Eldridge Smith

Regions: Jefferson and Lewis Co., NY; Otsego Co., NY; DodgeCo., WI

From Memorial and Genealogical Record of Dodge and Jefferson Counties, Wisconsin, Publ. 1894 - Page 289-291 ELDRIDGE SMITH. To be a successful tiller of the soil, one must possess good judgment, energy, push and enterprise, and all these qualities are combined in Eldridge SMITH who owns a fine farm of 230 acres in Burnett Township, Dodge County, Wis. He was born in Watertown, Jefferson County, N.Y., April 5, 1816, son of Trumbull SMITH who was one of triplets, who had the honor of being named by Gen. George Washington; George, Greene and Trumbull, the two last after two of his trusted generals. Trumbull SMITH was born in Connecticut and came of English stock. He grew up in the State of his birth and when a young man removed to Lewis County, N.Y., at which time that section was a wilderness, and there cleared and opened up a farm with the assistance of his sons. He was married there to Miss Betsey LYMAN, a daughter of Ezekiel LYMAN, who was a soldier of the Revolution under Gen. Washington. Trumbull SMITH reared his family in Lewis County, but afterward moved to Oneida County, where he resided a few years and then returned to Lewis County, and in the vicinity of the old home his four oldest sons bought and established him in a comfortable home where he lived the rest of his days. His wife survived him several years. To them six sons and four daughters were given of whom two sons and three daughters survive, but at the family reunion held at the old homestead in 1885, five sons and four daughters were present. Royal A. was a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War and now resides at the Soldiers' Home in Milwaukee, Wis. Eldridge SMITH remained with his parents in Lewis County until he was seventeen years of age, and received only common-school advantages and has mainly educated himself since coming to mature years. In his youth he was sick with the measles for some time, which left his eyes quite weak and interfered with his studies, but he is now, and with reason, considered one of the well-informed men of the county. He was united in marriage in Oneida County, January 1, 1838, to Miss Levina COOPER, who was born and reared in that county, and for four years thereafter he was engaged in tilling the soil there. In 1842 he came to Dodge County, Wis., and pre-empted a 160 acre tract of land near Beaver Dam and built thereon a log house, with the assistance of kind and thoughtful neighbors, in one day. While preparing his home he and his wife were entertained by Mr. GOOCHE. He and his worthy wife passed through many hardships and during the summer of 1843 for about eight months he, his wife and child were all sick at once. After recovering, he sold his claim and bought 160 acres of the land where he now lives, about three acres of which had been broke, a log house erected and a well built. He and his faithful wife labored early and late to improve their place, and about ten years after locating on the land they erected a large and substantial residence and a good barn, the former of which he now uses as a tenant's house, and in its place has built a fine, modern residence in which he now lives. He has, from time to time, increased his acreage and now has an excellent and valuable farm four miles from Beaver Dam and one mile from Rolling Prairie. He was called upon to mourn the death of the wife of his youth in 1853, she leaving him with three children: Newton S., who was a soldier in the Twenty-ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and died of fever while in the service in 1863, twenty-five miles below Vicksburg; Albert E. is married and is farming in Kansas; and Lyman L. B. was a jeweler of that State also, and died there, leaving a widow and one son. In 1854 Mr. SMITH married again, in Dodge County, Miss Susan LUKINS, a native of Pennsylvania, becoming his wife, and the following children have been born to them; Mabel B. who died in 1886 the wife of Harvey HYLAND; George W. is a farmer of Burnett Township; and Charles Henry, who is railroad agent and operator at Rolling Prairie, is married and has two daughters. George W. has two sons. Mr. SMITH has always taken an active interest in politics, and though formerly a Jacksonian Democrat, has supported the Republican party ever since its organization, and cast his first presidential vote for A. Lincoln. He has ever been a friend of education, has been a member of his district school board and has long been a worthy member of the Beaver Dam Methodist Episcopal Church. January 17, 1894, he was again left a widower, and his wife now reposes in Oakwood Cemetery with other members of his family. Socially he is a member of the I.O.O.F., with which he has been connected for about twenty years. During the many years that he has resided in this county his career has been strictly honorable and upright, for he has been tried and not found wanting. He has many friends and deserves them. Submitted by Carol