Jesse H. Smith

As printed in 1911

JESSE II. SMITH, M. D.

The character of the individual is determined by his utilization of his opportunities, his employment of his talents and his fulfillment of his obligations to mankind. In all these particulars Dr. Jesse II. Smith measures up to the highest standard and his life is recognized as one of large usefulness in the county and state in which he has long made his home. His enterprise and adaptability in business, his loyalty and progressiveness in political circles and his broad humanitarianism and philanthropy have all indelibly engraved his name upon the pages of Iowa's annals. He is probably today the oldest president of a fire insurance company in the United States, having since 1869 occupied the position of chief executive officer of the Farmers Insurance Company.

He was born in Elkhart comity, Indiana, August 27, 1837, and is a son of Isaac and Sarah (Thomas) Smith, who were natives of Ohio and Virginia respectively. The father was a farmer by occupation and made stock-raising on an extensive scale one of the chief features of his business. In 1853 he came to Iowa, settling in College township, Linn comity. He purchased sixteen hundred acres of land in this county and continued to engage actively in agricultural pursuits until October, 1SS0, when he was called to his final rest, at the venerable age of eighty years. His wife died in 1870, at the age of sixty-nine years.

Dr. Jesse H. Smith, the sixth in order of birth in his father's family of six children, spent his youthful days to the age of fifteen years in his native county and then accompanied his parents to Linn county, Iowa. His youth was passed on a farm and his preliminary education was acquired in the usual log school houses of the pioneer days. He became one of the first students in Western College in the town of Western. Linn county, spending two years in study there, and His more specifically literary course constituted a broad foundation upon which to build his professional knowledge. In January, 1858, he began reading medicine under the direction of Drs. Milligan and Taylor and subsequently attended lectures at Rush Medical College at Chicago, being graduated from that institution with the class of 1860. He first began practice in Cedar Rapids, where he continued for over sixteen years, being much of that time in partnership with Dr. Mansfield, one of the first physicians of this city.

Since his retirement from the'field of professional service he has devoted his time largely to the interests of the Farmers Insurance Company, of which he is the president. He became identified with this company when it was a mutual company. It is now the oldest corporation in Linn county. In 1SCS it was organized as a joint stock company and in January, 1869. Dr. Smith was elected to the presidency and has since guided its destinies. Its affairs were in a deplorable condition when he assumed its management. He closely studied the situation and bent his energies to administrative direction and executive control. A change was soon noticeable in the business of the company and its growth has been continuous under his management to the present time, until it is today recognized as one of the soundest companies of the kind in the United States. He has made it what it claims to be, a protective insurance company and not an organization for the benefit of a few at the sacrifice of the many as various insurance companies have been. Its business policy has always been such as would bear the closest scrutiny, no fictitious methods of business being employed, its course at all times conforming to the old and time tried maxim that honesty is the best policy. Into other fields Dr. Smith has extended his efforts and is now one of the directors and the vice president of the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway & Light Company. Moreover, he has extensive farming interests, owning over eight hundred acres of valuable land. He now gives his attention largely to his farm, which is the old homestead of his father and which is one of the valuable agricultural properties of this part of the state.

Dr. Smith has been recognized as one of the republican leaders of Linn county and belongs to that class of men who have sought to make the party stand for principle and not for the furtherance of the interests of certain individuals. While high political honors have been conferred upon him. he has never placed personal ambition or aggrandizement before the party welfare or the interests of the commonwealth. In 1875 he was elected mayor of Cedar Rapids for a two years' term and again filled the office in 1878 and 1879. In 188S he was elected state senator from Linn county for a term of four years, which covered an important epoch in the history of the state, during which legislation of far reaching moment, was enacted. In 1900 he was a delegate at large from Iowa to the republican national convention which nominated McKinley and Roosevelt at Philadelphia.

Dr. Smith has been married twice. In 1862 he wedded Lucy Henderson, a daughter of John W. Henderson. She died October 20, 1863, leaving one child, Edward H.. who was born March 20, 1863. In 1866 he wedded Mary E. Ward, of Illinois, who died in April. 1904, leaving a son, Isaac B., who was born January 20, 1868.

Dr. Smith is an Episcopalian in religious faith and a Mason in his fraternal relations. Both organizations find him a worthy exponent of their principles and in the latter he has attained high rank, having reached the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in the consistory, while of the Mystic Shrine he is also a member. He has been president of the Masonic Temple Association since its organization and was one of the organizers of St. Luke's Hospital Association in 1887, since which time he has been its president. His deep interest in this is manifest in his active and helpful cooperation and his untiring efforts to promote its growth and extend the field of its usefulness. He belongs to the Cedar Rapids Country Club and to the Commercial Club and his sincere cordiality has made him a favorite in the prominent social circles in which he has always moved.

For the past twenty years he has spent his winters in the south or in California and he has traveled extensively throughout the entire country. There is no more splendid example of the self-made man in Linn county than Dr. Smith, his career being a striking example of what may be accomplished by one who must look to self-reliance, industry and perseverance for success. The possibilities of high position afforded in the United States to industry and fidelity were never better illustrated than in the ease of Dr. Smith. In his youth he worked for whatever the world was to bring him of enjoyment or honors, he lias reached the evening of life not only possessed of wealth and past political honors but also of exalted social position and of a mind enriched by travel and by constant mingling with men and women of the highest breeding, education and accomplishments. He is today possessed of almost everything that men cover as of value and in the midst of his success he has found time for the fine things that our self-made men are so phone to overlook — aid in money and personal attention to schools and churches, beneficence to charitable institutions and the artistic adornment of his home and of his city.

As printed in History of Linn County Iowa : from its earliest settlement to the present time (1911). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.