DR. PETER B. SMITH

 

     Dr. Peter B. Smith, a prominent practicing physician and surgeon of Cedar Springs, was born within five miles of the spring in 1844, and is the son of Rev. Obediah and Lucinda (Hartman) Smith, natives of Kentucky and North Carolina, respectively; but early settlers of Howard County, Mo., whither they had emigrated with their parents.  They were married in that county about 1832, and came to what is now Cedar County, then Rives County, shortly afterward, being among the first white families in the county.  Here they made a home in the wilderness, which at that day abounded in Indians and wild animals.  Mr. Smith began his theological studies soon after his first marriage, and was an able Baptist minister nearly all his life; he was a large land-owner and one of the county’s wealthiest citizens.  He was an officer in the Black Hawk War with Gens. Claiborne and Jackson, was also a prominent man officially, having represented Cedar Count in the Legislature of 1862, and soon after his return from the session of 1862-63 he was called from his house by a company of armed men calling themselves Quantrell’s men, and was shot and killed in his own yard while standing by the side of his wife.  His father, Andrew Smith, was one of the first settlers of Kentucky, and also one of the early settlers of Howard County, Mo., where he passed the latter part of his life.  He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was with Gen. Jackson at New Orleans.  He was of Irish-German extraction.  Obediah Smith’s first wife was a sister of his second, who became the mother of our subject.  She died when he was but a little boy, and Mr. Smith afterward married again.  Dr. Peter B. Smith was the third of six children born to his father’s second marriage, and, with the exception of the time between 1877 and 1880, he has spent all his life in Cedar County.  He her received his education, and in 1861 joined Company D, Eighth Missouri State Militia, and served thirteen months in Southern Missouri and Arkansas.  He was in the battle of Springfield, etc., was discharged on account of disability, but soon after enlisted in the Enrolled Missouri Militia, and served until the close of the war.  His father and five sons lost their lives in defense of the Union.  Dr. Peter B. Smith was married in 1866 to Miss Mary E., daughter of John and Martha Eslinger, natives of Indiana and Kentucky, respectively, but early settlers of Cedar County, where Mr. Eslinger died before the war.  Mrs. Eslinger is still living.  Mrs. Smith was born in Cedar County, Mo., and, by her marriage to Dr. Smith, became the mother of nine children, three sons and four daughters now living.  Dr. Smith farmed for a number of years, and in 1870 began his ministerial studies, was ordained in 1871, and has preached more or less since.  He is a deep reasoner, a fluent speaker and a number of his sermons have been published in various State papers, and have found a wide circulation. June 8, 1882, he graduated from the American Medical College, of St. Louis, after a two years’ course, and since then he has become on of the leading practitioners of Cedar County.  He is a member of the State Medical Society.  He has a farm of 160 acres in Box Township, and has a good home in Cedar Springs.  Though reared a Democrat, he is now a Republican, and his first presidential vote was cast for Lincoln in 1864.  He is an active worker for his party, and made a thorough canvass of the county in 1888.  June 5, 1889, he was appointed examining surgeon in the Pension Department with office at El Dorado Springs.  He is a member of the Farmers’ Alliance, and is surgeon of Col. Leonard Post of the G. A. R.  Of the large family born to his parents, he is the only one now living.  For eight years the Doctor was in the drug business, four years of the time in Texas, of the firm of Perry & Smith; was afterward in business at Lebeck and Cedar Springs.  Mrs. Smith has been a member of the Baptist Church since 1867, and is an active worker in the same.

From the History of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade and Barton Counties, Missouri, 1889, p. 779-780

 

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