George Smedley

ROBERT C SMEDLEY (Abiah,Daniel,Thomas,Thomas,George),b. Willistown,4-5-1832;d.West Chester,1-2-1883;m.Penn township,4-24-1862, Esther Kent,b.Andrews' Bridge,Lancaster Co.,10-22-1835;d.West Chester, 5-13-1873;dau.of Benjamin Kent and Hannah Simmons,of Chester Co. Her father was the son of Daniel and Esther (Hawley) Kent,and grandson of William and Ann Kent,of Limerick,Ireland. He was a woollen manufacturer and farmer,and an earnest worker for temperance and the anti-slavery cause,as well as a preacher among Friends. Hannah Simmons was the daughter of Henry Simmons and Rachel Preston,the latter being a preacher for more than sixty years. Robert C Smedley worked on his father's farm till 21;then taught school in Newtown nearly three years,during which time he began to study medicine with Dr. John P Lewis, of the allopathic system. He also taught a winter in E. Goshen and another at Grove,in W. Whiteland. Before entering college he read works on hydropathy and homoeopathy, and being impressed with the truth of the latter gave it his especial attention, graduating from the Homoeopathic Medical College,Philadelphia,March, 1860. He settled at Oxford,Chester Co.,in May,and steadily gained a large practice,but preferring West Chester as a permanent residence removed to this place in 1863. Here he gained a large and respectable practice. He had purchased the homestead in Willistown,together with adjoining lands,making in all about 102 acres,which he sold in 1863 to J Ellwood Worrall,of Nether Providence. He subsequently purchased real estate in West Chester,and his last residence was on the east side of Church Street,near the Mansion House hotel. He left in manuscript a history of the Underground Railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties,a work of much interest and research,which was published a few months after his death in a volume of over 400 pages. Esther Kent was engaged for several years in teaching and in writing for the press-chiefly poetry. In 1866,after her marriage,she was induced,by the solicitation of several members of the Society of Friends,to edit a periodical of useful reading for Friends' children,and on the 1st of the 5th mo.issued the first number of "The Children's Friend." This was a magazine of exceptional moral purity and exaulted intellectual character which won the approval of many in other denominations.After her death it passed into the hands of her sister,Annie F Bradley,and later into those of Mary Y Hough,of Phila.

This page updated on March 6, 2013