Clarence Eugene Smith was born on October 21, 1894 in Dodge County, Nebraska. He was the son of Samuel Smith and Elizabeth Smith. He grew up in  Wayne county and Boyd county. Clarence Smith was working in the Naper area when he registered for the draft on June 5, 1917.  Smith was assigned to Company 42, 11th Battalion, 163rd Depot Brigade and was part of the 88th Division.  Smith was a corporal.  The 163rd trained at Camp Dodge in Polk County, Iowa and it was there that he died on October 14, 1918.  He is buried in the Union Cemetery in Spencer.​  His name is one of the seventeen names on the front of the World War I memorial in front of the Boyd County Courthouse. 

Sources:  desmoinesregister.com, ancestry.com, National Archives and Records Administration

CLARENCE SMITH

          DIES IN CAMP

   A telegram for Mrs. Sam Smith was received in Spencer Friday with the intelligence that her son Clarence was very low with pneumonia at Camp Dodge, where he was sent in July.  Efforts were made to locate Mrs. Smith, who it was thot (sic) was in Minnesota.  After some delay Guy was notified at Naper, and he left for Des Moines, arriving there Monday noon, a few minutes before Clarence died, but owing to quarantine regulations he was not able to see him.

    The body will arrive in Spencer this Thursday evening, and the funeral will be held as soon as Mrs. Smith can be located.  It is learned she has been in Montana visiting and is on her way home.

   The Home Guards and other patriotic orders will unite to do honor to Spencer's first sacrifice in this war.

                     APPRECIATION

A hundred and sixty-five years ago the struggle of Americans against autocracy was as intense as today and to what a noble array of martyrs we owe all that is worth while in America.

   To that long line of jeweled names set in pure gold, Spencer now adds one.

   On the farm three miles south of the village as it developed from an unknown hamlet to an important town, Clarence Smith grew up with the country from childhood to manhood.  Coming among us as a blue eyed child with flaxen curls and going forth a big husky man, at his country's call, his martyrdom brings a deeper, more tender pull at the heart strings of the community than words can express.

    From losses such as this we will learn to prize the heritage our fathers left us and to honor the heroes in the past who thought not of themselves but sacrificed even life for their ideals at a time when the froth of civilization thought us barbarians.  God reigns and enemies at home and abroad will receive their reward.

    "The bravest are the tenderest" and they bring hope to innocent sufferers.  Hail and farewell.

The Spencer Advocate

October 17, 1918

                                                       CLARENCE E. SMITH

   Clarence E. Smith was born in Dodge county, Nebraska October 21, 1894, and died at Camp Dodge, Iowa October 14, 1918.  His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Smith removed to Wayne when Clarence , the youngest of six sons was a few months old.  They came to Boyd county when he was seven.  For thirteen years their home was three miles south of Spencer and for two years was ten miles southwest of Naper.  Clarence spent a year in Minnesota and Montana.

   Selected for the army he had been at Camp Dodge nearly three months.  The first week in October he was prostrated almost instantly by influenza.

   The father having died in February, the mother has been changing from one locality to another where the children reside in Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Montana.  None of the family was near Spencer, so the war department had much difficulty in reaching relatives.  War activities are strained to the utmost and this epidemic coming so suddenly, it has been necessary to establish the strictest quarantine regulations, so that though Guy reached the camp before death came it was not possible to see his brother and he could only return and await the arrival of the body.  In the meantime Maggie, the only unmarried sister returned from Minnesota, and Mrs. Smith from Montana.

   The funeral occurred Sunday at the Spencer cemetery.  An outdoor service conducted by Rev. B.H. Murten, was attended by an immense concourse from all parts of the county.  A military funeral was given by the Home Guards.  Sargeant (sic) Cyr Breneman, who was detailed  to accompany the remains home speaks very highly of the soldierly qualities of Corporal Smith.

   All the circumstances appeal to the community as particularly sad.  Spencer is proud of her soldier and the sorrowing family have the universal sympathy in their ordeal.

The Spencer Advocate

October 24, 1918