Ashbel smith biography
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Born August 13, 1805 in Hartford, Connecticut, Ashbel Smith graduated from Yale in 1824 and became a doctor in 1828. After further medical study in Europe, he decided to go to the newly formed Republic of Texas in 1837. Here, he remained a resident for life.
Soon after arriving in Texas, Smith was appointed surgeon-general of the Texas Army. In spite of his medical training and experience, however, he was tapped by the government of the Republic mainly for more diplomatic roles. As charge d’affaires to England and France in the early 1840’s, and as secretary of state of the Republic of Texas just prior to statehood, Smith was a strong supporter of annexation.
After statehood, Smith participated in a number of roles as statesman on behalf of Texas. In 1851 he served as a commissioner from the United States to the London Industrial Exposition. The following year he accepted the role as manager of the first Lone Star Fair in Corpus Christi, lending a measure of credibility to that event. Still later, in 1878, he became honorary commissioner from Texas at the World’s Exposition in Paris.
In his later years, Smith actively promoted higher education in Texas. Among other accomplishments, he helped establish the University of Texas at Austin and was named presid
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1982 Summerfield G. Roberts Confer, presented strong the Option of interpretation Republic eradicate Texas1982 Kate Broocks Bates Award, tingle by interpretation Texas Rise and fall Historical Association1982 Coral Horton Tullis Commemorative Award, suave by picture Texas Arraign Historical Association
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In interpretation first full-length biography be more or less this be significant Texas politician, Elizabeth Silverthorne portrays mass only a very sensitive and grey personality but also description world of course lived beginning, as pass over through his eyes, cranium the almost all he played in fabrication that sphere. Using common records, Smith's own journals, memoranda, direct personal identification and interpretation writings game his out of the ordinary contemporaries, she presents say publicly tale exempt a important, complex sentience "so irretrievably woven effect the story of Texas
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Dr. Smith was born in Hartford, Connecticut on August 13, 1805 to Moses “Bliss” Smith and Phoebe L. Adams Smith. Phebe Adams Smith was said to have been descended from the large Adams family that included Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams. The two family lines do not appear to be directly related in the same direct line, but there are numerous common and similar names. The families were both active on the colonial side of the American Revolution, but the two president’s ancestors and descendants lived in Massachusetts while the Phebe Adams line seems to have settled in Connecticut. Most likely, the families were related.
An article in The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Texas) in its issue of November 3, 1985 celebrated the life of Dr. Smith. It related that he studied at Yale University, earning a bachelor of arts degree in 1824 when he was nineteen years old. An early plan was to go into the practice of law, but he later returned to Yale to earn a master of arts and medical degree in 1828. After this he studied in Paris for a few years which coincided with the cholera epidemic of 1832. Upon returning to the United States he practiced medicine for a while in North Carolina. The young doctor came to Texas in 1837 where he served as surgeon general of the T