E. O. Smith, M. D. A physician and surgeon in Kansas for twenty years, Dr. E. O. Smith had attained high rank as a surgeon and is now the active associate of his brother, F. R. Smith, in the practice of surgery at the Winfield Hospital, which the brothers own.
A resident of Kansas since 1874, Dr. E. O. Smith was born on a farm three miles from Peru, Madison County, Iowa, January 19, 1869, a son of William and Ellen (Hollingshead) Smith. His father was a native of Kentucky, but in early life went to Illinois with his parents, and was a soldier in the Civil war, fighting with Sherman’s gallant armies through the heart of the Confederacy and over the route of the march to the sea. William Smith afterwards went to Iowa, and from there brought his family to Kansas in 1874. He located in Rice County, developed one of the pioneer farms, and in time enjoyed the prosperity which Kansas soil and climate finally gave to those who most persistently cultivated its broad acres. He finally lived retired at Little River, Kansas, until his death in 1906. His wife, Ellen Hollingshead, was his second wife, and they were the parents of six children, Dr. E. O. Smith being the youngest. Other facts concerning the family history will be found in the sketch of Dr. F. R. Smith.
E. O. Smith learned his first lessons in the public schools at Lyons, Kansas, and completed the junior year in the high school. For one year he was a student in the Central Normal College at Great Bend, Kansas, and was granted a teacher’s certificate in 1890. He taught school in Rice County, studied medicine with his older brother for one summer, and finally entered the Keokuk Medical College at Keokuk, Iowa, from which he was graduated M. D. March 5, 1895. Doctor Smith had specialized in surgery, partly as a result of natural talents, by experience and by post-graduate work. He attended the Chicago Polyclinic in 1913 and 1914, and had also attended the great clinics of the Augustana Hospital of Chicago.
He started practice at Lyons the year he was graduated, but soon had to give up on account of illness and spent two months at Hot Springs, Arkansas. In the fall of 1896 he located his home and offices at Marquette, Kansas, and was a resident of that city for seventeen years. He had a large practice there, and many pleasant and profitable relations with the community. In 1913, however, he sold his practice and removed to Winfield in order to assist his brother, Dr. F. R. Smith, in handling the great volume of surgical work in the Winfield Hospital. Even their combined services have not been sufficient and they subsequently took in as a third partner Dr. C. C. Hawke, making the present firm Smith, Smith & Hawke. The Winfield Hospital had a capacity of thirty beds, and even so its facilities are constantly taxed.
Dr. E. O. Smith while living at Marquette was a member of the city council ten years. He still had interests in that city, being a stockholder in the Marquette State Bank, and owner of some valuable residence property. He is a republican in politics, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Marquette Lodge No. 353, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Anchor Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Marquette, and the Modern Woodmen of America. Professionally he is a member of the Cowley County Medical Society, the Kansas State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He owned stock in the State Bank of Winfield and is part owner with his brother of the hospital building at Tenth Avenue and Manning Street.
Doctor Smith was married August 5, 1896, at Lyons, Kansas, to Miss Amabel Dickeson, daughter of J. T. and Ann Elizabeth (McGee) Dickeson. Her mother died at Liberal, Missouri, in January, 1917, and her father is still a resident of Liberal, being station agent for the Missouri Pacific Railway Company. Doctor and Mrs. Smith have three children: Paul, born September 7, 1898, a student in the Winfield High School; Luella, born June 16, 1902, and Virginia, born March 22, 1906, both attending the grammar schools at Winfield.