William Colwell Smith

As printed in 1905

WILLIAM COL'WELL SMITH.

William Colwell Smith, living on Section 5, Yellow Springs township, where he is engaged in general agriculture, was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pa., Jtme 21. 1846, his parents being Samuel and Jane (Smith) Smith. Both parents were natives of Ireland, in which country they were reared and married. In 1845 they crossed the Atlantic to the New World, and established their home in Philadelphia, where for a time the father occupied the ]5osition of watchman in the John T. Lewis Chemical and Lead Works. Later he was promoted to a position in the chemical department. In the year 1862 he brought his family to the Middle West, settling in Benton township, Des Moines county, Iowa, where he purchased one hundred and twenty three acres of land from E. D. Rand in Sections 7 and 8. Here he built a barn and improved the house, adding a kitchen and renovating the interior. He lived a quiet, unassuming life, but worked earnestly and persistently, and the traits of honorable manhood were daily manifest in his career. He continued to engage in farming upon this place until his death, which occurred June 28, 1870, when he was sixty-three years of age. His wife survived him until Nov. 23, 1871, and died at the age of fifty-two years. They were the parents of two children, of whom the daughter, Mary, died in Piiiladelphia at the age of three years.

William C. Smith, the only surviving member of the family, is indebted to the public schools of his native city for the educational privileges he enjoyed in his youth. He w-as about seventeen years of age when willi his parents he came to Des Moines county in 1862, and he remained with them on the old home farm until they were called to their final rest. He inherited the property, which he sold in 1900; and in the same year he bought property near Kossuth, becoming owner of thirty-one acres, which he purchased for his wife. He makes his home nn Section 5, Yellow Springs township, where he has a well-improved farm comprising ninety and a half acres. It is supplied with all modern conveniences and accessories, and in addition to this he has village property in Morning Sun, Louisa county, where he also has alxiut twenty-one acres. Everything about his place is kept in excellent repair, and his labors are attended with a gratifying measure of success.

lav 5, 1875, Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Mary G. McMillan, a daughter of 'william and Margaret (Jackson) McMillan. She was born in Maysville, Ky., May 16, 1856, and in 1858 her parents came to Des Moines county, locating in Franklin township, where her father rented land for several years. He then removed with his family to Yellow Springs township, where he purchased a farm, continuing its cultivation up to the time of his death. He passed away in September, 1887, at the age of seventy-five years, while his wife, who long survived him, died Jan. 13, 1903, at the age of eighty years.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith have become the parents of four children: Jennie N., born May 15, 1878, now a teacher five miles west of Morning Sun; Lila X., born April 17, 1880, now a teacher in the Washington township district schools; Mabel B., bom Aug. 17, 1883, is a teacher in the Rockbottom school in Yellow Springs township; and Lena J., bom April 14, 1888, is at home.

The parents hold membership in the Reformed Presbyterian church, and are well known in the community, the hospitality of many of the best homes being extended to them. Mr. Smith has prospered in his business undertakings, paving so directed his efforts as to accomplish results, and in his career he has found that prosperity and an honorable name ma_\- be won simultaneously.

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