Abbott "Pete" Smith, D.V.M.
June 16, 1938 - February 22, 2010
Welcome to Milliron Monday where every Monday we celebrate the legacy of Pete Smith, D.V.M., and Milliron: Abbott “Pete” Smith, D.V.M. The Biography (Monday Creek Publishing 2017). A graduate of Colorado State University and a well-known veterinarian in southeast Ohio, Dr. Smith continues to motivate and inspire.
Dr. Smith's great grandmother, Mrs. Louise Hix, was an American pioneer. Born in Nova Scotia on July 17, 1836, Mrs. Hix brings posterity to the Smith family through perseverance, diligence (she knew the value of hard work), and her love of family. The newspaper article written July 17, 1930, by an unknown journalist, says it all...
Mrs. Hix, Pioneer, Is Four Score and Fourteen Years Today
To have lived three score years and ten is nothing unusual in these days of lengthened span of life - but to add a quarter of a century to the allotted span of years is the unusual privilege given Mrs. Seymour Hix, of this city, who is celebrating her ninety-fourth birthday today.
And on this 94th birthday the panorama of almost a century is as an open book to Mrs. Hix, whose mind travels back clearly over a period of 90 years to the time when as Louise Mumford she was a little girl of four in her parents home in Nova Scotia, off the cost of Canada.
It has been the privilege of Mrs. Hix to have lived to see a network of paved highways where she can remember were Indian trails, to see the modern palatial auto speeding over roads she had traveled in a covered wagon behind a yoke of oxen, to press a button in her comfortable home on Lincoln Avenue and enjoy modern illumination in place of the flickering light of the candle dip of her earlier days or lighting of a piece of cloth extending from the "Dutch" lamp which was filled with grease and hung from the ceiling of her early log cabin home. She has seen the world brought close together through telephone and radio and lived to see ridicule and unbelief turn into credulity and faith as the realization of the dream of Darius Green and his flying machine [a poem by John T. Trowbridge] has become true.The years have been active ones for Mrs. Hix. Mother of nine children she found time when caring for her own family to lend a helping hand to her neighbors and she served as a pioneer visiting nurse in the early days when nurses were unknown. She has walked miles daily to wash and dress new babies in neighboring homes. She remembers when carpenters were building their first Story County home, of dressing and cooking twenty wild ducks one day for dinner.
When she was a little girl in Nova Scotia her mother spun and wove the material for her dresses which was of woolen cloth and could be worn the year around in that country. These dresses were pretty much the same color and Mrs. Hix remembers the joy she had in the possession of a "blue" woolen dress which was not the usual color.
Her wedding dress was made of blue delaine, costing twenty-five cents a yard, but she wore it with pride when with the husband of her choice she climbed into the seat of the one horse democrat wagon and drove to the home of the justice of the peace, who united them in marriage.
Louise Mumford was born near Windsor, Nova Scotia, July 17, 1836 and lived there until with her parents she moved to Illinois in 1843 when she was eight years of age.
On leaving for Illinois the family boarded a sailing vessel at Halifax and after a six weeks trip landed in Boston. The journey from there to Albany, New York, was by railroad train. From here they went by canal boat on the Erie canal to Buffalo, where they took a train for Chicago. From Chicago to the home, 50 miles farther west, the only means of travel was by wagon and over an uncertain trail. The Mumford family made the distance on foot.
When at last the new home was reached, the only building on the farm was an old shed. A neighbor gave them some straw on which Louise and the other children slept soundly, but the mother, afraid of rattlesnakes, sat on a bench all night. The next day they moved into a school house where the family lived. Winter snows often left their drifts on beds and floor.
Spelling and singing schools furnished entertainment during the long winter evenings. The trips to and from these places of entertainment were made with a yoke of oxen hitched to a home-made sled, or if the spelling school was held near home the Mumford's went afoot.
On Feb. 29, 1853 Louise was married to Seymour Hix at Mayville, Illinois, and three years later moved to Sycamore, where they made their home for twenty years. One of their experiences here was the purchasing of a farm during the wintertime only to find when the winter snows had melted away, the land was worthless.
In 1873 the family moved to Story County, Mr. Hix having previously visited his brother, Major E. Hix, and purchased 1 1/2 sections of prairie land. Section 16 in Sherman township became the location of the new home. Mr. Hix and the older boys driving out from Illinois and Mrs. Hix and younger children following by train. The family lived first in the barn, until the house was built. Here the family lived until the boys were grown to manhood, and living in the homes of their own. This Sherman township residence was one of the largest in that part of the country and had built into it a ballroom, which became the social center for the youth of many miles around. The Hix homestead was purchased of the government at $12 per acre. Although but less than five miles from Colo, many a time it took a double team to get through with a load, because of the sloughs across the road and the distance lengthened by the necessity of driving in a round about way to miss as many sloughs.
In 1887 Mr. and Mrs. Hix and younger children moved to Nevada where Mr. Hix passed away Oct. 8, 1908. Death also claimed the son Harry in 1911, William in 1918 and Major E., when a babe of six months.
Mrs. Hix has 23 grandchildren, 34 great grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.
In the accompanying cut are five generations, the picture being taken four years ago, while Mrs. Hix was visiting in Minnesota. In the picture is Mrs. Hix, her daughter, Mrs. Amy Mead of Story City, her granddaughter, Mrs. Cecelia Mead Schuler of Welcome, Minnesota, her great grandson, Jay Schuler of Welcome and her great great granddaughter Bernice Schuler.
Mrs. Hix is in remarkable mental health for one of her years, and in fairly good physical health. The excessive heat of the past few weeks has taken its toll of her strength, but she is up every day, enjoys the visits of her family and friends and retains her usual keen interest in all happenings of the present day.
Her hands, which for many years have been busy patching quilts, knitting or making rugs, are now less active. However, it is but a few weeks ago since she finished a piece of beautifully knitted lace and her enforced letting up is a matter of regret to her.
On this day, July 17, 1930, the many friends of Mrs. Hix, all over Story county will join with her sons and daughters and other relatives in extending her congratulations, because of having reached this milestone in a long and useful life.
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Through captivating, powerful, and emotional anecdotes, we celebrate the life of Dr. Abbott P. Smith. His biography takes the reader from smiles to laughter to empathy and tears. Dr. Smith gave us compelling lessons learned from animals; the role animals play in the human condition, the joy of loving an animal, and the awe of their spirituality. A tender and profound look into the life of a skilled veterinarian.
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