Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1087

NAME SMITH 1065 SMITH Smith, Ashbel (1805-1886) Ashbel Smith was born in Hartford, Con- necticut, August 13, 1805, the eldest child of Moses and Phebe Adams Smith. His ances- tors had lived in Hartford since 1642; both grandfathers were officers in the Revolution- ary War. Ashbel graduated at Yale in 1824 and after graduation taught a private school in North Carolina, and vi-hile there spent a year in the study of law, but on account of poor health abandoned that profession for medi- cine. He supplemented his studies by tak- ing the degree of M. D. at Yale in 1828 and by a visit to the hospitals of Paris in 1831- 32. Returning to North Carolina he prac- tised medicine there until 1836, when he went to Texas, just erected by the American set- tlers into a republic. He tendered his serv- ices to Gen. Houston, and received the ap- pointment of surgeon-general of the army, though too late for operations in the field. Subsequently he practised his profession in Galveston. Gen. Houston was re-elected to the presidency of the republic in 1841, and he at once commissioned Dr. Smith as min- ister to the courts of England and France. He accepted, and while residing in Paris and in London performed special missions to vari- ous other continental courts. In anticipa- tion of a change in the administration, he was recalled late in 1844, and was appointed in 1845 Secretary of State under the new President. Anson Jones. In this ofifice he continued until annexation to the United States had become a certainty, when he re- turned to Europe to close the relations of the Republic with the various courts. He visited Europe a third time, as a private citi- zen, a few years later. Meantime' he estab- lished his residence on Evergreen plantation, in Harris County, at the head of Galveston Bay; but he relinq;:ished very early the prac- tice of his profession, and devoted himself to agriculture and to public interests, being many times a member of the state legisla- ture. In 1848 Dr. Smith delivered the annual oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Yale, acting as a substitute for Mr. Web- ster. On the outbreak of the civil war he entered the Confederate Army, in which he attained the rank of colonel, serving with gallantry to the close of the contest. During his later years he was much engaged in the establish- ment of the State University and was active to the last as the president of the Board of Regents. Having been for nearly fifty years a prominent character in Texas life, and respected as a public benefactor, he died at his home in Harris County, January 21, 1886, in his eighty-first year. He was never mar- ried. He wrote an "Account of the Yellow Fever in Galveston, in 1839" ; "Account of the Geog- raphy of Texas" (1851), and "Permanent Identity of the Human Race" (1860); "Reminiscences of the Texas Republic with a preliminary notice of the Historical Society of Galveston," 82 p., 1876. Yale Obituary Record. Information from Elizabeth H. Hunt through Dr. G. Alder Blumer. Appleton's Cyclop. Amer. Biog., N. Y., 1888. Smith, David Paige (1830-1880) David Paige Smith, born at Westfield, Massachusetts, October 1, 1830, was a son of Dr. James Morven Smith, and a grand- son of Dr. Nathan Smith (q. v.), pioneer sur- geon and founder of Dartmouth, Bowdoin and Yale Medical Schools. David attended Willis- ton Seminary, the Mount Pleasant Institute at Amherst, and entered Yale College at six- teen. He was graduated in 1851, and from Jefiferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1853. He married Eunice S. Brewer, Sep- tember 28, 1854, and settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, the following year. He went to Europe in 1860 for study and observa- tion ; spent six profitable months in Edin- burgh, under the instruction of James Lyme and Sir James Simpson, and some time in London and Paris. He came home at the opening of the Rebellion to volunteer for medical service, served the war out and then returned to his Springfield practice. Such is the bare outline to a life of grow- ing power and brilliant usefulness. Back of it lay a clear purpose, an intense nature, un- flagging industry, and the born knack which rose to intuition. The boy was studious, shy, purposeful; the man early gained con- fidence in his own powers and developed that masterful spirit which made him a leader, unsparing of himself, impatient always of stupidity, with the quickness and courage for every emergency of his profession. Dr. Smith rose rapidly in the army. He entered as surgeon of the 18th Massachusetts infantry and was speedily made medical director of Gen. George H. Thomas's column; after the Peninsular campaign he was transferred to become surgeon in charge of the Fairfax Seminary Hospital, about two miles from Alexandria, Virginia. Here the young doc- tor was in his element; his quick percep- tions, remarkable facility in surgery, an abil-