In the books' own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. The later printing (1911) is folded below the first. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
From History of Monroe and Shelby Counties -1884 (FACSIMILE) (1884), General history of Shelby County, Missouri (1911)
J. D. SMITH, M. D. (Physician and Surgeon, Shelbina).
Dr. Smith is one of those scholarly, cultured physicians who are - quite as much devoted to the study of medicine as a science as they
> om are to the practice of it as an-art. Having laid a good foundation for a thorough knowledge of his profession by a regular course of medicocollegiate training, he has continued the study of medicine with unabated zeal’ and assiduity since his graduation, and while in the practice. He is one of those progressive-minded men, a physician of advanced ideas, who by study and investigation keep fully up with the times in their profession. He has a choice medical library in which most of his time, not employed in the active practice, is spent to good advantage. He believes that the practice of medicine, like everything else, is tending to what the. Germans call particularism, or specialist, and that for one to be a successful general practitioner he must be something of a specialist in all the departments of the practice. Dr. Smith has a fine practice and is one of the leading physicians of the county. He is thoroughly devoted to his profession and takes a public spirited interest in every thing that tends to elevate it. He was instrumental in organizing the Medical Society of the county, and was prominent in the organization of the District Medical Association. He was born in Hannibal, January 25, 1849. His father, Columbus Smith, went to California during the gold excitement and died of cholera at Sacramento in 1851. His mother, whose maiden name was Harris, died two years afterwards. Dr. Smith was reared by his uncle, Daniel Harris, a large tobacconist of Hannibal, and Quincy, Ill. He was educated at those cities, completing his education at the Quincy College, but not remaining to graduate. He read medicine under Dr. I. T. Wilson. He took a course of three terms in the Rush Medical College of Chicago, graduating in 1870. He also took a special course in Clinics. After his graduation he was with Dr. R. C. 8S. Curtis in the practice at Quincy for nearly a year. He then located at Shelbyville, and after practicing there for over two years, came to Shelbina and was in partnership with Dr. E. N. Gerard for three years. This firm dissolved in the summer of 1876, and Dr. Smith retreated for about five months. He has since been in the practice alone. As has been said, he has become prominent and successful in the practice. In 1880 he was president of the District Medical Association. February 20, 1873, he was married to Miss Ida H. Myers, of Palmyra. They have five children: Mark H., Maggie G., Julia C., Bessie B., and Effie D. He and wife are members of the Baptist Church.
JEPTHA SMITH (Farmer, Post-office, Shelbina).
Mr. Smith’s farm is situated four miles west of Shelbina, and contains 153 acres. He has resided there for many years, and has been a resident of this county from boyhood. His parents were Charles and Jane (Moreman) Smith, natives of Kentucky. They came to Missouri from Bourbon county, Ky., in 1818, locating first in St. Charles county. Subsequently they removed to Marion county and finally to Shelby county. The mother died here in 1846, and the father in 1875, in the eighty-second year of his age. Jeptha Smith was brought up a farmer on his father’s farm, two and a half miles north of Shelbina, having been but three years of age when his parents came to this county. He was born while they resided in Marion county, near Palmyra, January 15, 1833. In his twenty-sixth year, in 1857, he was married to Miss Ellen Caldwell, by whom he had five children, all of whom are living. "The messenger of death visited his home, however, in 1869, and robbed him of his devoted wife and his children of their loving mother. He was married to Miss R. F. Wright, November 20, 1871; she, too, has been taken from him by death, dying January 19, 1882, and leaving one child, a daughter, May W. Mr. Smith’s father, besides being an enterprising farmer, was a capable and prominent builder, and among other houses of consideration which he erected was the court-house at Shelbina, built in 1839. But he lost a large amount of money on this by the failure of the county treasurer.
LEVIN W. SMITH (Farmer, Post-office, Shelbina).
Sussex county, Del., is the place of nativity of the subject of this sketch, and the morning of July 8, 1838, was the time of his birth. His parents were John Smith and wife, Amelia Trader, his grandfather, on his father’s side, being Marvel Smith, and on his mother’s, Henry Trader. His paternal ancestor was long settled in Delaware, but his mother’s agnate family was of Worcester county, Md. Mr. Smith’s parents reared a family of 11 children, eight of whom are living, and he was the third of the children. He was reared ona farm, and in 1858 he and his father were appointed light-house men on Pheenix Island, off the coast of Delaware. They kept the light-house until the fall of 1861, when they were forced to light out themselves by Lincoln’s administration, because they were guilty of the awful crime of being Democrats. Those were the days that Democrats were good enough to fight the battles of their country for the preservation of the Union, but not to hold any civil office or hardly to vote if the authorities at Washington could prevent it. On the 24th of February, 1863, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Amanda B. Horton, a daughter of Joshua Horton, of Sussex county. Mr. Smith then made his home at Salisbury, Md., where he was engaged in stock trading for about three years. In 1863 he removed to Atchison, Kan., where he kept hotel for about 18 months. After this he became forage master for the government at Fort Hardy, Kan., a position he held for about 12 months. Following this he bought a farm in Western Kansas, but was soon run out by the Indians, barely escaping with his life, and of course he could not have escaped without it. Leaving Kansas, he came to Missouri and located in Jackson county, about two and a half miles south of Kansas City. From there he moved to Shelby county in 1871. Mr. Smith purchased his present farm, or 80 acres of it, in 1878, and he has since added 100 acres, so that now he has one of the choice farms in Salt River township. He is a man of
/ industry, resolution and sterling intelligence, and is steadily coming to the front asa farmer. He is making something of a specialty of raising good cattle and trades in stock to a considerable extent. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have two children: Jennie B., the wife of James D. Boyce, of Delaware; and Lizzie A., a young lady still with her parents. He and wife are members of the M. E. Church South. Mr. Smith in politics is a Greenbacker, but is a warm supporter of Tilden in the Democratic party, and perhaps of Cleveland, or any other good Democrat.
As printed in History of Monroe and Shelby Counties-1884 (FACSIMILE) (1884). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
DR. JACOB D. SMITH.
Doubly orphaned by the death of both his parents when he was but four years of age, Dr. Jacob D. Smith, of Shelbina, has largely been the architect of his own fortunes. His success in his profession proves that he has builded well and the universal esteem in which he is held establishes the fact that his life has been useful to others as well as profitable to himself.
Dr. Smith was born at Hannibal, Missouri, on January 25, 1849. His parents, Colombus and Maiy Smith, were natives of Kentucky but removed to Marion county, Missouri, in about 1838 or 1839. He was reared in the home of his imple, Daniel Harris, of Quincy, Illinois, and was given every care and attention it was possible for a child to receive. He obtained his academic training by attending Soule's Academy and passing one year at the Quincy College. He began the study of medicine by private reading under the direction of a good physician and then attended Eush Medical College in Chicago, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1870.
[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]
The life of a country physician in a new territory is necessarily one of privation and self-sacrifice. He belongs wholly to the public, and his services are in continual demand. The population is scattered and the calls cover many miles of travel every day, often continuing into or even through the night. Leisure for rest, for recreation, for enjoyment, even for more advanced study in his work, is often totally denied him, or can be snatched only in fragments from more immediate and exacting claims upon his time and energies. Thus his life becomes a continual round of toil and self-immolation on the altar of the public need and the general good of the community in which he lives and operates.
The experience was altogether a new one for Dr. Smith. From his childhood he had not been obliged to forego his own wishes for the comfort or welfare of others. But he accordingly accepted his daily consecration to the requirements of his fellows as a part of his destiny, and concerned himself mainly in discharging with fidelity and all the skill he could command the duties which were before him. This has been his habit and he has won the regard and good will of the whole county thereby. His practice is a large one and his patrons are representative in character and standing. He has also kept pace with the advance of his profession and is abreast with its latest thought and discovery. For even though a very busy man for many years, he has also been a studious one, and is well informed on all branches of his work, having taken post-graduate lee- 11 tures in both Chicago and New York city.
Socially he is agreeable and obliging, and this is an additional equipment for success in his practice and popularity among the people. He is a member of both county and state medical societies and holds membership in the National Medical Association. The doctor is local surgeon for the Burlington railroad and enjoys a wide acquaintance in Northern Missouri.
On February 20, 1873, he was married to Miss Ida M. Myers, of Palmyra, Missouri. The six children who have blessed and brightened their household are all living. They are: Mark H., a resident of Brookfield, Missouri; Madge G., the wife of B. T. AVillis, of Clarence, this state; Julia C, the widow of Dr. J. C. Settles, of Arkadelphia, Arkansas; Bessie B., the wife of E. W. Jewett, of Shelbina; Effie D. and Jo. The doctor is a Democrat in politics, a Baptist in religious faith and a Knight of Pythias in fraternal life.
As printed in General history of Shelby County, Missouri (1911). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
The printed record stops around 1884. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.