Lorenzo Dow Smith

Submitted by Phyllis Dorothy Purdy

Published in the Adams County Times 27

Lorenzo Dow Smith, the oldest man in this section of Wisconsin and a resident of Adams county for more than 70 years, died Friday, January 28, five days after he had attained to the age of 101 years. While Mr Smith had been in poor health for several weeks and it was anticipated that he would probably not see another anniversary of his birth, his death seemed sudden and unexpected to those who had been with him up to the time it took place. He had appeared to be in about the same state of health for several days and had conversed intelligently with his visitors up to the day preceding his headth, so that they were quite unprepared to learn that he had passed away.

If all the facts of "Grandpa Smith's" life and the things he has witnessed could be written down we should have greater knowledge of the history of Adams county than has ever been put in print. When he came here in 1855 there were only a few scattered white families in this section and Adams county had not yet been organized. The area that it contains was part of Juneau county, and continued so to be for several years thereafter. He located on section 21, township 16, range 5 in the town of Quincy and most of his years since then have been passed on the land then taken up or in its near neighborhood. In the earlier years of his residence here there was a little incentive to raise farm crops for the market and most of what they planted and cultivated was for their own home. Their chief source of cash income was in lumbering which was an industry of immense importance for 25 or 30 years following the first settlement of this section.

Mr Smith, like most of the erly settlers entered the employ of one of the big lumber companies, going into the logging camps for the winter to chop wood, going down the river in the spring, with the rafts of logs or sawed lumber, and then putting in the summer on his home place, clearing and improving it and raising the food supplies that should carry the family through the following winter. On some of the rafting trips down the river he went as far south as Memphis, Tennessee, while many of them took him as far as St Louis, Missouri.

Mr Smith was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, January 23, 1827 and grew to manhood in that state. The name given him "Lorenzo Dow" is that of a famous Methodist preacher of Ohio's pioneer days and suggests that Mr Smith's parents were devout adherents of that faith. Lorenzo grew to manhood in the buckeye state and married there. His wife's maiden name was Eliza Fisher, but the precise date of the marriage was not known to our informant. Four children had been born to them before they moved west to settle in the wooded wilderness of Central Wisconsin in 1855.

Among those then resident in the area now included in Adams couny were "Buck" Kingsbury, Stillman Niles, S F Berry, Leonard Greenwood and Miles Avery. The last named is said to have been a full cousin of John D Rockafeller and from time to time members of the Rockafeller family came to visit him.

In course of time settlement increased and quite a village grew up on the east bank of the Wisconsin river to which the name Quincy was given. There being no bridge at that point nor for many miles north and south of it, a ferry was a necessity, and for several years L D Smith operated teh ferry at Quincy, making communication possible between those on the east and west sides of the river. The ferry landing on the west side of the river was at what is known as "Table Rock."

Nine children is all were born to Mr and Mrs Smith. One of these died in infancy. Two daughters, Mrs A P Coty and Mrs William Fiegel died in mature life and the mother also passed to the great beyond years ago. Six children survive, their names and residences being as follows:

Dalbert Delos Smith, William H Smith, Mrs George Atchey, and Mrs Dan Morley, all of the town of Quincy; Mrs J W Vaughn of Medina, Wis, Mrs W C Foss of Kilbourn. There are 31 living grandchildren, 59 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild, making a total of 91 persons directly descended from this old patriarch of Quincy.

The funeral was held Sunday afternoon at the home of D D Smith, the son with whom he has lived in the declining years of life and he was laid to rest in the cemetery by the side of the faithful wife who preceded him years before.