Litchfield enquirer., 1865-04-20
From the New Hampton Courier.1 THE FAMILY FRIEND.
OF DR. JOHN EDWARD aMrra

A good Physician is q treasure There is more about his profession than drugs and tnct- lures. He is 8 curative man. His very pres. fence in suffering household is remedial. His 3smle is snnatiye. His friendly chat is medci- |nal, and the way he mixes the stories he tells, ils Of quite as great importance as tue way he mixes pills aud powders. He is great consoler Itoo. Why is it that We feel somehow support. !ed, where death IS certainly approaching our Friends, by seeing the good Doctor still present? He has lost all hope, and so have we but we have feeling that he knows all about sickness aand death and We love to see his kind, sad scountenance amongst US. He is the fan1ilv a1reenG, lie does not arrive at this position in A moment Confidence is Q panr of slow growth. We wait to see what his success will oe forgetting that only years can decide the squestion of his ability. But at last he wins our
 sesteem not as a mere lucky empiric, but as one sln whom We recognize ability, learning, skill, Stact re pectable success. Then sickness comes land we profit by his worth. It comes again 3and again, and sometimes death comes with it. We find out at last that our physician is q true |man, genuine friend-still better, Q sterling .siniar reanou tu us auu- vntJ 11~,..--' -in- too is physician, in spiritual sense.
 Snfhsa- ,1san is . great pillar in community ,a great deal lsais sup5h sitns 4Asgrsat many hearts are knit with lis, When he is taken laway, there is 8 blank not easily filled Doctors .are plenty, but as in every profession, the pen- lty are not the good We want one of many. not many for one. Tho whole process of es. !tablishing confidence is 10 be entered upon 'auew, and no one knows with what result. We have just lost our Family Friend. Our excellent christian physician has left us. He twas ready to go, but We were not ready to spare |bin. Not only his feeble and almost helpless Iwiic with her little children, but the whole |comunity fee! that he has left us prelnaturely,
 lat the age of IoIy, in the very vgor of life, the trusted physician of very large exteut of scountry, the etuble and uniform christian,-it sseemed az if his work Was not finished. But sGod saw otherwise, Disease, taken from pa- stient who recovered, seizlng upon 6 frame swearied and worn with the excessive calls of 6 zsickly season, soon did its work. Upon the scountenance so long anxious, driven, overwork Fed, there settled down an expression of rest sGiving clear testimony to the love of Jesus and sto the worth of religion, he fell asleep in the ! Lord Blessed gre the dead who die in ths Lord. Yea, saith the spirit; that they may 5 rest from their labors and their labors and stheir works do follow them.
 Doctor John Edward Smith was born in Kent, SCs,, in 1926. For many years bis health was gdecate, which was probably one reason Whlch s lied him to study medicine Like so many oth- Ser young men of worth, he was obliged to help shimself by teaching; it was while thus engaged 5tbat he met with that change which, from Q vir. Stuous young man, made him christian. Ho gstud,ed medicine with the phycican of his na- ative town, attending the regular lectures in 2New York city until hezrseeived his diploma. 2 He .hsn established imseig ln thg neig66oring atown of Cornwall, but dpo1 ths death of bis 9old preeeptOr, returned 10 Ken some year5
 zasiDce he removed b sbis place, where he stead, Sily grew in tue esteem oi tue 55anGdiiy udtit shis death, aesorolng Q very extensive sqd Ia 8borious practice, covering nearly ths whole scountry. lie was twice ma5Fai, and the lath. 2 CT of eights children, only four of whom sur &vive.
 S The church has lost pillar; the family has < lost son, brother, husband, father. We %haye lost our Family Friend.