CHAPTEB XLII. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF COL. A. B. SMEDLEY. 



OUTLINE OF A USEFUL CAREER. 



Colonel A. B. Smedley, the present Master of the State 

 Grange of Iowa, whose portrait is given on page 379, was 

 born in Jefferson County, New York, in 1825. During his 

 boyhood, he was constantly employed in such practical du 

 ties of the farm as usually falls to the lot of boys so reared. 

 Later he studied mechanics, and became a master machinist. 



In 1849 Mr. Smedley emigrated to Wisconsin, where he 

 remained until the breaking out of the war. In 1862 he 

 entered the United States service, showing the same zeal 

 and fidelity that have always been his chief characteristics. 



At the close of the war, in 1865, he retired from the 

 service, and in 1868 removed to his present home at Cresco, 

 Howard County, Iowa, where he actively engaged in horti 

 culture, making a specialty of the raising of fruit, a pursuit 

 in which he was always an enthusiast. 



In whatever sphere of activity and usefulness this earn 

 est and able man has moved, he never failed to gain the 

 good will and fellowship of thosp who learned to know him 

 intimately. Always a reformer, earnestly laboring for the 

 advancement of the industrial masses, in all movements for 

 the elevation and improvement of the workingmen of the 

 country, these classes have constantly found in him a firm 

 and true friend, whose counsel was always tempered with 

 calm judgment, which easily sifted the false from the real. 



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