From collection Candidates
In 1896 Julia Holmes Smith, a physician, ran as the Democratic Party candidate for University of Illinois Trustee. She polled 14 percent of the votes (467,664), coming in a close fourth, but only three candidates could be elected. In 1898 Smith campaigned again as the Democratic Party candidate for the same office. Again, in a hotly contested, multi-candidate race, she received 15.2 percent of the vote (397,234 votes cast) but lost. In 1902 she ran again polling 14.42% of the ballots cast (365,408 votes),and again lost. In 1894 Smith had been appointed by Governor Altgeld to fill an unexpired term, thus becoming the first woman member of the University of Illinois Trustees. Shortly thereafter, in 1894, Lucy Flower was elected to the same Trustees board. At one time Smith was editor of the Woman's Page of the Chicago Times. She was a Congregationalist, Democrat, member of the Illinois Women's Press Assn, Fortnightly Club (ex-sec), Woman's Club of Chicago (President, six years), Twentieth Century Club. A physician born in Savannah, Georgia (to Willis and Margaret Turner Holmes) Smith spent much of her early life in New Orleans, after which she was educated at the Spingler Institute, a leading female academy in New York City. She married, had a son, and was widowed at the age of 25. She supported her son for eight years, remarried and, inspired by pioneering woman doctor Mary B. Jackson, entered Boston University School of Health Care and Medicine in 1873 transferring, for family reasons, to Chicago's Homeopathic College. Upon graduation, Smith established a private practice and organized the Woman's Medical Association. Smith was on the consulting staff of the Baptist Hospital, and was a member of the Board of the Illinois Training School for Nurses. She also belonged to the Board of Censors of the American Institute of Homeopathy. In her second marriage, she was the mother of a daughter.
