Person:Eugene Smith (3)

(By B. D. Painter)

  Ray was born on a farm near Havensville and as a young man worked for a clothier in Holton, KS.  He met and married Alice Musgrave at her parent's farm home.  They settled on an 80 acre farm on the Clear Fork near her parent's. Here were born their first six children.  Their family was a healthy, happy, close-knit clan of good moral Christian fiber, devoted to family life and to the Methodist Church.
  As the children approached school age, they needed better school facilities. (The schools there were Catholic)  Ray had a chance to trade his 80 acres in Marshall County for 320 acres in western Kansas, near Menlo and made the move.
  It proved to be the first, and one of the most devastating frustrations of his life.  For he made his move at the beginning of a protracted period of drouth in western Kansas, which ended in a dust bowl area.  It completely wiped out Ray's equity in his land.  His livestock died of foot and mouth disease.  He lost two of his infant children.  He moved to Topeka, with his family without a penny in 1911 to begin a new life all over again.
  Ray was a good mechanic and excellent with carpenter and plumbing tools.  He worked for the Topeka Street Railway as conductor, in the Santa Fe Shops as a machinist, then came an opportunity for him to serve as caretaker and custodian of the Washburn College Golf Club. His children were all married and gone from home, and the work kept him outdoors which he loved, and he prospered quite well.  This was perhaps the most comfortably happy period of his life with Alice.  They worked and shared a fruitful life together.  It appeared they would share a comfortable retirement together.  But not so, he suffered the saddest frustrations.  Alice died suddenly of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.  Ray sorrowfully accepted her death as the will of God and he lived along for 25 years following her death.
  Ray lived well, and quite happily, close to Central Park, where he whiled away many pleasant hours in the club house with good friends.
  He made several vacation trips, traveling by air, visiting various relatives.
  A broken hip and shoulder suffered in a fall ended his independence. He moved into the Methodist Home.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Obituary for Eugene R Smith, in Topeka Daily Capital (Topeka, Kansas)
   6 Jan 1966.

   EUGENE R. SMITH 93, DIES AT HOME
   
   Eugene R. Smith, 93, a Topekan 53 years, died Wednesday afternoon at the Methodist Home, 1135 College, where he had lived the last 3 years.
   
   He was born May 9, 1872 near Havensville and had lived in Topeka since 1912.
   
   Mr. Smith was employed by Santa Fe Railway until 1921, and in later years was manager of the Washburn Municipal Golf Club. He retired in 1943.
   
   He was a member of First Methodist Church and Modern Woodman of America.
   
   His wife Mary Alice Smith died in 1941.
   
   Survivors include four daughters Mrs. Virginia Painter, 1503 Washburn, Miss Velma Smith, Town House Apartments, Mrs. Vina Nelson, Littleton, Colorado, and Mrs. Veronica Claunch, Mission, Kan.; two sons, Harold, 1901 Polk and Herbert Smith, 2027 Lane, 15 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and one great great grandchild.
   
   Services will be announced by Davidson-Eslinger-Duff Home.

2.   Service Announcement for Eugene R Smith, in Topeka Daily Capital (Topeka, Kansas)
   7 Jan 1966.

   Smith Services
   Services for Eugene R. Smith 93, 1135 College, will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Mulvane Chapel of the Methodist Home with burial in Memorial park Cemetery. He died Wednesday at the Home where he had lived the past three years.

3.   Obituary - date and paper unknown, probably Topeka paper.

   Eugene R. Smith
   
   Services for Eugene R. Smith, 93 of 1135 College will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in Mulvane Chapel at the Methodist Home with burial in Memorial Park Cemetery. He will lie in state at the Davidson-Eslinger-Duff Funeral Home after 7 p.m. Thursday. He died Wednesday afternoon at the Methodist Home, where he had lived the past three years.
   
   He was born May 9, 1872 near Havensville and was a resident of Topeka since 1912.
   
   Mr. Smith was employed by the Santa Fe Railway until 1921 and later was manager of the Washburn Municipal Golf Club. He retired in 1943.
   
   He was a member of the First Methodist Church and Modern Woodmen of America.
   
   His wife, Mrs. Mary Alice Smith, died in 1941.
   
   Survivors include two sons, Harold Smith 1901 N. Polk, and Herbert Smith 1027 Lane; four daughters, Mrs. Virginia Painter, 1503 Washburn, Miss Velma R. Smith, Town House Apartments, Mrs. Vina Nelson, Llittleton, Colo., and Mrs. Veronica Claunch of MIssion, Kans. 15 grandchildren; 24 great grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.
   
   Person attending the service are asked to use the southeast entrance of the Methodist Home.

4. ↑ Sheridan, Kansas, United States. 1910 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration Publication T624)
   FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M2ZC-MBJ : accessed 14 October 2017), Eugene R Smith, Solomon, Sheridan, Kansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 185, sheet 8A, family 78, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 454; FHL microfilm 1,374,467. .