Biography - Frank S. Smith
FRANK SEGEL SMITH, M. D. Among the able physicians of Johnson county,
Illinois, whose lives are devoted to the benevolent work of alleviating the
sufferings of humanity, none stands more prominent than Frank Segel Smith,
M. D., the pioneer physician and surgeon of the Cypress neighborhood, and a
member of an old and honored Johnson county family which has been well known
here for nearly a century. Dr. Smith was born October 24, 1866, on a farm in
West Vienna, Illinois, and is a son of Millington S. and Mary (Davis) Smith.
William Smith, the grandfather of Dr. Smith, was born in Tennessee, and
settled on a farm in Johnson county in 1820 or earlier. He reared a large
family, and two of his sons, John E. and Barney S., served in the Union army
during the Civil war. Millington S. Smith was born on the homestead farm in
Johnson county in 1827, and was first married to Miss Mary Davis, who died
in 1870, leaving four children, namely: Professor W. Y., graduate of the
Southern Illinois Normal University, and now a well-known educator of Delhi,
Ohio; Mrs. Viola Brown, who died in 1900; Millington J., now residing in
Texas; and Dr. Frank Segel. Millington S. Smith married for his second wife
Rebecca J. Ring, and to this union there were also born four children, as
follows: Charles H., a railroad engineer; Walter A., also a railroad
engineer, running out of Carbondale, Illinois; Paul, who resides in Marion,
Illinois; and Pearl, twin of Paul, who lives in Harrisburg.
Frank Segal Smith received his preliminary educational training in the
public schools in the vicinity of the home farm, later entering the Southern
Illinois State Normal University, at Carbondale, from which he was graduated
in the fall of 1884. At that time he began teaching, and continued to follow
that profession in Illinois and Missouri for eight years, in the meantime
pursuing his medical studies assiduously. In June, 1892, Dr. Smith entered
the Kentucky School of Medicine, at Louisville, Kentucky, and after
graduating therefrom with the degree of M. D. began the practice of his
profession in the country three miles northwest of Cypress. In 1899 he went
to Buncombe, Illinois, where he continued to practice until 1906, and in
that year returned to Cypress, and now has a practice covering a five-mile
radius. Possessed of a fine medical library, he is a close student,
continually reading up in his profession, and since commencing practice has
taken a number of medical journals and magazines, thus keeping thoroughly in
pace with the times, and is well posted on all new discoveries and methods
in medicine and surgery. Deeply sympathetic by nature, and possessed of the
broadest gauge of humanity, Dr. Smith has surrounded himself with many
sincere friends, by whom he is worthily esteemed and respected. He is
examiner for eight insurance companies and surgeon for the Chicago & Eastern
Illinois Railroad, and belongs to the American Railway Surgeons Association
and the Johnson County Medical Society. Fraternally he belongs to the A. F.
& A. M.; the M. W. of A., of which he has served twice as state delegate and
once as national delegate; and the Illinois .Brotherhood, of which he was a
delegate to the national convention held at Denver, Colorado, in 1911. He
comes of a deeply religious family, and is a consistent member of the
Baptist church at Cypress.
On October 10, 1889, Dr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Arrah M.
Shaddrick, daughter of Linnfield and Julia (Hawk) Shaddrick, the former of
whom still survives, while the latter passed away in 1880. Four children
have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Smith, of whom two survive: Mary Hazel, who
is seventeen years old; and Gladys Afton, fourteen years of age.
Extracted 14 Jan 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, volume 2, pages 698-699.
