Dr. D. Port Smythe
Lockhart, Caldwell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1824-1889) Pioneer Lockhart physician, from Alabama. Studied medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Was Civil War surgeon, Texas Mounted Rifles and Cavalry, on Texas frontier and in Louisiana, Arkansas and Indian Territory. Typical of Texas Confederates, his letters home show concern for wife and children: contain instructions on teaching child to read, crops, plowing, animal care, fences, debt collection. Professor of chemistry, 1871, Galveston Medical college. A&M College physician, 1879-82. First to serve full time in any Texas college or university.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Trained in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Alabama-born D. Port Smythe became a pioneering physician in Lockhart. When war came he served as a Confederate surgeon with Texas mounted units across the frontier and the Trans-Mississippi, and the letters he sent home—full of worry over his children's reading, the crops, and the family's debts—read like a portrait of countless Texas Confederates. In later years he taught chemistry at Galveston Medical College and became the first full-time college physician in Texas.
Why it matters
Smythe's career links frontier medicine, Civil War service, and the beginnings of professional campus health care in Texas higher education.
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Related people
- · D. Port Smythe
Themes & tags
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