”Dr. Augustin Smith was born in Clinton county, New York. June 13, 1800. He attended lectures at the University of Vermont in 1823, in connection with his other medical studies, and was licensed to practice medicine by the Clinton County (N. Y.) Medical Society. July 14,1824. He practiced medicine in New York nine years, and in 1833 came to Ottawa, Illinois, and afterwards went to Hennepin, on the Illinois river. In 1836 he came to Lyndon, and built the first frame house in the town, being the one occupied by John Roy in 1839 as a store and dwelling.
Dr. Smith married Miss Mary A. Beckwith on the 6th day of June, 1824. The children by this marriage were: Lucy B., born February 23. 1825, and one child who died in infancy. Mrs. Smith died July 16, 1837. He afterwards married Mrs. Sarah B. Ware. Their children were: Mary Alice and Sarah Minerva, twins, born January 25, 1842; John Augustin and Jane Augusta, twins, born April 14, 1846. Of these John Augustin died September 12, 1846; Jane Augusta,. February 11, 1848; and Sarah Minerva, January 27, 1866. Lucy B. married William W. Howard, September 11, 1844. and died at Lyndon, April 17, 1847: Mary Alice married Frank Clendenin, March 14, 1866, and lives in Morrison.
The children of Mrs. Sarah B. Ware, previous to her marriage with Dr. A. Smith, were Lucy Ann, born December 10, 1829, and Joseph, born June 16, 1832. Lucy Ann was married at Lyndon to Rev. Edwin G. Smith—now Superintendent of the American Bible Society for Illinois and part of Indiana—of Dover, Illinois, by Rev. Owen Lovejoy, January 29, 1851, and died at Tremont. Illinois, November 5. 1864; one child, Edwin James, who resides at the house of his father in Morrison. Joseph married Miss Martha E. Roy. July 22. 1858, and died at Morrison, November 7, 1862; children, Fred and Joseph E.; Mr. Ware was in the practice of law at Morrison, and stood at the front rank of the profession; he was just upon the threshold of life, with a prosperous and brilliant career before him, when Death, the leveler of all, claimed him.
Dr. Smith practiced medicine at Lyndon until 1851, when he embarked in mercantile pursuits, and continued in that business for several years. He was appointed Postmaster at Lyndon in October, 1840, Hon. John M. Niles being then the Postmaster General. In 1840 he was Deputy Clerk of the County Commissioners’ Court. On the 24th of February, 1843, he was elected Justice of the Peace, and was successively re-elected until he had served for a period of eleven years. In 1860 he moved to Morrison, and engaged in the mercantile business for several years. Dr. Smith died November 3, 1871, at Morrison, of heart disease, with which he had been troubled for many years. He was a highly educated gentleman, and a deacon of the Congregational Church for years, being specially noted for his many Christian virtues.”
Source: History of Whiteside County, Illinois, by Charles Bent, Morrison, Illinois, 1877, pages 276-7
