My Genealogy Hound

ELLEN GOODELL SMITH, eldest daughter of Asahel Goodell, and sister of L. W. Goodell, was born at Belchertown, Mass., August 25, 1835. She acquired her elementary education in the common schools, and, after pursuing higher, branches of study two terms at the Amherst Academy, taught school one term. Compelled by ill health to relinquish her labors, in 1857 she entered Dr. William T. Vail’s Granite State Health Institute, at Hill, N.H., where she became interested in the successful method practised there of treating the sick, and decided to become a teacher and a practitioner in the new school.

After a connection of two years with that institution as a patient, student, and assistant, she became a member of a numerous class in the autumn of 1859 at the Hygeio-Therapeutic College, New York City, of which R. T. Trail was the founder. The following winter she was again at the college, and was graduated in the spring of 1861 with the highest honors. Immediately after she became matron and physician at Dr. Vail’s Sanitarium, where she remained until the autumn of 1862, when she entered the public lecture field as a demonstrator and instructor of medical, temperance, and health reform. In 1864 she accepted the post f resident physician at Dr. R. T. Trail’s Sanitarium in New York City, which she held for a period of two years, during a portion of that time being in charge of the Swedish movement cure and Turkish bath departments. In 1866 she was medical director and physician of the movement cure and Turkish bath departments connected with the sanitarium of Dr. J. H. Hero at Westboro, Mass.

On April 16, 1867, Miss Goodell was united in marriage with Dr. John Smith, of Northfield, Minn.; and during the years 1868 and 1869 they established the first sanitarium and public baths ever introduced in the city of St. Paul. In 1871 Dr. Ellen G. Smith accepted the situation of resident physician in Dr. R. T. Trail’s Sanitarium at Philadelphia, and during her residence in that city she introduced parlor lectures to ladies. After three years of the most successful practice in the last-named city she returned to her home at Belchertown, where on August 25, 1874, her only son, Lindsey Goodell Smith, was born. From 1875 to 1883 Dr. Smith was constantly and successfully engaged in lecturing and practising her profession in Massachusetts and California. In 1883 she retired from active practice, and has since then been engaged in literary work and as an assistant in the office of her brother, L. W. Goodell.