Progressive Men of Iowa
1899

BLYTHE, Smith Green, of Nora Springs, is one of the leading physicians of Floyd county. He is the son of Rev.  Joseph William Blythe, a minister in the Presbyterian church, who was born in Kentucky in 1808, and graduated from Transylvania university in Kentucky, and from Princeton Theological seminary. He preached in Pittsburg, Pa.; Monroe, Mich.; Cranbury, N. J., and several important towns in Indiana. He was for several years' fiscal agent for Hanover college in Indiana, and during the civil war was chaplain in the United States hospitals at Evansville and Madison. After the war he was pastor of the church at Lexington, Ind., where he died in 1875, aged 67. Dr.  Blythe's mother was Ellen Henrietta Green, a daughter of Caleb Smith Green, a farmer of Lawrenceville, N. J., and a sister of Henry W. Green, once chief justice of New Jersey. She was a woman of rare attainments and of a strong char-acter. She died at Cranbury, N. J., in 1852, aged 38. The ancestors of Dr. Blythe were from several different nations, including England, Scotland, Wales and Holland.  His grandfather, James Blythe, was president of Transylvania university, and later of Hanover college.

Dr. S. G. Blythe was born November 6, 1841, at Cranbury, Middlesex county, N. J.  He first attended the district school there, and later, until he was 14, was one of the pupils at a parochial school connected with his father's church. When he was 14, he moved with his parents to Vincennes, Ind., and entered the Indiana university, and in 1857 became a member of the sophomore class in Lafayette college, at Easton, Pa., from which he graduated in 1860, at the age of 19. While in school he was a member of the Washington Literary society and of the Zeta Psi fraternity.

Soon after graduating he entered the army as a private in Company D, of the First New Jersey regiment of infantry. The quota of the state was tilled by the mustering in of the militia, so that the volunteers were held in reserve for another call, when, May 18, 1861, without having gone out of the service, they re-enlisted for three years. In this organization Dr. Blythe was appointed commissary sergeant of the regiment, and served as such through the battle of Bull Run and the reorganization of the army of the Potomac at Alexandria, under McClellan. In a competitive examination held March 24, 1862, he rose to the rank of second lieutenant of Company A, First New Jersey infantry, and became first lieutenant of Company F, same regiment, October 7, 1862, and captain of Company F, November 29, 1862, and held this position during the remainder of the war, being mustered out June 23, 1864, for disability from wounds. He belongs to the G. A. R. and was a charter member and first commander of Gardner Post at Nora Springs.

Dr. Blythe began the practice of medicine in 1867, at Vinton, Iowa, removing to Rudd, Iowa, in 1869 and to Nora Springs in 1873, where he has remained ever since, enjoying a good practice. He belongs to the following secret orders: Knights of Pythias, A. O. U. W., Modern Woodmen, and Tribe of Ben Hur. In politics he has always been a republican. He has held numerous local offices, and in 1880 was district elector for the fourth district. He is now serving his fourth term as mayor of Nora Springs. He does not belong to any church, but his family attends the Congregational.

The doctor was married July 8, 1863, to Miss Emily Gill Sharpe, daughter of Judge William R. Sharpe, of Belvidere, N. J.  They have had ten children, four of whom are now living: Margaret Emily, born in 1866, now the wife of Rev. Thomas J.  Woodcock, of Lead, S. D.; Hannah Longstreet, born in 1872, now the wife of Prof.  P. P. J. Exner, of Wilton College, Iowa; Bedford Vancleve, born in 1876, and Winfred Vanderen, born in 1884.

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