English: Postal Date: May 30, circa 1857-1861, Valparaiso, Indiana

Scott Catalog Number of Postage Stamp: 26 Collection: Steven R. Shook

SENDER: Unknown

RECIPIENT: Dudley C. Smith, Esq. Shelbyville Illinois.

The following biography of Colonel Dudley C. Smith was published in 1881 in Combined History of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois [p. 161]:

COL. DUDLEY C. SMITH. THE subject of the following sketch, is a native of Shelbyville, Shelby county, Illinois. He was born December 9th, 1833. His father, Addison Smith, was a native of Bethel, Vermont. He was born in 1784, and was a lawyer by profession, of liberal education, and a graduate of Burlington University, Vermont. While yet a young man he went west, and stopped at Dayton, Ohio, where he published a newspaper during the last years of the war of 1812. He removed from there to Bloomington, Indiana, where he practiced his profession and held a number of local offices. In 1832 he came to Illinois, and settled in Shelbyville, and engaged in teaching school and subsequently farming and teaching. Here he remained until his death, which occurred in January, 1846. He married Miss Nancy F. Hicks, of Hopkinsville, Ky, in 1819, while a resident of Bloomington, Indiana. She died in Shelbyville in 1855. By this marriage there were ten children, six of whom are living. Dudley C. Smith remained at home beneath the parental roof, attending the public schools, until his eighteenth year, when he entered Jubilee College in Peoria county, Illinois, where he remained one year. On the death of J. A. Dexter, his brother-in-law, he was called home from school, and went into the stor e of Dexter & Roundy as clerk. One year later he entered into co-partnership in the firm of J. Roundy & Co. He remained in active business until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted in the first call for three-months volunteers. On the 25th of Ma y, 1861, before the expiration of his term of service, he re-enlisted for three years in Co. "B" of the 14th Regiment Ill., Vols. On the organization of the company he was elected First Lieutenant. Four months later, while the regiment was at Jefferson City, Missouri, he was elected captain of Co. B., Captain Hall being promoted. Captain Smith participated with his command, in all the battles and skirmishes in which it was engaged, until the battle of Pittsburg Landing, when he was severely wounded in the thigh. He was brought to St Louis, and soon after to Shelbyville, and remained at home for three months and then returned to his regiment; rejoining it near Holly Springs, remaining with the regiment until March, 1863, when his partner, Mr. Lufkin, died. He returned home on a twenty days furlough and made arrangements, as he supposed, to have his business continued in his absence. He returned to his command, but his arrangements at home miscarrying, he resigned in July following and returned, took charge of his business and remained here, until the spring of l864, when he was solicited to take the command of a regiment of men, recruited for the one hundred days service, then rendezvousing at Mattoon, Illinois. He accepted the position, and his regiment w as ordered to Memphis, where they did duty for some time, and from there ordered to Helena, Arkansas. From here, at the expiration of the term of service, the regiment returned to Mattoon, and was mustered out in October, 1864. He returned to Shelbyville, re-engaged in business, and continued until 1867, when he took a trip to California and spent six months on the Pacific coast. In the spring of 1869, he went to Europe and spent some time. In 1871 he removed to Bloomington, Illinois, and from there to Normal, Illinois, where he still continues to reside. Politically, Colonel Smith is a Republican. His first Presidential vote was cast for the Whig candidate, in 1856, but in all subsequent elections he has voted the Republican ticket.

Copyright 2018. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.