NAME: Smith, William C.

OBIT: "The clipping is undated and the newspaper not named, but the transcription is as follows:"

 Smith.-W.C. Smith died at Rockwell City, Iowa, Oct. 31, 1885. He was born in Indiana county, Pa., Sept. 10 1805; removed in 1857 to Illinois, and in 1868 to Calhoun county, Iowa. He was married to Miss Mary Hanna, and after her death to Mrs. Lillie McLaughlin. He had fourteen children, seven of whom survive him. At the age of thirty he was converted, and united with [t]he M.E. church. As a citizen he took an active interest in questions having a moral bearing. With in the past year he dictated from memory a poem that he wrote over fifty years ago upon the wrongs of slavery, which breathes a Christian spirit of sympathy for the downtrodden. He was also an earnest advocate of the temperance reform, and in recent years an ardent friend of prohibition, believing, in the light of the experience and observation of half a century, this to be the only effective method of dealing with the liquor traffic. He retained his vigor so fully that not until a few hours before his death did his friends think of the end as near; but death did not find him off his guard. His loins were girded and his light burning, and he died as he had lived, firm in the faith of the gospel, and his life remains a precious illustration of the value of Christian faith in life and in death.