A True Journey-man: Life of a Medical Missionary
Dr. Lucius Ernest Smith: 1878-1955 (Maternal Granduncle)
Lucius Ernest Smith was a fearless traveler from a young
age. He was barely out of his teens when he crossed the Appalachian Mountains
in February of 1898, driving a six-horse team back to Kentucky from Asheville,
North Carolina. He had only one of his much younger brothers along for company,
and he was still dealing with his mother’s death from tuberculosis. After that
trip, he was up for the challenges of homesteading in the Oklahoma Territory,
working as a doctor in Puerto Rico, serving as a medical missionary in Africa, and
traveling around the United States as a church speaker.
Lucius, known to his siblings as Ernest and in his
professional life as L.E., was the third son born to Rev. Willis Smith and his
first wife, Margaret Underwood Benton. He was born in Owensboro, Kentucky on
October 6, 1878. L.E. was a hard worker from childhood, recalling in a news
article that he hauled logs in the Green River/Ohio River area of Kentucky for
several years, starting at age ten!
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| Green River area near its mouth at the Ohio River. Near where L.E. hauled logs. Still a heavily wooded area. |
L.E.’s mother died on his twentieth birthday. To add to the
trauma of his mother’s death from tuberculosis, L.E. was also diagnosed as
having tuberculosis later that year. According to his obituary, he was told he
had only a year to live. Obviously, his doctor was in error. The obituary went
on to explain that “the doctor apparently did not know…that young Smith had
come in early contact with the disease but had already overcome it without
illness.”
However, the diagnosis probably led L.E. to delay planning
for his future. He failed to follow his brothers to college, and he didn’t
marry for many years. Instead, he chose to follow his father and some siblings
to the Oklahoma Territory where his father was serving as a missionary. L.E.
attempted to homestead in Guymon, Oklahoma at age 23, but had no success,
telling a newspaper, “I guess I helped start the Dust Bowl.”
He gave up by 1907, moving back to Kentucky to help his
brother, Rev. Albert Elias Smith, rebuild the Hindman Settlement School in
Knott County, which had burned down. The school served poor rural children
living in the Kentucky mountains, and Albert became its principal.
Working with the mountain families apparently inspired L.E.
to become a doctor. He entered Kentucky State University around age thirty,
graduating in 1911 at thirty-three. He continued his travels even then. He
didn’t attend his graduation ceremony; he received his diploma while working in
the Kansas wheatfields. The photo below shows him leaving Kansas, presumably
headed for medical school.
He attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, Maryland, and spent his summers serving as the camp doctor at the
YMCA camp in Becket, Massachusetts. He received his medical degree in 1915 at
age 37. Rather than returning to Kentucky to practice medicine, he did his
residency in Puerto Rico.
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| L.E. in Puerto Rico during his medical residency. Lorene Jandy photo. |
In June 1916, he accepted a position as a medical missionary
with the Presbyterian Church, traveling to West Africa during World War I. He
was sent to the Benito Station in Spanish Guinea, a Presbyterian mission along
the Benito River in what is now Equatorial Guinea. The Benito area is now known
as Mbini.
L.E. remained at the mission until 1920, when he returned to
Kentucky to marry a woman he had been corresponding with over the years, Beulah
Lipps. They probably met in college. Before they married, she was a teacher in
Lexington. Following their marriage, they returned to the Benito mission for
another three years. Beulah developed a heart condition that forced them to
return to the United States.
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| Lucius Ernest Smith, from Lorene Jandy's photos. |
L.E. recalled his years in Africa to a Courier Journal reporter
in 1951, stating that “he had records on 77,000 persons in Africa he had
treated. He insisted that each patient do something for the services given him,
if nothing more than cut weeds, wait on another patient, or contribute a
monkey as a pet.”
His travels continued even after he returned from Africa. He
brought back a “large collection of weird African curios and beautiful
hand-colored lantern slides visualizing his strange experiences…as a medical
missionary.” He used these in talks he would present around the country on
behalf of the Presbyterian Church’s Foreign Mission department. He was a
traveling speaker for over five years.
In 1931, L.E. took a position with the State of Kentucky as
the executive secretary of the Kentucky Tuberculosis Association, holding the
position for twenty years. His own experience with the disease made him a
passionate advocate for prevention and treatment. He traveled all over the
state as part of his job. His obituary included this description of his work:
“Dr. Smith worked unceasingly for chest X-ray programs
for Kentuckians, often against early opposition from doctors who thought their
province was being invaded. He was instrumental in getting new T.B. hospitals
for Kentucky and in developing local T.B. associations.
He was known in practically every town in the state,
where over the years he lectured and showed movies on tuberculosis. Many
Kentuckians saw their first movies, before their communities had electricity,
when Dr. Smith took a portable generator into remote areas and showed T.B.
films.”
The obituary went on to note that the incidence of TB in
Kentucky dropped from 94 per 100,000 residents to 33 per 100,000 during his
tenure. His replacement as executive secretary called him “the most Christian
man I ever met.”
L.E. died of heart disease on August 30, 1955, at the age of
seventy-six. He and Beulah never had children, but he touched tens of thousands
of lives during his career and travels. He lived his faith through service to
others.
Sources:
https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/archiveComponent/16835766
Guide to the L.E. Smith Papers. Smith, L. E. (Lucius
Ernest), 1878-1955. Call No. RG 216. Inclusive Dates 1898-1959. Presbyterian
Historical Society, 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147-1516 USA. https://pcusa.org/historical-society/collections/research-tools/guides-archival-collections/rg-216
“Official of TB Group for 20 Years Retiring: Dr. L. E.
Smith’s career Rugged”. The Courier Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. April
28, 1951. https://www.newspapers.com/image/110408202/?match=1&terms=l%20e%20smith
Photo of Painting of Dr. L.E.Smith.
Courier Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. Apr. 24, 1953. https://www.newspapers.com/image/108460370/?match=1&terms=l%20e%20smith
“Dr. L.E.Smith, leader in fight to control Tuberculosis,
Dies at 76.” . Courier Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. Aug. 31, 1955. https://www.newspapers.com/image/107954902/?match=1&terms=l%20e%20smith
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