View source for Jerome V. C. Smith

{{short description|American mayor}}{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}} {{Use American English|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Jerome Van Crowninshield Smith
| image               = Jerome V. C. Smith by E. Billings 5210004 015 014 (3x4a).jpg
| imagesize           =
| smallimage          =
| caption             =
| order               =
| office              =[[Mayor of Boston]]
| term_start          =1854
| term_end            =1855
| predecessor         =[[Benjamin Seaver]]
| successor           =[[Alexander H. Rice]]
| birth_date          ={{birth date|1800|7|20}}<ref name="State Street Trustp23"/>
| birth_place         =[[Conway, New Hampshire]], US<ref name="State Street Trustp23"/>
| death_date          ={{Death date and age|1879|8|21|1800|7|20}}<ref name="State Street Trustp23"/>
| death_place         =[[Richmond, Massachusetts]], US<ref name="obit2">"Death of a Boston Ex-Mayor," ''Boston Herald,'' 21 August 1879, p. 1.</ref>
| nationality         =
| party               = [[Native American Party]]<ref name="The City and Its New Mayop3">{{Citation |last = From Our Own Correspondent | title = BOSTON.; The City and Its New Mayor--The Past Mayors of Boston and Who They Were--Distress in the City--Personal. |  page = 3 | work = New York Times | location = New York, NY | date = 5 January 1868 }}</ref>
| spouse              =Eliza Ward Brown (1806-1876)
| relations           =
| children            =
| residence           =Boston, Mass.; New York City
| alma_mater          =[[Brown University]],<ref name="Brown"/> [[Williams College]]<ref name="State Street Trustp23"/>
| occupation          =
| profession          =Medical doctor<ref name="State Street Trustp23"/>
| religion            =
| signature           =
| website             =
| footnotes           =
}}
'''Jerome Van Crowninsfield Smith''' (July 20, 1800 &ndash; August 21, 1879) was an American physician, author and politician, serving as the fourteenth mayor of [[Boston, Massachusetts]] from 1854 to 1855.<ref name="State Street Trustp23">''Mayors of Boston: An Illustrated Epitome of who the Mayors Have Been and What they Have Done'', Boston: State Street Trust Company, 1914, pp. 23-25.</ref>
==Biography==
After attending public school in his home town of Conway, New Hampshire, Smith earned a medical degree from [[Brown University]] in 1818<ref name="Brown">''Historical Catalogue of Brown University, 1764-1914,'' Providence, RI: Brown University, 1914.</ref><ref name="obit1">"Obituary: Ex-Mayor J.V.C. Smith," ''Boston Evening Journal'', 21 August 1879, p. 2.</ref> and graduated from the medical department of [[Williams College]] in 1822.<ref name="obit2"/> In the following year, he took a position in [[Pittsfield, Massachusetts]] as lecturer in anatomy at the newly established Berkshire Medical Institution (later, [[Berkshire Medical College]]).<ref name="paper1">''Christian Register'' (Boston), 2 May 1823, p. 3.</ref> In that same year (1823), he became the founding editor of the ''Boston Medical Intelligencer.'' After the publication was renamed to the ''Boston Medical and Surgical Journal'' in 1828, he continued as editor through 1856.<ref name="BMSJ1828">{{Cite web|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.32239002039291;view=1up;seq=5|title=The Boston medical and surgical journal 1829 1|year=1828}}</ref><ref name="BMSJ1856">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cg/pt?id=pst.32239002039655;view=1up;seq=7 {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref> Smith then established his own publication, ''The Medical World'', which he edited from 1856 to 1857.<ref>''Boston Traveler,'' 26 February 1857, p. 3.</ref> He also edited the short-lived ''Bowen's Boston News-Letter and City Record'' (1825-6).<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044105536700;view=1up;seq=5|title=The Boston news-letter: And city record. V.1 (1825-1826)|journal=Boston News Letter, and City Record|year=1825|pages=2 v|last1=Smith|first1=Jerome Van Crowninshield|last2=Bowen|first2=Abel}}</ref>
In civic affairs, Smith served as quarantine physician for the port of Boston (1826–48),<ref>''Boston American Daily Statesman'', 17 June 1826, p. 1.</ref> and then ran for mayor of the city in [[1848 Boston mayoral election|December 1848]], [[1851 Boston mayoral election|December 1851]] and [[1852 Boston mayoral election|December 1852]]  before being elected mayor in [[1853–54 Boston mayoral election|January 1854]].<ref name="Daily Atlas 1853, p. 2">''Daily Atlas'' (Boston), 23 November 1853, p. 2.</ref> In each of these contests he was opposed by establishment Whig candidates, while he ran as the nominee of various dissident parties, including Native American ("[[Know Nothing]]"),<ref>''Daily Atlas'' (Boston), 30 November 1848, p. 2.</ref> People's Party<ref>''Boston Daily Bee,'' 13 December 1852, p. 2.</ref> and Citizen's Union.<ref name="Daily Atlas 1853, p. 2"/> He was reelection [[December 1854 Boston mayoral election|in December 1854]]. Although nominated for mayor [[1858 Boston mayoral election|in 1858]] by both the People's Union <ref>''Boston Traveler,'' 18 November 1858, p. 2.</ref> and National American parties,<ref>''Boston Evening Transcript,'' 1 December 1858, p. 4.</ref> he declined to run.<ref>''Boston Evening Transcript,'' 13 December 1858, p. 2.</ref>
In 1855, during his second term as mayor, Smith was awarded an honorary degree from [[Dartmouth College]].<ref>''General Catalogue of Dartmouth College and the Associated Schools, 1769-1900,'' Cambridge, Mass.: University Press, 1900, p. 403.</ref>
Smith served on numerous corporate boards, including those of several banks and railroads. He toured Europe and the Near East in 1850-51 and while abroad served as a juror for the American Industrial Exhibition at the London World's Fair.<ref>''Daily National Intelligencer'' (Washington, DC), 10 June 1851, p. 3.</ref>
In 1863, he removed to New York City, where he assumed the post of Professor of Anatomy at the [[New York Medical College]] and Charity Hospital.<ref>''New York Herald,'' 31 August 1863, p. 3.</ref>
During the Civil War, he volunteered to serve with the [[United States Christian Commission]] and was stationed with Union forces in [[New Orleans in the American Civil War|New Orleans]] between October 1863 and August 1865.<ref>''Times-Picayune'' (New Orleans), 6 August 1865, p. 4.</ref> He was commissioned as lieutenant colonel, 83rd Regiment, [[United States Colored Troops|U.S. Colored Infantry]] (Old Organization)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers-detail.htm?soldierId=6502D9D2-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A|title=Soldier Details - the Civil War (U.S. National Park Service)}}</ref> and was appointed by General [[Nathaniel P. Banks]] to head a commission overseeing sanitation in the city.<ref name="obit2"/>
Smith married Eliza Maria Brown (1806-1876) of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on December 29, 1825.<ref>Marriage Records of Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.</ref>
He continued to lecture and write through his remaining years. He died on August 20, 1879, at the home of his sister-in-law in [[Richmond, Massachusetts]]. The cause was "a complication of diseases, dropsy and asthma."<ref name="obit2"/> He is buried with his wife in the Pittsfield Cemetery.
==Select publications==
* ''Animal Mechanism: The Eye'', [Boston]: [Carter, Hendee & Babcock], [1831].
* ''The Class-Book of Anatomy, Designed for Schools, Explanatory of the First Principles of Human Mechanism, at the Basis of Physical Education'', Boston: Allen & Ticknor, 1834.<ref name="nationalbookauctions.com">{{Cite web |url=http://www.nationalbookauctions.com/10232011/23oct117.htm |title=National Book Auctions - Your National Source for Everything Bound |access-date=2015-07-02 |archive-date=2015-07-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702194053/http://www.nationalbookauctions.com/10232011/23oct117.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* ''Scientific tracts and family lyceum. Designed for instruction and entertainment, and adapted to schools, lyceums and families'', Allen & Ticknor, 1835.
* ''Indian Wars of America'', Boston: G. Clarke, 1840.
* ''Natural History of the Fishes of Massachusetts'', Boston: William Ticknor, 1843.
* ''Turkey and the Turks: or Travels in Turkey'', Boston: F. Gleason, 1852.
* ''A pilgrimage to Egypt, embracing a diary of the explorations on the Nile; with observations illustrative of the manners, customs, and institutions of the people, and of the present condition of the antiquities and ruins ...'', Boston: Gould & Lincoln, 1852.
* ''A Pilgrimage to Palestine ...'', Boston: D. Clapp, Gould & Lincoln, 1853.
* ''The Ways of Women in Their Physical, Moral and Intellectual Relations.'' Hartford, CT: Dustin, Gilman, 1875.
* ''Buried millions: where do gold and silver go?'', New York: A.S. Barnes, 1878.
==See also==
* [[Timeline of Boston#1850s.E2.80.931890s|Timeline of Boston]], 1850s
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jerome V. C. Smith}}
* [https://archive.org/details//bostonmedicalint01smit/page/n6 ''Boston Medical Intelligencer'']
{{S-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box
| before = [[Benjamin Seaver]]
| title = [[Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts]]
| years= 1854–1855
| after = [[Alexander H. Rice]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{BostonMayors}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Jerome V. C.}}
[[Category:Mayors of Boston|Smith, Jerome V.C.]]
[[Category:1800 births]]
[[Category:1879 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century mayors of places in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Know Nothings]]
[[Category:People from Conway, New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Alpert Medical School alumni]]
[[Category:Williams College alumni]]