52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 32: David Smith (1822-1878)

David Smith -- my husband's 3rd great-grandfather


b. 13 Oct 1822 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

Parents: Unknown (So Far!)

Siblings: 5 brothers

Residence(s) & Occupation(s):
1870 (48): Deer Creek, Allen, Kansas- Teacher


Mentioned in Book:

Kansas State Library- 
History of Allen and Woodson Counties, Kansas
Edited and Comiled by L Wallace Duncan and Chas F. Scott, 1901:

Pages 500 and 501:

DAVID sMITH, whose remarkable influence as one of the early teachers of the county has been elsewhere noted, was born October 13, 1822, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, of Scottish-Irish parentage. The following year his parents removed to Stark county, Ohio, and settled upon a tract of land where the city of Massilon now stands. David, the oldest of five brothers, lived and worked upon the farm and in his father's tannery until about his eighteenth year. 

Up to this time his educational advantages were very meager. The country was new, a tribe of Indians occupied a part of the county for several years, schools were short, poor and primitive, teachers poorly qualified and books scarce. His nineteenth year he spent in the Twinsburg Academy, taught by Rev. Samuel Bissell, at that time one of the largest and most popular schools in northern Ohio. The next two years he taught school and then entered Western Reserve--now Adelbert College- then located at Hudson, now at Cleveland, Ohio. 

Here and at Jefferson College at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, he spent his time while not teaching til his graduation at Jefferson about the year 1847. He also received a diploma from Adelbert. Immediately after graduation he was called to the principal-ship at the Old Pisgait Academy, near Lexington, Kentucky. Two years after he entered the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Completing his theological course he married Miss S.E. Clarke, a teacher at Northfield, Ohio, and immediately answered to call to take charge of the academy at Winchester, Tennessee. A year later he was called to the chair of mathematics- in Burett College, Spencer, Tennessee. A few months after upon the death of the president he was chosen president of the college- about 1857. He held this position til the Civil War closed the school.

Leaving Spencer, Tennessee, in 1863, in troublesome times- times that tried northern men's souls- he settled in Olney, Illinois. Here he taught for a year, when he was called to take charge of the schools at Shawneetown, Illinois. In the year of 1866 he resigned his position at Shawneetown and accepted the call to Geneva, Kansas, and the following year settled at Carlyle, where he continued to teach until his death, Apr 10, 1878. 

Professor Smith was the old Puritan type, a stern disciplinarian, a rigid observer of the strictest religious rules- a combination of teacher and preacher whose influence was wide and lasting. His memory will be revered as long as any still live who were the beneficiaries of his training. 



He was mentioned in Amanda McClure Thrasher's obituary in 1924:

--It is common now for schools to employ a musical director, but it was not common then and the Carlyle school with Prof. David Smith as the teacher the first common school in Allen County and quite possibly the first in Kansas to employ a music teacher.--


Family:

David married Sarah L. (S.E.) Clarke (b. 1823)and they had 3 children:

1. Walter C. Smith (1852-?)
2. Louisa A. Smith (1859-bef 1870)
3. Franklin M. Smith (1861-1894)





David died 10 Apr 1878 in Carlyle, Allen, Kansas at the age of 55. 



I would love to know more about David and mainly his parents! If anyone knows any more information, please contact me :) Thanks!!!