Calvin Smith

As printed in 1914

CALVIN SMITH, M. D.

Success in what are popularly termed the learned professions is the legitimate result of merit and painstaking endeavor. In commercial life one may come into possession of a lucrative business through inheritance or gift, but professional advancement is gained only by critical study and consecutive research long continued. One of the leading physicians and surgeons of a past generation in Monroe township, Randolph county, one indeed, who took his place in the front rank of medical men in this section of the Hoosier state during a period of thirty-six years, and who will be held in grateful remembrance for many decades to come was the late Dr. Calvin Smith. The large success which crowned his life work, coupled with his ripe experience and kind heart enabled him to bring comfort, hope and confidence to the sick room and he also brought sunshine into many a home erstwhile shrouded in gloom. Much of this same sunshine and happiness fled when the people among whom his name had become a household word heard the news of his transition to a higher plane of endeavor.

Dr. Smith was born in Fayette county, Indiana, August 25, 1845. He was a son of Ezra and Phebe (Brown) Smith, natives of New York and Ohio, respectively. They came to Fayette county, Indiana when young and were married there, and there Ezra Brown engaged in carpentering and farming, but his death occurred in Marion county, this state, in July, 1865; his widow survived over thirty years, making her home at Indianapolis. They were both faithful members of the Christian church. They were the parents of eleven children, five sons and six daughters, all now deceased but two daughters.

Calvin Smith spent his early boyhood in Fayette county, being nine years old when he removed with his, parents to Marion county, Indiana, where he received his early education, and then attended the schools of Indianapolis, where he prepared for college. In 1872 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he attended the Eclectic College of Medicine two terms, from which he received a degree in 1876. He also attended the Eclectic Medical Association, of Indianapolis, from which he was graduated on May 13, 1885. From 1870 until 1876 he was engaged in practice in Indianapolis, and in the latter year came to Farmland, where he spent the rest of his life, a successful practitioner of medicine for a period of thirty-six years. In his earlier career he also practiced for a time in Muncie. He remained a student all his life and had great success as a general practitioner, building up a large and lucrative practice which extended over a wide territory.

Dr. Smith was married on November 30, 1872, in Dayton, O., to Jennie Flood, a native of Montgomeiy county, that state, her birth having occurred November 20, 1847. She was a daughter of John L. Flood and wife, both natives of Ohio, where they grew up and married and lived until 1850, when they removed to Randolph county, Indiana, and engaged in farming until their deaths, the father passing away in 1902 and the mother in 190. Their family consisted of twelve children. Five children were born to Dr. Smith and wife, all of whom died in infancy. Politically the Doctor Avas a Republican, and he belonged to the Free and Accepted Masons. He was a member of the Christian church. He was summoned to his eternal rest on July 12, 1912, at the age of sixty-seven years.

As printed in Past and present of Randolph County, Indiana : with biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families (1914). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.