Eugene Allen Smith

Who was Eugene Allen Smith?

Eugene Allen Smith was an American geologist.

He was born in the town of Washington, Autauga County, Alabama in 1841, the son of Samuel Parrish Smith and his wife Adelaide Julia Allen. Samuel was a physician and a descendant of William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony. After an education in Prattville and a three year stint at Central High School in Philadelphia, Eugene matriculated to the University of Alabama as a junior in 1860, where he graduated with an A.B. in 1862. With the American Civil War underway, Eugene enlisted as a private with the 33rd Regiment Alabama Infantry of the Confederate States Army, and was elected to the rank of 2nd lieutenant by the men. In December 1862, Eugene was appointed Instructor of Military Tactics at the University of Alabama by Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate states. He remained in that post for the remainder of the war.

In 1865 he entered graduate school at the University of Berlin, followed by further studies at the University of Göttingen, and finally spent two years at the University of Heidelberg, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1868. Returning to the United States, Dr. Smith joined the University of Mississippi faculty as an instructor of chemistry. In addition to his teaching duties, he served as assistant state geologist for Mississippi from 1868–1871. In 1871 he was named professor of geology at the rebuilding University of Alabama. On July 10, 1872 he married Jane Henry Meredith Garland; the couple had a son, Merrill Smith.