Bio: Smith, Theophilus, M. D. (1817 - 1904)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Smith, Postlethwaite, Millard, Crown, Bump

----Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

Smith, Theophilus, M. D. (1817 - 27 February 1904)

Theophilus Smith, M. D., deceased, for many years stood at the head of the medical profession at Wausau. He was a man of scholarly attainments and of strong personality and for forty years exerted a beneficial influence in all matters pertaining to public affairs in this city. He was born in 1817, at Clarksburg, now West Virginia, a son of Jesse and Jane Smith, and in his boyhood was reared under the old regime of slavery.

Dr. Smith accompanied his parents in his youth to Jefferson County, Pa., and after preparing for a medical career entered Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where he secured his degree, and in 1862 he came to Wausau. Here he engaged in medical practice almost continuously until his death, February 27, 1904. A Republican in politics he was ever interested in public matters along the lines that his own good judgment dictated. He served as postmaster of Wausau for a short period preceding his death.

Dr. Smith was married first in Pennsylvania to Miss Emily Postlethwaite, who died in that state, the mother of five children. In 1867, at Wausau, Dr. Smith was married to Mrs. Harriet (Crown) Millard. She was born in Vermont, December 16, 1832, a daughter of Alanson and Amity Crown. She was fifteen years old when she came to Green Lake, Wis., and from there, in 1851, to Wausau, and in the following year was married to Burton Millard, who was a millwright by trade and a young man of sterling character. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted for service, entering Co. G., 5th Wis. Vol. Inf., and was the first victim of the war from Marathon County, falling at Yorktown, April 30, 1862. He was survived by his four children: Harriet; Albert, who is a resident of Milwaukee; Arthur, who is a printer, lives at Galveston, Tex.; and Paul, who is assistant postmaster of Antigo, Wis. To Dr. and Mrs. Smith three children were born: Laura, who is the wife of F. E. Bump; Mary, who is the wife of Dr. Joseph F. Smith; and Charles, who is a resident of San Jose, Cal. Mrs. Smith continues to reside in the same residence which Mr. Millard erected in 1861, on Third street, which, after her marriage to Dr. Smith, was moved by contractors straight through the lot so that it now fronts on Fourth street. Mrs. Smith has considerable other city property, some of it being in the very heart of Wausau.