Pages 139-140
DR. R. L. SMITH, an early settler of DeWitt County, Texas, was born in Rankin County, Mississippi, on the 8th of January, 1833, and of the family of seven children born to his parents, Merrill J. and Susan (Lusk) Smith, he was the third in order of birth. The father and mother were natives of South Carolina, but at an early day moved to Mississippi, and from there to Texas in1847, settling in DeWitt County. There the father followed farming until 1859, when he came to Lavaca County, and died near Hallettsville the following year. He was a prominent man in political affairs, but no officeholder. The mother died in Luling in 1879. Both were earnest and steadfast members of the Baptist Church. The last words spoken by the father when on his death bed were, "It is nothing to die when one is prepared." Our subject was reared in the Lone State State, and educated at Milton College, Mississippi. He began the study of medicine in De Witt County, Texas, in 1855, under Dr. Hodge, and attended his first course of lectures in New Orleans. Later he was in the Texas Medical College and Hospital at Galveston, from which institution he graduated in 1874. In 1861 he enlisted in Company A, Eighth Texas Infantry, as private, and was in the barracks at Hearnsted, where he was made post surgeon and soon after surge of the regiment. He was in service eighteen months, and then resigned, on account of ill health, at Little Rock, Arkansas. Returning home he was made examining surgeon of the district, and served in that capacity, with office at Hallettsville, until the close of the war. In 1865 he went to Comal County, and engaged in the sheep business for one year, after which he resumed practice in Caldwell County, and remained there fourteen years. He then bought out Caldwell's Mineral Springs, near Luling, and was proprietor of that establishment for three years. From .there he came to Lavaca County, practiced his profession for three years, and then went to Albany, Shackelford County, where he engaged in the sheep business, but also carried on his practice for three years. Coming back to Lavaca County, he settled on the present site of Shiner, and has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession. He was made Postmaster there in 1893. The doctor was married in 1657 to Miss Theressa Smith, a native of Iowa, and daughter of Paris Smith, who came from Virginia to Texas in 1840. Dr. and Mrs. Smith's union was blessed by the birth of eight children: Guy M., residing at Clinton, this State; Ida T., wife of T. A. Logan, of San Antonio; R. C., a physician of Clifton, Bosque County; Carrie, wife of Stuart Johnson, of Eastland County; Paris, Druggist, of Comanche County; French, Assistant Postmaster at Shiner; Emmit, editor of the Bosque County Banner, and Virgie. Dr. Smith is a Mason, and a Knight of Honor. He is a pleasant, social, genial gentleman, and one who has many friends.