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Note: RFN162 BIOGRAPHY GEERT SMIDT (GEORGE SMITH) NOTE: Geert Smidt came to America with his parents in the autumn of 1856 at the age of 17. They settled in Ogle County, Illinois near the town of Forreston. He then Americanized his name to George Smith. We have no record of George's schooling. Although his father continued to make and mend shoes, George learned how to dress and cut up beef very well. It was an ability he taught to his sons, as carried on by Jacob and Jackson. In early 1866, at the age of 27, George married Matilda Taalke Kruger of Forreston, a bride of 18 who had also been born in the same area of Germany as his family. There are still reunions of the Smith-Kruger families every summer near Sibley, Iowa. After a number of years, the George Smith family moved to the vicinity of Sheldon, Iowa, where they farmed for many years. He also did butchering of beef and pork as a side-line income. George was known as a meticulous farmer, with one of the finest looking farmsteads in the area. The lawn was beautifully kept, with lovely flowerbeds and a vine-covered porch. A large strawberry bed was a particular attraction for relatives. He had a reputation for well-formed grain stacks. He measured distances carefully and his sons learned how to throw bundles so he could lay them with precision. When a stack was completed he had a large wooden-toothed rake with which he combed and combed them until every straw was in place. He retired in 1909 and lived in Sheldon for his last ten years. Jacob and Fannie spent most of their life on farms while George and Jackson farmed a few years each. Chris and Clara taught rural schools and later worked for many years in postal employ. Jackson was a livestock dealer, George a postal worker and Albert a cabinet maker. Charlotte was kicked in the abdomen by a horse when she was 15 and died as a result. Nancy married a carpenter contractor. Etta never married but made a loving home for her brothers when needed, also for Clara, and her mother when she became ill. George Smidt died at his home in Sheldon of the complications of old age after a lengthy illness. INFORMATION SOURCES - Family History of Rev. Jackson E. Smith and Matilda Hindt Onken
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