In the book's own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. A few names of people born after 1905 are withheld for privacy. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1869, Davis county
From History of Washington County, Iowa from the first white settlements to 1908. Also biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county (1909)
REV. ULYSSES SIMPSON SMITH.
Rev. Ulysses Simpson Smith, pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal church at Washington, was born in Davis county, Iowa, February 2, 1869. The family of which he is a representative was established in New England at an early day. His grandfather, Jonathan Smith, was a native of New Hampshire and in early life removed to Maine, where he was married. Subsequently he became a resident of Pennsylvania, afterward went to West Virginia and about 1864 came to Iowa, settling in Davis county, where his life's labors were ended in death in 1866, when he had reached the age of seventy-three years. His widow, Mrs. Eliza Smith, survived him for some months.
They were the parents of thirteen children including Samuel Smith, who was born in Pennsylvania and was reared in West Virginia, having been taken by his parents to that state in his boyhood days. He was nineteen years of age when he enlisted as a member of Company D, Sixth Virginia Volunteer Infantry, serving as a private for four years. After the war he came to Iowa in 1865, locating in Davis county, where he purchased a farm. Following his father's death he bought the interest of the other heirs in the old homestead of two hundred and forty acres and upon that place reared his family. In 1882 he went to Oregon but after a period of five years spent on the coast returned and again resumed farming here. In 1902, however, he disposed of his property in Davis county and removed to Lane county, Oregon, where both he and his wife are now living. They, too, are member? of the Methodist church and are worthy Christian people, interested in the growth and promotion of the denomination. The mother of the Rev. Smith bore the maiden name of Mary K. Smith and was a native of Kentucky. Her parents were James W. and Margaret (Orr) Smith, who came to Iowa in 1859. Her father, a native of Kentucky, died in 1885 at the age of sixty-five years, but the mother is now living in Bloomfield, Iowa. Their daughter, Mrs. Mary K. Smith, was one of a family of eight children and by her marriage has become the mother of fourteen children, ten sons and four daughters: Charles W.; Ulysses S.; James W.; Jonathan A., who died at the age of three years; Daisy M., the wife of Arthur G. Pirtle; Robert A.; Frances J., the wife of Thomas Small; Martha, the wife of Rufus Hopkins; Samuel W.; Retta: Paul; Leon and Loren, twins: and George, who died at the age of eighteen months.
In the county of his nativity the Rev. U. S. Smith spent the first thirteen years of his life and after attending the district schools was for two years a student in the Southern Iowa Normal. Later he attended the Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, from which he was graduated in the year 1900. Having qualified for the ministry he began preaching in 1892, joining the Iowa conference, after which he was assigned to the pastorate of the church of his denomination at Montrose, Iowa. Later he labored successively at Batavia, West Burlington, Eddyville, Pulaski, What Cheer, Montezuma and then came to Washington in the fall of 1907. The church here has a membership of nine hundred and fifty and Rev. Smith is a progressive minister of wide study and strong intellectuality who is leaving his impress upon the various lines of church work through his enthusiastic, zealous and consecrated devotion to the cause.
On the 17th of August, 1892, occurred the marriage of the Rev. Mr. Smith and Miss Eva M. Patterson who was born in Davis county, Iowa, November 2, 1871, and is a daughter of Zachary and Miranda (McKee) Patterson, the former a native of Lee county, Iowa, and the latter of Decatiir county, Indiana. They are now residing near Bloomfield in Davis county, Iowa, where Mr. Patterson follows the occupation of farming. He was a son of Jehu and Frances (Taylor) Patterson, while his wife is a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Wallace) McKee. Mrs. Patterson was a cousin of General Lew Wallace and a descendant of David Wallace, who came to this country from Scotland, which was also the early home of the McKee family. Mrs. Smith's paternal grandfather was from Tennessee, while the Taylor family to which his wife belonged, was from Virginia. The maternal grandfather was born in Ripley county, Indiana, and the grandmother in Miami county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson had four sons and one daughter: Eva M., now Mrs. Smith; Lewis T.; Hugh H.; Ernest H.; and Roy D. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are the parents of two children: Hazel, born October ii, 1900; and [name withheld], born November 8, 1907.
Mrs. Smith is of much assistance to her husband in the church work and both are bending every energy for the upbuilding of the cause and the extension of Christian influences in the community) Of studious habits he reads widely and thinks broadly, recognizes the influences which are bearing upon the world's work and strives untiringly to make Christianity the foremost factor in civilization and progress.
As printed in History of Washington County, Iowa from the first white settlements to 1908. Also biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county (1909). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
The printed record stops around 1909. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.