Eugene Allen Smith (October 27, 1841 – September 7, 1927) was an American geologist. He was born in the (now former) town of

Washington, Alabama Washington is a ghost town located in Autauga County, Alabama on the north bank of the Alabama River, just west of the mouth of Autauga Creek. Washington was founded by European American settlers in 1817 on the site of the former Autauga Indian t ...

, in 1841, the son of Samuel Parrish Smith and his wife Adelaide Julia Allen. After an education in

Prattville Prattville is a city located within both Autauga and Elmore counties in the State of Alabama but serves as the county seat of Autauga County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 37,781. Nicknamed "The Fountain City" due to t ...

and a three-year stint at Central High School in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Eugene matriculated to the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

as a junior in 1860, where he graduated with an A.B. in 1862. With the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

underway, Eugene enlisted as a private with the

33rd Regiment Alabama Infantry The 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment was an infantry unit from Alabama that served in the Confederate States Army during the U.S. Civil War. Recruited from the southeastern counties of Butler County, Alabama, Butler, Dale County, Alabama, Dale, Coffe ...

of the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

, 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 The Humboldt University of Berlin (german: link=no, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick Will ...

, followed by further studies at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded i ...

, 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 The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

faculty as an instructor of chemistry. In addition to his teaching duties, he served as assistant state geologist for

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mis ...

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. Still on the staff of the University of Alabama, in 1873 Dr. Smith became Alabama state Geologist. He resumed a state geological survey that had been discontinued in 1857 with the death of Michael Tuomey, reporting on the mineral resources of Alabama. In 1878 he served as honorary commissioner for the state of Alabama to the Exposition Universelle in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. From 1884–1889 he served as a member of the American committee for the

International Geological Congress The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of geology. About The IUGS was founded in 1961 and is a Scientific Union member of the Inte ...

. In 1904 he was a sectional vice president for the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...

. He was vice president for the

Geological Society of America The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. History The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitch ...

in 1906 and served as president in 1913.Fairchild, Herman LeRoy, 1932, The Geological Society of America 1888-1930, a Chapter in Earth Science History: New York, The Geological Society of America, 232 p. At the age of 86, he died at his home in Tuscaloosa eight days after surgery for a strangulated hernia. During his career, Dr. Smith had 116 publications in geological and scientific scholarly journals. Smith Hall on the

campus is named after him; this building is now the Alabama Museum of Natural History. In 1953, he was made a member of the Alabama Hall of Fame.

References

External links

The Eugene Allen Smith Collection
from University Libraries Division of Special Collections, The University of Alabama. {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Eugene Allen 1841 births 1927 deaths Confederate States Army officers People of Alabama in the American Civil War University of Alabama alumni Heidelberg University alumni People from Autauga County, Alabama 19th-century American geologists 20th-century American geologists Presidents of the Geological Society of America