, October 4, 1851. Dr. Smith, of this review, is the second of the family. Lucy, the third child, died in infancy. Walter C. was born in Jackson county, Wisconsin, April 5, 1857, and is now residing in Toledo, Iowa. Nellie May, born at Pine Hill, Wisconsin, April 13, 1865, is the wife of O. O. Runkle, of Tiffin, Ohio. William Avery, born in Andalusia, Illinois, November 19, 1870, is a lawyer practicing at Nashua, Iowa.

Dr. Smith, of Nevada, acquired his early education in the public schools of Andalusia, a beautiful little town twelve miles below Rock Island on the Mississippi river. He afterward had two years of college work at Westfield College in Westfield, Illinois, from 1870 until 1872, and spent the school year of 1874-5 in the State University of Iowa but completed his course in the Western College of Iowa, now the Leander Clark College, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree in 1876. In the meantime he had taught several terms of school in Rock Island county and following his graduation he became principal of the South Moline public schools, remaining in that position for nearly four years. During that period he devoted his leisure hours to studying medicine at home under the direction of his brother, Dr. E. R. Smith. In the fall of 1880 he matriculated in Rush Medical College of Chicago, where he pursued a thorough course, with an extra course in the summer of 1881, and was graduated with the professional degree on the 21st of February, 1882.

In the meantime Dr. Smith had been married and lost his first wife. On Christmas day of 1878 he wedded Miss Etta Dilling, who had been his classmate in Western College and was an Iowa girl. They resided in Moline until the death of Mrs. Smith on the 16th of March, 1880. An infant daughter survived, Etta Maude, who was born February 22, 1880, and was reared by Dr. Smith's parents.

Following his graduation from medical college Dr. Smith located in Tama county, Iowa, where he spent the summer of 1882 in practice with

Page 411 of 507

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