My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES SMITH, M. D., belongs to a profession in which for nearly fifty-five years he has been in continuous and successful practice in administering to the sick and maimed. Charles Smith is a son of George and Anna (Ellis) Smith, and was born in Delaware county, New York, May 22, 1815. This branch of the Smith family is a combination of English and German. Grandfather Smith had but one child and died while in the early prime of life. Upon his death the mother of subject re-married to a Mr. Gay, by whom she had one son. She kept a hotel all her life in Poughkeepsie, this State, where she died in 1843, aged one hundred and three years. Gen. George Washington was a guest at her house many times during the war of the Revolution. The maternal grandfather, Noah Ellis, was of English extraction, his mother’s ancestors being passengers on the Mayflower. He was a resident of Roxbury, Delaware county, N. Y., where he operated a grist-mill and was a justice of the peace. About 1825 he moved to Cloversville, on the Delaware river and ran a mill and foundry, where were cast the first iron plows. He gave his personal attention to this business and died about 1845 and was survived by seven children: Noah, Horace, Charles, Anna (Mrs. Smith), Olive (Mrs. Washburn), Elizabeth was the mother of Hon. W. B. Morrison, the famous Democratic champion of tariff’ reform; and Amelia. George Smith was born at Poughkeepsie, this State, in 1784, and was a farmer in Delaware county until 1823, when he moved to Stockton, this county, and bought a farm of one hundred and five acres. It was but little improved and the only building upon it was a log hut, and that was surrounded nightly by wolves, so that almost the same amount of labor was required to subdue nature as though it had been taken from the virgin forest. They moved here in wagons, bringing with them some leather which they sold here for cash, to Gen. Leverett Barker, who had a monopoly of the leather trade, for money enough to buy the farm. He was an industrious man and worked hard upon his farm, but died in June of the year after his arrival. He married Anna Ellis in 1808, the result of which was seven children: Harriet, married John Nye, a farmer of Westfield who afterwards went to California; Sallie, married Olvin Putnam first and afterwards Dr. Joseph E. Kimble, of Sinclairville; George, a judge in San Leandro, California, married to Eliza Fenner; David, a farmer in Mayville, married Rebecca Johnson; Jane, wife of James M. Copp, a farmer living in Sinclairville; and Olive, wife of Dr. Chester Ellsworth, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After the death of her husband Mrs. Smith married Israel Smith, in 1826, and by him had one son, Edwin, who married a Miss Blanchard, and is a teacher in the High school of Quincy, Ill.

Charles Smith was educated in the town of Stockton and then attended a select school taught by Worthy Putnam and continued receiving private lessons for some time. He taught school during the winters of 1832-33-34, helping his mother on the farm during the summer, and in August, 1835, he began the study of medicine with Dr. Watterman Ellsworth, of Stockton, again teaching in Pomfret in the winter of ‘35-36. Medical students were not then compelled to attend lectures, so young Smith, lacking means, studied at home until 1838, when he passed an examination before and received his diploma from the censors of the Chautauqua county medical society. He completed his studies with Dr. Thomas D. Mann, who died about the time of Dr. Smith’s graduation, and the latter at once assumed the practice made vacant by the former’s death, which he conducted for ten years, when, April, 1848, he moved to Fredonia, where he has since practiced and lived. His practice is large, and making a specialty of obstetrics and children’s diseases, he is uniformly successful with such cases. (Dr. Smith has attended 3,746 accouchements up to November 1, 1890.) He practiced his profession because he loved it. When a call came he responded without a question as to whether his fee was forthcoming. Poor and rich were served alike; when his services were needed he went.

Dr. Charles Smith served as president of the village of Fredonia two terms in succession, also as trustee and treasurer for several years, always foremost in any and all movements for the benefit of the village, namely, the construction of the State Normal school, D., A. V. & P. R. R., town hall, electric lights and system of water works, the best in the State.

On November 23, 1838, he married Cornelia Turner, a daughter of Hezekiah Turner, an early settler of Fredonia. They had six children, five of whom attained their growth: Mary married Callix Dagenais, a carriage painter, and lives in Fredonia; Albert H. is a doctor, assisting his father; Olive, wife of Thomas H. Towers, who keeps a hotel in Brandon, Manitoba; Cornelia resides at home; Ella died in infancy; and Anna, youngest, married Chas. Dunning, of Buffalo. Mrs. Smith died in April, 1873, aged fifty-five years.

The secret societies are familiar with Dr. Smith’s face. Until its suspension he was a member of the Fredonia Odd Fellows, and Forest Lodge, No. 166, F. & A. M. welcomes his appearance at its meetings. Dr. Smith is well advanced in years; has passed the allotted three-score and ten and six more have been added, and during all his long life his reputation has been one of strict honesty and integrity, and whose only fault, which no one calls a fault, is his open generosity.