Samuel Francis Smith was born at Waterville, Massachusetts, on the 5th of September, 1836, and was the son of the Rev. Samuel Francis Smith, D. D., a distinguished Baptist clergyman of Newton, Massachusetts, and Mary (White) Smith.  On both sides he was descended from Puritan ancestry who settled in Massachusetts early in the seventh century, from whom have sprung some of the noblest names that adorn the annals of their country.  His father was the author of the national hymn of the republic. "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," an ode which has found a merited response in every Christian heart not only in this "sweet land of liberty," but throughout the globe, which has been rendered in the dialect of almost every civilized country in the world and which is sung as frequently in the Alpine valleys and on the slopes of the Himalayas as in the fair land which gave birth to its veneratd author.  To be the author of that hymn is glory enough for one man and one life-time.  Samuel F. Smith spent one year at Harvard College, but on account of ill health, at the age of nineteen, he started for the west, spending a few months in Chicago and afterward settling in Davenport.  Here he entered the law office of James Grant and in 1858 was admitted to the bar.  Two years later he became a partner of his preceptor, Judge Grant.  He died in 1909. Debbie Clough G-erischer G-erischer Family Web Site http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/ Assistant CC, Iowa Gen Web, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ List Manager for: IASCOTT-L * G-erischer-L * D-encker-L Fitzpatirck-L * V-lerebome-L * Huntington-L * Otis-L * Algar-L EIGS-L * Pickens-L * McNab-L * Patris-L - Rankin-L