Biography of Smyser Family
04/27/2021CAPTAIN Alfred N. Smyser, whose death occurred in January, 1880, was one of the old and prominent citizens of Moultrie county.
He was born in Cynthiana, Harrison county, Kentucky, on the 27th of November, 1828. The Smyser family in this country had its origin from three brothers, Matthias, Jacob, and George, who came to America in the year 1736; the name was then spelled “Schmeiscer.”
Two of these brothers settled in Erie county, Pennsylvania. From Mathias Schmeiser this branch of the family is descended. George and Matthias took part in the war of the Revolution, one of them as an officer. George Smyser, grandfather of Captain Smyser, emigrated from Pennsylvania to Kentucky at an early period.
Samuel Merritt Smyser, his father, was born in Kentucky, and married Rebecca Frazier, a native of the same State; her uncle, Captain Frazier, was a soldier in the Revolution; he commanded a company of soldiers at an engagement at Brattleboro, Vermont. It is said that the vigor and bravery he displayed attracted the attention of the British commander, who gave orders that his troops should direct their fire at his person; he fell in that engagement mortally wounded.
Samuel M. and Rebecca Smyser, in company with two or three other families, removed to Moultrie county, Illinois, reaching their destination on November 1st. Their route was through Indianapolis, then a small straggling town, made up of a few houses lining a single street. The place of their settlement was on Whitley Creek, in section 10, of township 12, range 6, then in Shelby county, now in the south part of Moultrie. Their neighbors on Whitley Creek were, at first, only four or five in number.
He received a common school education; though the schools in general were inferior, some of the teachers were men of much intelligence and education. The schools were two miles, and two and a half distant. He attended school in winter, and in summer worked on the farm; his education was improved in after years by general reading. April 15th, 1847, he married Isyphena Edwards, daughter of John Wayne Edwards and Polly Hardy; she was born in Barren county, Kentucky, on the 19th of March, 1827; the Edwards family had resided in North Carolina before making their home in Kentucky, in Hart county, where Mrs. Smyser's parents were born; her mother's brother, James G. Hardy, was lieutenant-governor of Kentucky. Mrs. Smyser's parents moved to Whitley Creek in the fall of 1830, and were about the fourth family to settle in that locality. The preceding settlers were connected with the Whitley family from whom the creek received its name.
After his marriage Captain Smyser began the arduous task of clearing up a farm; he gave his attention to farming in the summer, and in the winter taught school; he had a strong, natural taste for music, and frequently taught the singing classes held in the district school-houses in the winter season. In 1854 he had his first suit at law; his attorney was Abraham Lincoln, then a practicing lawyer on the Illinois circuits.
He gave up farming and moved to Sullivan, in September, 1857, and engaged in the mercantile business till 1860. In the general financial crash of that year he went down with many other unfortunate men who sold on credit. In November, 1861, he was elected clerk of the county court; in August, 1862, he was enlisted in the war for the preservation of the Union, and was elected captain of company C, 126th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.
During the greater part of his service he was on detached and special duty; he acted as adjutant and aid-de-camp to General Steele; he took part in the siege of Vicksburg and the capture of Little Rock; he returned home in the spring of 1864, and closed his term as county clerk, his youngest brother, Hugh F. Smyser, having had charge of the office during his absence in the army. From 1865 to 1869 he was engaged in the real estate, insurance, and loan business. In November, 1869, he was again elected county clerk.
He was a man of progressive ideas and public spirit, and largely to his efforts Moultrie county is indebted for her railroad facilities In 1868 he was instrumental in securing a charter for the Decatur, Sullivan, and Mattoon Railroad; a construction company was formed, but very little was done in furtherance of the project till 1870, when he was elected president of the company, and the work was pushed through to completion.
One of the first locomotives to reach Sullivan bore the name of Alfred N. Smyser, in honor of the first president of the company; he was also a member of the first board of directors of the Bloomington and Ohio River, afterwards the Chicago and Paducah railroad company; he assisted in organizing the Moultrie county agricultural board, and for several years was its president. From 1872 till the time of his death he was engaged in the real estate, loan, and insurance business, which, by his industry he made quite lucrative. His desire to help his fellow-man led him to go on commercial paper here and there as security until in 1877 and 1878 he was almost crushed financially by paying the debts of other people. In July, 1846, he became a member of the Christian Church, and at the time of his death was one of the most faithful and energetic workers in the organization, taking great delight especially in Sunday-school work.
He possessed by nature a good constitution, and in early life excelled in athletic exercises; his health was injured by his service in the army. After a sickness of nearly two years he died on the 20th of January, 1880; he had six children,-
William H. Smyser, now editor of the Champaign Times, and also one of the proprietors of the Sullivan Progress;
Katie E, who married John Duncan, (her death occurred on the 5th
of February, 1880, and that of her husband the previous 23d of December),
Lucretia Frances, who died at the age of two years and three months,
Mary Josephine, now Mrs. John F. Eden,
N. O. Smyser, and
Samuel Edward Smyser.
SOURCE: Combined History of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois 1763: With Biographical Sketches. Philadelphia: Brink McDonough & Co, 1881. Print.
