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Below is a family biography included in The History of Newton County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1888.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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John R. Smith, M. D. From this brief and incomplete record of the life of Dr. Smith, it may be seen that his time from youth up has by no means been idly spent, but on the contrary has been one of ceaseless activity. His birth occurred in Wayne County, Ky., January 27, 1836, and he is the fourth of six children born to the marriage of David Smith and Charlotte Havins, who were born respectively in Surry County, N. C., and Jefferson County, Tenn. The father was a tiller of the soil by occupation and gunsmith by trade, which trade he learned of the celebrated gunmaker, John Bull, of Alabama, and in 1836 he came to Newton County, Mo. Here John R. was reared to manhood, his youth being spent in following the plow. His educational advantages were limited, owing to the inferiority of the schools of that period, but having a thirst for knowledge he pursued his studies at night, and availed himself of every opportunity to increase his knowledge. He not only pursued the study of medicine, but also obtained a fair knowledge of the Greek, Latin and French languages, besides giving more than ordinary study to chemistry, natural philosophy and theology. In the prosecution of these studies he had the encouragement of his mother, who was a woman of rare intelligence and good sense. She died in 1884 at the advanced age of eighty-four years. The father died in 1845. In 1856, at the age of twenty, the Doctor began practicing his profession, and afterward went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and attended lectures. He practiced for a time in Jasper County, thence moved to Barry County, where he was elected judge of the probate court, but failed to qualify owing to war troubles. In 1862 he went to Springfield, Mo., and in 1865 to Washburn, where he remained until 1869, during which time he was examining surgeon for the Pension Bureau, when he returned to Springfield, and in 1875 to Newton County, and has since given his attention to his profession. He holds the position of county physician, and has a lucrative practice. He takes a deep interest in matters pertaining to both agriculture and horticulture, and is a regular contributor to agricultural papers. He has ever been interested in the science of electricity, and is perfecting an automatic switch-board for telephone use, which promises untold advantages over the present system. Politically Dr. Smith is a reformer, and is now identified with the Union Labor party. Since 1878 he has stood firm with the old Greenback vanguard, and yet hopes to see his country blessed by the adoption of their principles. To him Newton County in a measure owes her redemption from the saloon, he having, with others in the local option fight of 1887, obtained a grand victory over the saloon element in the town of Neosho, and afterward in the county. Some years since, to meet a growing spirit of scepticism, Dr. Smith prepared and delivered at several points in Southwest Missouri a series of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, which were said to be very satisfactory to his friends and the public generally. He has been a member of the Christian Church from his youth, and to-day is an enthusiastic devotee of the substantial philosophy as taught by Dr. Hall, of New York. Dr. Smith was married in Barry County, in 1861, to Frances R. Keet, a daughter of Josiah T. Keet, a native of the Isle of Wight, England, and now a merchant of Springfield. Mo. They have four children: Ernest V. (a lieutenant in the United States Army, and a graduate of West Point, stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and married to Miss Cora Young, of Troy, N. Y.), Grace K., Lottie E. and Clara E.

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This family biography is one of 220 biographies included in The History of Newton County, Missouri published in 1888.  For the complete description, click here: Newton County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

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