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 Texas Army for the next two years and established his residence at Evergreen, an area on the east side of Tabbs Bay, in the area that became Baytown.
During his tenure as surgeon general of the Texas Army, Dr. Smith’s achievements included setting up the first hospital in Houston. He was also serving during the yellow fever epidemic of 1839, he treated victims as he studied the disease. After it subsided, he is noted to have written the first treatise on yellow fever in Texas. He had an active role in helping to form the Medical and Surgical Society of Galveston in 1848 and the Texas Medical Association in 1853 and later served as its president in 1881–82.
His acquaintance with Sam Houston led to his Republic of Texas appointment as Charge d’ Affairs to Britain, France, Belgium and Spain. In this capacity he was able to establish business relationships between the young republic and Europe. In 1844 he served as Secretary of State.
Dr. Smith served as a colonel in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. In an article in same issue of The Baytown News of November 3, 1985, it relates that He recruited men from East Harris and Chambers counties. They called themselves the Bayland Guards, later redesignated as the Second Texas Infantry. The group participated in battles east of the Mississippi. Its roster included Sam Houston, Jr. and two sons of Anson Jones. Dr. Smith received a wound at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee after which he was treated and was able to recover. At the Shiloh battle, Charles Jones was killed and Sam Houston, Jr. was counted as missing in action. Smith held out hope that Sam, Jr. had survived. It later developed that a Union chaplain came upon Sam, Jr. and nursed him back to health. After serving time in a Union prison, Sam, Jr. was released and returned to his family.
During the post war years, he helped to organize the Bayland Orphans Home for children of Confederate soldiers. The facility moved several times but remained in operation for around seventy years. For about the first fifty years, it was coeducational, but for about the last twenty years, it accepted only boys. The article noted that the original location is now known as Bayland Park off Goose Creek and Highway 146 in Baytown.
The first children admitted at the Bayland Orphan Home included Anna Allen and her sister Sarah Rebecca. Their father Robert Allen of Leon County, Texas had been killed at Charlottesville, Virginia in 1862. Their mother was Mary Jane Pate Allen who died the following year. Anna suffered from an eye disease while living at the home and was treated by Dr. Smith. She later became a foster child of Dr. Smith and lived much of her life there at the plantation. Anna married George Wright (born in England) in 1881 and as a wedding gift, Dr. gave her 75 acres in what would later become the Goose Creek oil field, making her one of the wealthiest women in the county, though she is said to have always lived modestly. Sisters married brothers, and her sister Sarah Rebecca married George’s brother William James Wright. Sarah and William James had at least two children and George and Anna had at least six children.
Dr. Smith was always interested in education. He served as the first president of the Board of Regents of the University of Texas at Austin. He was also instrumental in the founding of what became the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. One of the first buildings to house the medical school still stands and named for Dr. Smith. It is known as “Old Red.” Currently it is the oldest existing medical school building west of the Mississippi. It was funded largely by a $50,000 grant from John Sealy. It is described as having a Romanesque design with two wings, four stories and was completed in October of 1890. The building was damaged in the hurricane of 1900, but survived. Gradually the building became surrounded by more modern structures, but it was retained and renovated decades later. The Ashbel Smith Building, shown below, was rededicated in 1986.
In addition to this beautiful structure, Dr. Smith’s many honors include being the namesake of the Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumnus Award of the University of Texas Medical Branch. The University of Texas system has several professorships in his name. It has since been demolished, but there was an Ashbel Smith Hall in downtown Austin, that was used in the administration of the university. An elementary school in Baytown is named for him and there is also a statue of him in Baytown.
Dr. Smith died on January 21, 1886 and he is interred in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
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