Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/482

 surgeon of the Board of Enrollment for the Sixth Congressional District and served through the draft of 1864, being stationed at Fort Dodge. He served as mayor of Sioux City, was one of the incorporators of the First National Bank, also of the Sioux City & St. Paul and other railroad companies. In 1878 he was appointed by Governor Gear one of the Commissioners to the Paris Exposition. He was a member of the Cobden Club of England and deeply interested in tariff reform. Dr. Smith was one of the founders of the First Unitarian Church of Sioux City and an active member of the Iowa and Western Conferences of that denomination. In politics he was an independent Republican of the George William Curtis stamp and always acted up to his convictions of right, regardless of party platforms. He served for thirteen years as Receiver of the United States Land Office at Sioux City and as such had the custody of millions of dollars of the public money during the sales of public lands.  ROBERT SMYTH, one of the pioneers of Linn County, was born in Ireland, February 26, 1814. He came to America in 1834 and located in Linn County, Iowa, in 1840. Here he became an extensive dealer in real estate and afterwards engaged in banking. He was a member of the Sixth Territorial Legislature in 1843-4 and of the State Legislature in 1846-8. Mr. Smyth was again a member in 1868, serving four years in the Senate. In 1884 he served in the House of the Twentieth General Assembly forty years after he first became an Iowa lawmaker. Colonel Smyth was one of the paymasters of the United States army for several years, disbursing more than $10,000,000 during his term. He died at Mount Vernon April 3, 1898.  WILLIAM SMYTH was born in Tyrone County, Ireland, January 3, 1824. He came with his parents to America when about fifteen years of age and in 1840 located in Linn County, Iowa. Mr. Smyth studied law at Iowa City and in 1848 opened a law office in Marion. In 1853 he was appointed judge of the Fourth Judicial District, serving until 1857. In 1858 he was chosen by the Seventh General Assembly one of three commissioners to revise and codify the laws of the State. Their work was accepted by the Legislature and became the Code of 1860. Judge Smyth was then appointed on the Commission of Legal Inquiry. In 1861 he was one of the commissioners appointed to negotiate the bonds issued by the State to provide a war defense fund. In August, 1862, he was commissioned colonel of the Thirty-first Iowa Infantry and served in the field until December, 1864, when he resigned on account of failing health. In 1868 he was elected to Congress and served until his death in 1870.  FRANCIS SPRINGER was born in the State of Maine, April 15, 1811. He worked on a farm in boyhood and attended district school 