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In just 10 years of residing in Taylors Falls Dr. Lucius B. Smith became such an integral part of town history that even 150 years after his death,  there are still people coming together and remembering the spirit of the man.  
Lucius Smith came to Taylors Falls in 1853.  His drugstore and doctor’s office was in a building partway up the hill from the river (across from the Old Jail B & B.) He also served one term as mayor, according to local historian Fay Caneday.  
He was one of the founders of Kahbakong Cemetery, on Hwy 95.  And, it was at this cemetery where people gathered Sunday to reflect and reinforce their appreciation for his sacrifice.
Smith volunteered to be a surgeon for the Minnesota Seventh Regiment during the Civil War and was called south in 1864. He’d just finished a stint on the Dakota-Minnesota border serving as a military doctor.
When the news made its way back to Taylors Falls, from Mississippi,  that he’d been shot through the neck just prior to the Battle of Tupelo,  “It was a dark day,” Caneday added.
Last Sunday, July 13, the very same day that the doctor was killed 150 years ago, the Taylors Falls Historical Society, accompanied by  members of the North Branch American Legion and VFW Posts, and Patriot Guard, publicly honored Smith by holding a memorial service under the majestic pines at Kahbakong Cemetery.  
The lettering on the upright stone at Smith’s resting place is  blurred from the elements and fragile, and so, it was upgraded with a new marker, provided by the Civil War Commemoration Task Force.
It is generally known that Dr. Smith was the only Taylors Falls Civil War son who could be returned home to be laid to rest, Caneday explained.   In remarks graveside Sunday, Caneday also noted that only 12 doctor-soldiers were killed in the entire Civil War.  Townsfolk considered the potential for Dr.

Smith receiving a mortal wound,  to be “very unlikely”  so the death hit the town hard, as it certainly also did his wife Fanny and three children.  

FYI...
The Governor’s Civil War Commemoration Task Force was funded with a $100,000 appropriation by the Minnesota state legislature, using Legacy Amendment revenue.  The goal of  Task Force-sponsored programs being held throughout the state on this Civil War anniversary year;  is to educate Minnesotans on the role of state soldiers and to shine a new light on those who gave their lives in the Civil War. Ken Martens, Afton Historical Society Vice President, presided over the Dr. Smith service.
 

 

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