Floyd County IA Archives Biographies.....Smith, Joel W. 1824 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 9, 2007, 6:29 pm

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1896)

JOEL W. SMITH, M. D., who has been identified with the interests of Charles
City, Iowa, ever since March, 1857,- an early period in its history,-is one of
the prominent citizens of the place, and is as highly respected as he is well
known.

   His father, Silas Smith, was born in 1794, in West Springfield, now Feeding
Hills, Massachusetts, and his mother, nee Lydia Gillett, in 1801, at Hebron,
Connecticut.

   The Doctor was born July 23, 1824, in a primitive farm-house, at Franklin,
Delaware county, New York, one of twelve children, ten of whom are still living.
It was his good fortune to spend his early years upon the farm under the
training of the best of parents; he was early taught to labor, and thus is
better able to appreciate the dignity of, and to sympathize with, honest toil.
He attended the district school and later the village academy, named the
Delaware Literary Institute and long recognized by the leading colleges as one
of the three best schools of the kind in the United States. He was a successful
teacher, but choosing the medical profession he directed his studies in that
line, graduating in 1850 in the medical department of Yale University; and ever
since that time he has assiduously followed his profession, aiming to keep pace
with the great advances made by the scientific world in the healing art.

   He early adopted the sanitary view that prevention is better than cure; that
preventive measures are preferable to drugs; and that good health can be secured
only by correct living; and consequently he has used drugs but sparingly. This
feature of his practice has rendered him somewhat less popular among a certain
class of people, who were in the majority a number of years ago, and who
encouraged practitioners who used drug treatment more freely, or "heroically;"
but upon this, as upon all other subjects, he would rather be right than
popular, even if his patronage be diminished thereby. He served as examining
surgeon during the war of the rebellion, and since then has been examining
surgeon for pensions, He is a member of the local medical societies, the Iowa
State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, and of the Iowa and
American Public Health Associations, for the prevention of disease. He was a
member of the international medical congress at Philadelphia in 1876, and of
that at Washington in 1887.

   In political action the Doctor allied himself with the Republican party at
its organization, in Delaware county, New York; and while he has all these years
supported most of the party measures his abhorrence of the use of alcoholic
drinks and other artificial stimulants has made him a practical prohibitionist.

   The first public office he filled in Charles City was that of Secretary of
the school district, then the most important office. That was in 1858; and for
years after he was a Director and President of the School Board. He has taken a
deep interest in educational matters and done much in the way of advancement in
this line. After his experience as teacher, parent and school officer, he
advocates manual training as a part of the school course, especially for these
two reasons: First, to secure the more harmonious development of body and mind
of some pupils; and, second, to make hand-work equally respected with mind or
brain work. He believes in free schools in connection with compulsory education.

   In 1861 he was appointed Postmaster of Charles City, under President Lincoln,
and acceptably filled the office for a period of nearly nine years,-which was
much longer than he wished. He has also filled other local offices of prominence
and trust, and is examiner for several of the leading life-insurance companies.
Both as a physician and business man he has been reasonably successful during
his long residence in this city. A leading trait even in his early life was to
aim at excellence, -to see how well anything could be done; and this, with
industry, is one of the leading lessons of his life.

   He is opposed to monopolies, either of land, business or trusts; abhors shams
and frauds in government, politics, religion, business and indeed every means by
which the rich are made richer and the poor poorer. In the case of all great
public evils, as with individual ones, he believes that prevention should be the
chief aim. He has given considerable attention to public interests, but has not
been an office-seeker.

   He is a ready writer, a fair public talker and a good fighter upon questions
that demand it, and a frequent contributor to the newspaper press and to medical
and other journals upon the more important issues of the times.

Among the great reforms which he advocates is that of woman suffrage. He is a
lover of scientific pursuits, and as to general information, especially upon the
great questions of the age, he ranks among the best informed men of the State.

   In his religious views he is liberal orthodox, not regarding
denominationalism as Christianity; is wholly unsectarian, and is usually an
attendant of the Congregational Church, chiefly, he thinks, from the force of
education. He has not given much attention to secret societies, feeling it best
to spend most of his leisure time with his family.

   He comes from long-lived stock, and is much younger in mind and body than he
is in years.

   April 4, 1850, Dr. Smith married Miss Susan M. Wheat, born at East Franklin,
now Treadwell post-office, Delaware county, New York, whose life has been
blended with his for forty-five years and who is still by his side. Her parents
were William Wheat, Esq., and Altamira, nee Wolcott, the former born at
Marlborough, Connecticut, in 1796, and the latter at Southampton, Massachusetts.
They have had six children, namely: Irving Wheat, born March 1, 1851, was a
young man of more than ordinary attainments, practiced medicine with his father
several years, and from 1893 to 1895 was a professor and the physician of the
State Agricultural College: in the prime of life he was a victim of overwork and
disease, and died October 29, 1895, at Cottonwood, California, whither he had
gone in search of health; Ida E. is the wife of La Verne W. Noyes, president of
the Aermotor Windmill Company of Chicago; Alta died in 1859, aged four years;
William T. and Charles F., twins: the former is a photographer and music teacher
of Charles City, and the latter is a pharmacist of Kansas City, Kansas; and Fred
E., the youngest, has charge of the New York branch of the Aermotor Company.

   In concluding this sketch we would make further mention of Dr. Irving W.
Smith, whose beautiful life, so recently closed, will ever remain a sweet memory
to all who knew him. He graduated at the Iowa State College; began the study of
medicine under his father's instruction; next was a student in the medical
department of the Iowa State University, and later in Jefferson Medical College,
at Philadelphia, which in 1875 conferred upon him the degree of M. D.; later he
pursued his studies in Philadelphia, Boston, New York city and at Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore.

    In 1876 he was married, at Philadelphia, to Miss Sallie Stalker, of Iowa.
Soon afterward he received a Government appointment as Surgeon at Fort Sill, in
Indian Territory. The climate of that place not agreeing with him, he resigned
his position at the end of two years and returned to Charles City, where he
formed a partnership with his father,-a partnership which lasted a number of
years and was attended with signal success.

    The news of his death cast a gloom over the whole town. During the funeral
the business places of the city were closed,-an unusual thing. From an article
published in one of the Charles City papers after his death we clip the following:

      "To win praise and esteem from one's elders, in a small village or city
where one has been a boy, while yet looking little more than a boy, is almost as
unknown as for a prophet to have honor in his own country; yet all these things
'Dr. Irving' had for many years, and never were love and laurels more truly won."

   The college faculty at Ames adopted the following:

   "We feel most deeply the loss of our friend and colleague, Dr. Irving W.
Smith, and desire to express our appreciation of his services for the college,
the sense of loss we sustain and our sympathy for the bereaved family.

    "His long association with the college, first as a student, then for many
years a most devoted friend, and later an honored member of its faculty, had
made his career one to be treasured by us all. As a student he was noted for his
conscientious and thorough work, and especially for his wide reading and
extended knowledge in various lines of study. In the busy and exacting duties of
a successful physician's practice he won a distinction that brought credit to
himself and his college. His influence along with his deep interest in the
college and its aims enabled him to do much in its behalf. His varied services
as teacher and physician in the college won. for him the respect and love of
all. It was with universal regret that we learned that his failing health
required that this connection should be broken, and our hopes for his recovery
had followed him lovingly in his search for health and strength. He was a man of
strong character, sterling worth, well founded opinions, and one whose influence
was invariably wielded for the right; a man whose friends equaled his circle of
acquaintances.

   "To the wife and daughter, the parents and those whose closer ties must cause
them to mourn a loss deeper than we can feel, we extend our sincerest sympathy,
-all that sorrowing hearts can offer in consolation in their deep affliction.

   "Resolved, That this expression be spread upon the faculty minutes and copies
be sent the bereaved family and to the Charles City and Ames papers."

   At the time of his demise a further tribute was paid him in a published
article from the pen of Professor W. H. Wynn, a member of the faculty of the
college. From this we make the following extract: "Dr. Smith was noted not only
for his accurate and  seemingly exhaustless fund of professional knowledge,-
giving one the impression of a specialist in the newer lines of research in
pathology and therapeutics which mark our age,-but also for his literary taste
and the wide range of his general reading and culture. Socially he was the
highest type of the gentleman, and a Christian gentleman, -never forgetting or
neglecting the religion he professed. He was a husband and father of wonderful
largeness and tenderness of heart and great beauty of character in domestic
life." The parents often prayed that the life of their first-born might be
attuned to noble thoughts and brave deeds. Was the prayer answered in this life?
"That life is long which answers life's great ends!"

   In less than three months after his death occurred that of his daughter, the
only grandchild, on the father's side, a most promising girl of sixteen years,
thus leaving her widowed mother childless. The mother had previously been
elected preceptress of the Iowa State Agricultural College, at Ames.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA

ILLUSTRATED

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."'—MACAULAY.

"Biography is by nature the must universally profitable, universally pleasant,
of all things."—CARLYLE

"History is only biography on a large scale"—LAMARTINE.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1896


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