Frederick W. Smith

As printed in 1905

FREDERICK W. SMITH.

The State of Iowa is greatly indebted to its citizens of Gennan birth and blood who have done much to build it up to its present imperial proportions. They are a careful and conservative people, industrious in their habits, economical in their manner of life, aufl as a bodv are ever found on the moral side of every question. It is always safe to appeal to their better nature. Every great reform has found among them stanch ad- Aocates. They were the stoutest opponents of slavery; they are the most persistent friends of a uniform and general public education.

Mr. Smith, whose name appears above, is a noteworthy representative of an old German family, though he himself was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, November 9, 1851. His father, Joseph Smith (Schmitt), was born in Bavaria, in 1816, and when he was seventeen years of age emigrated to the United States. In Pennsylvania he followed the trade of a shoemaker, but on his removal to Lee county, Iowa, he secured land in Charleston township, and the remainder of his active life was a farmer. He is now retired, and is making his home with a daughter in Keokuk. At one time he owned a fine farm of 175 acres, but has long since converted it into cash.

Joseph Smith has led a somewhat checkered career, having had to face serious troubles when he was quite young. His father died when he was but six years old. and though his step-father proved a kindhearted and capable man, was not as his own. He brought the family to America, and here the young lad left school at the age of fourteen years and set himself to learning the shoemaking trade. The family, consisting of mother, step-father and seven children, landed at Baltimore in September, 1834.

Joseph Smith became a young man and located himself in Pennsylvania, where he married Miss Henrietta Wittich, in January,

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Jdlm W. Smith, the oldest brother of I'Veclerick W' was a soldier in the Civil War, and served five years in the First Iowa Cavalry as a member of Company A, under the command of Captain Torrence. Upon the expiration (jf his first term of enlistment he re-enlisted, and when he was finally mustered OLit of service he was much broken in health, coming home seriously ill. After a protracted sickness he recovered, and is now lis'ing in Sioux county, Iowa.

Mr. Smith often says that the happiest moment of his life v.as when he was handed his naturalization papers, which gave him the full rights of an Atnerican citizen. He is well Wersed in the political questions of the day, I'eing always an extensive reader of the English papers. His support is given to the Republican party, of which he is a stanch advocate.

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On Christmas Day, 1884, Mr. Smith and Miss Sarah E. Brown were married in Summitville, Iowa, where the Ijride was born and reared, her birth occurring March 22, 1858. Her father, John J. Brown, was born in Utica, Michigan. August 29, 1830, and was a son of Andrew Brown, commonly called "Citizen" Brown, in recognition of his wide-awake spirit and public interest. At one time the grandfather owned a large warehouse in Keokuk, where his son, John, assisted him, doing "lighter" work, or carrying goods over the Des Moines rapids of the Mississippi river. It was impossible at that time for the river packets to ascend the rapids, something they were not able to do until the construction of the canal by the government. Mr. Brown became a wealthy man and purchased some 400 acres of land in Montrose township, though his home continued in Keokuk until his retirement from active business, when he removed to Clayton, Illinois, where he died. His wife was born at Johnstone, and came of.Scotch parentage.

John J. Brown was married April 5, 1854, to Mrs. Elizabeth Null (nee Meltz), who was born in Calhoun county, Illinois, November 11, 1827, and was of German parentage. She died J.inuary 31, icSyS, and he March 4, 1900. Both were buried in Hickory (grove cemetery, in Jackson township. Mr. Brown was a great reader and a wide student, being unusually well versed on all the ciuestions of the day. He was a stanch Republican, loo never sought official position. All his life he advocated good schools, and made his watchword their improvement. After his marriage he located (in his father's farm in Montrose township, where he spent his subsequent life with the exception of a few years before his death when he removed to a farm he owned near Warsaw. Here his wife died, while his death occurred at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Frederick ". Smith, when he was making them a visit.

Mr. and Mrs. John J. Brown were the parents of the following children: Roy, of Lake Charles, Louisiana: Ir\in J., a grocer at Salem, Iowa; Sarah, who is Mrs. Smith; prior, a merchant in Summitville. Iowa; Horatio S., who is engaged in the same business at the same place; Amelia M., the wife of Albert Miller, a resident of Montrose township.

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and well sustains an old and honored name. He is a worthy citizen, and the pen of the historian finds in him. his career and family relations and associations a congenial there. In Lee county, where so much of his active life has passed, he has a host of friends who will he trial to read of him and his.

As printed in Biographical review of Lee County, Iowa; (1905). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.