History of Posey County, Indiana, Part 18

Author: Leffel, John C., b. 1850. cn
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : Standard Publ. Co.
Number of Pages: 456


USA > Indiana > Posey County > History of Posey County, Indiana > Part 18


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Dr. Samuel Benson Montgomery, a prominent physician and sur- geon of Cynthiana, was born in Gibson county, Indiana, July 6, 1874. He was the youngest child of Jesse M. and Lemira (Benson) Montgomery. He was raised on a farm, completed the common school course and


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graduated from the Owensville High School in 1892. He attended Wa- bash College one year and then entered the University Medical College at Louisville, graduating in 1898. He practiced one year at Poseyville, three years at St. Wendel, and then located in 1902 at Cynthiana, where he still resides and enjoys a lucrative practice. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations. He belongs to the Christian church. Dr. Montgomery is of French extraction, tracing his ancestry back to the Tenth century, to the Count of Alencon in Nor- many, descendants of whom are found in England, Scotland, Holland and America. It is from those that settled in Scotland and Ireland that we have the American line and the antecedents of our subject. In Sep- tember, 1898, Dr. Montgomery was married to Miss Eva L. Boyle, daughter of Henry and Tilda (McReynolds) Boyle, both native Hoo- siers, the father of Vanderburg county and the mother of Posey. They have two children, Mary Lena and Dorothy Mae.


Dr. David B. Montgomery was born March 26, 1834, on a farm in Gibson county, Indiana. His early life on the farm consisted of the usual tasks incident to farm life, with a few months' attendance of the district schools in winter. When nearing manhood he attended an acad- emy in Newburg, Ind., for two years. Upon attaining his majority he read medicine with Dr. John Runcie, of Cynthiana, Ind. He graduated from the Rush Medical College in Chicago in 1858. Upon receiving his diploma he located at Cynthiana, where he built a large and lucrative practice. Beginning the practice he was compelled to buy a home and outfit on credit, but at his death he left an estate valued at many thou- sands of dollars. The doctor was a man of fine personal appearance, neat in his dress and courteous in manners. He was "liberal" in his religious views. He thought, spoke and acted in accordance with his own view of right and propriety, letting consequences take care of them- selves. Out of his own ample means he erected in 1875 a neat brick edifice, which he called Byron Hall, to be used by the young people for their social gatherings and. by any religious sect or political party. He was twice married. The first wife was Miss Margaret Whiting, whom he married in 1860. The union proving unhappy, it was dissolved by the court in 1883 after long and bitter litigation. In the same year he was married to Miss Mary Downs, who survived him. The doctor "fell asleep" on September 1, 1885.


Dr. Thomas W. Wilson was born in Lynn township October 18, 1860. He worked on the farm and attended the district schools until he was nineteen years of age, when he entered the Indiana University at Bloomington, graduating therefrom in 1884. He received his medical degree from the Miami Medical College at Cincinnati in 1887. Shortly after his graduation he formed a partnership with Dr. William Holton at New Harmony and they practiced together for eight years. Since


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then he has practiced alone in New Harmony, where he continues to reside. For ten years he was health officer of the county and has also filled the positions of president and secretary of the County Medical Society. Dr. Wilson is the son of John Wilson and Mrs. Amanda (Grad) Wilson, both of Lynn township. Dr. Wilson was married to Miss Annie B. Miller, of New Harmony, in 1893. They have one son, Gordon M. Wilson. Dr. Wilson is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen and the tribe of Ben Hur.


Dr. George R. Peckinpaugh was born in Crawford county, Indiana, June 5, 1854, being the next youngest of twelve children born to Nich- olas and Eleanor (Scheckell) Peckinpaugh. The parents were from Hardin county, Kentucky, but emigrated to Crawford county, Indiana, in 1818. Here he was raised, married and reared a large family. Dr. George R. remained on the farm till he was seventeen years old, when he entered the Hartsville, Ind., University and later the University at Bloomington, Ind., completing there his sophomore year. He then took a two-years course in chemistry and other branches pertaining to the medical profession. In the fall of 1878 he matriculated at the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, graduating in 1881. He located in Mt. Vernon in September of that year and began the practice of his profes- sion. He soon became one of the most popular physicians and surgeons of Posey county. From then until 1907, with the exception of a short time spent in Chicago, he practiced in this city and vicinity. In that year he removed to Evansville, Ind., where he has since devoted his en- tire time to pulmonary diseases, in the treatment of which he has been very successful. The doctor is affable, courteous and unassuming in manner and simple in his dress. Though some of his theories as to the causes and treatment of pulmonary diseases are original, the doctor is honest, terribly in earnest, and able to give a reason for the faith that is in him. He was married to Miss Rose Alexander, an accomplished young lady of this city.


Dr. J. M. Glaze was born at Joneshart, in Upper East Tennessee. At thirteen years of age he was sent to Greenville, Tenn., where he remained two years. He is a graduate of the University of Nashville and Vanderbuilt University at Nashville, Tenn. He began the practice of medicine at nineteen years of age, located at Gainesville, Ky., where he practiced six years. Later he moved to New Harmony. He is the son of William B. Glaze and Elizabeth (Clark) Glaze, both natives of Tennessee. Dr. Glaze was married September 6, 1894, to Miss Mary R. Cooper, daughter of John Cooper, a prominent citizen of Posey county during his life time. The doctor married some money and made more, and had accumulated considerable property when he left New Harmony about five years ago for California, where he now resides. He has one child, Anna Reed Glaze. Dr. Glaze was a member of the Posey


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County Medical Society, and was for a while surgeon for the Peoria, De- catur and Evansville Railroad Company at New Harmony. He is a Democrat in politics. Besides his practice he has large farming inter- ests.


Dr. T. C. Emmick was born near Grandview, Ind., on Corn Island, the name given a mound built by the mound builders, August 9, 1872. His parents were John W. Emmick and Rebecca (Peckinpaugh) Emmick. Thomas, the subject of this sketch, left the island or mound farm, off which he was born, and where he passed his early childhood, and went with his father, who was a steamboatman, to Yazoo City, Miss., and later to Alton, Ind. His literary education was received in the public schools of Alton. When a young man he clerked for three years in the Fogas drug store in Mt. Vernon, then read medicine about one year in the office of his uncle, Dr. George R. Peckinpaugh, at that time one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Posey county. He then entered the Louisville Medical College, where he remained two years, graduating at the Ohio Medical College in the class of 1897. After obtaining his degree he located in Mt. Vernon, where he still resides and practices his profes- sion. Dr. Emmick was married in 1906 to Miss Betty Dunn, of Alton, Ind.


Dr. Edwin V. Spencer, who at the time of his death was one of the oldest and most successful physicians of Posey county, was born in Warren county, Pennsylvania, and was one of a family of nine children born to Mathias and Harriet (Smith) Spencer, natives respectively of Connecticut and Vermont. He grew to manhood in his native county, where he secured a common school education and later attended an academy at Sherburne, N. Y. He began the study of medicine when nineteen years of age, and was graduated from the Cleveland (Ohio) Medical College in 1851. He came to Posey county in the spring of 1852 and located in Mt. Vernon. He was one of the oldest physicians and surgeons in the county in his day. Making money in the practice and investing it in real estate, which afterwards increased greatly in value, he became quite wealthy, and at his death left a large landed estate. In February, 1852, he married Sarah J. Baxter, of Erie county, Pennsyl- vania. They became the parents of eight children, four of whom are now living. One of them, George W., is a distinguished physician and surgeon of Philadelphia. The doctor was a Democrat in politics, and in his later years a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was a member of the Indiana Medical Society. On March 28, 1902, he joined the "Silent Majority," "And there shall be no night (riding) there."


Dr. Marcus Sherburne Blunt was born in Narridgewock, Me., in 1826. He was fortunate in his birthplace, as at that time New England was a center of culture and refinement, of courage and energy. Dr. William Trafton, Dr. Charles Weever and others who adorned the medical profes-


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sion in that early day, were also natives of New England, and brought to the western wilds something of the culture of the East. "There were giants in those days" and giants were needed to help subdue the wilderness, to contend with Indians and wickedness, to struggle through mud and swim swollen, unbridged streams, to carry the light of hope and health to the sick, to smooth the pillow of the dying. "The paths of pain were theirs" and they were trodden by weary, but unfaltering feet, not the least among these pioneer physicians being the subject of our sketch. Dr. Blunt graduated from Bowdoin College in 1851 and came west, locating at Mt. Vernon, then a mere village, in 1852, where he resided and prac- ticed his profession till his death, twenty-nine years later. Those were strenuous years, filled with high purpose and hard work. Those of us "upon the ends of the world are come," who practice medicine in auto- mobiles, over rock roads, can little appreciate the hardships which these older physicians had to undergo. After two years the doctor realized it was "not good for man to be alone," especially in the western wilds, and he married Miss Caroline B. Abbott, of Farmington, Me., who was not merely a helpmate for him, but an addition to the society of the village. The writer was proud to number her among his friends not many years after her husband's death. Dr. Blunt was "gathered to his fathers" after a long and painful illness, October 2, 1881, and his devoted wife joined him in the "land of shadows" in 1904. Six children were born to this union, five of whom are yet living. Said one of his contemporaries : "He had the courage of his convictions honestly, faithfully in his sphere of action, did he fulfill his destiny. Upright and honest in all his busi- ness relations he stood without reproach." Though he did not accept the dogmas of revealed religion, "His convictions, as to the future were sin- cere and pronounced. Above all creeds or books he looked and believed that any power which could mysteriously call him into existence was suf- ficient to care for him in the great Beyond." "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" If he had the faults and foibles of humanity, he was also the possessor of its grandest attributes. His humanity was extended as the human family, his benevolence only circumscribed by his power to do good. Said another, "The sacrifices he made during the cholera epidemic in Mt. Vernon will never be known and never forgotten, in that memorable conflict with pole horse and his rider how unflinchingly he stood by the post of his duty. All mercenary motives were lost sight of, the poorest had his professional counsel and assistance as readily as those from whom he might expect remuneration and more, they had ac- cess to his purse as long as he could keep it supplied and the overflowing sympathy of his warm heart in their affliction." He was not orthodox but he entered into the spirit of him who said, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice."


Dr. Lawrence B. Bitz, for many years a prominent physician of Blairs-


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ville, Ind., was born December 6, 1839, Bavaria, Germany. He is the third of a family of four children born to Simon and Catherine (Schaf- fener) Bitz. They came to the United States in 1847, locating in War- rick county, Indiana, where they lived until the father's death in 1875, and the mother died there in 1881. Dr. Bitz was raised on a farm and served one year during the Civil war in Company G, Forty-fourth Indiana volunteers. Returning from the war he farmed until 1867 and then entered Miami Medical College, graduating two years later. He then located in Blairsville, Ind., where he built a large and lucrative practice. He married Mary Marvick in 1871. He and his family are members of the Catholic church. Fifteen or twenty years ago he removed to Evansville, Ind., where he still lives and practices medi- cine in partnership with his son.


Dr. William Louis Miller, practicing physician, was born in Cin- cinnati, October 24, 1873. He is the son of Rev. Louis and Elizabeth (Doerr) Miller. His father is a native of Germany, born eighty-four years ago and is now living. He has been a Methodist minister for over fifty-three years. His mother died a few years ago. Our sub- ject, Dr. William Louis Miller, graduated from the Boonville High School at the age of seventeen. After teaching school for several years he attended De Pauw University and later studied medicine at Louisville Medical College. In April, 1901, he graduated from the University of Indianapolis, after which he practiced medicine in West Franklin for about one year. In 1902 he was married to Miss Anna, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Weilbrenner, of Mt. Vernon, Ind., and located near St. Phillips, in Robinson township, where he has con- tinued his practice for eleven years. Dr. Miller and wife are the par- ents of two children, Harold L. and Raymond A., and are members of the German Methodist church.


Dr. George W. Welborn, formerly a practicing physician of Stewarts- ville, Ind., was born March 17, '1844, in Evansville, Ind., where he grew to manhood and received his early education. In 1859 he entered the Asbury University, now De Pauw University, where he remained until the beginning of the Civil war. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Com- pany B, Sixtieth Indiana infantry, and served three years, receiving his discharge June 30, 1865. For a short time after the war he clerked in a drug store in Evansville, but at the end of six months entered into partnership in the boot and shoe business. Two years later he sold out and came to Stewartsville and engaged in farming. October 27, 1867, he married Martha Stinnett, who was born in 1845 in Kentucky. They had four children, all of whom survived him. The doctor began his medical studies while in the army and, in 1875, quit farming, took a two years' course in the Evansville Medical College, graduating in 1877. The parents of the doctor were William W. and Hannah (Walker)


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Welborn. The father was a physician, who received his medical educa- tion in Evansville and died in that city in 1871. The subject of our sketch took a post-graduate course in Philadelphia in 1894. He located in Stewartsville and practiced there till failing health compelled him to seek relief in a hospital in St. Louis. He died in that city as the re- sult of a prostatectomy in 1895.


Dr. Francis H. Kelley was born October 1, 1835, in Kentucky. His parents were Robert and Charlotte (Walton) Kelley. The father, who was a farmer, was born in Virginia in 1797. He died in Missouri, where he then resided, in 1864. The mother was born in 1805, and died in Missouri in 1877. He received his literary education in the district schools, from his mother, and from a high school, which he attended two years, and from the Georgetown (Ky.) College, where he attended two years. In 1859 he entered the University of Charlottesville, Va. When the Civil war began he was a student in a medical college at Nashville, Tenn. He joined the Confederate army, was commissioned captain, and later was promoted to the rank of major.


He fought at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Corinth, Murfrees- boro and Chickamauga. In the skirmish at Danville, Ala., he was taken prisoner and sent to Indianapolis, where he was released in 1865. Being without money or friends in that locality he went to Orange county, Indiana, and worked for a time in a saw mill. In a short time, learn- ing that he possessed some knowledge of medicine, he was called to see a sick man, and treated him successfully. In 1867 he married Rhoda E. Stone, who bore him one child, Albert Lee. He died in June, 1870, and in March of the same year he graduated from the Louisville Medical College. He then located in Stewartsville, Ind., where he remained till 1885. He then left Posey county and settled on a farm in Saline county, where he lived fourteen years. Left there in 1901 and spent about one year in Texas. He located in New Harmony in 1902, where he now lives in retirement. Has not been in active practice since leav- ing Stewartsville. His wife, who is still living, was Miss Mary Alice Robb. They have three children.


Dr. Simeon H. Pearse was born in Allegany county, New York, in 1830, being the oldest of a family of three sons and three daughters, born to Benjamin H. and Mary (Heath) Pearse, natives respectively of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Dr. Pearse was raised in the county of his nativity and secured a fair education, completing his academic course and securing a State teachers' license at the age of twenty-one. He obtained the means to enable him to pursue the study of medicine by teaching. He graduated in 1854 from the Castleton (Vt.) Medical College. He practiced his profession in Onon- daga and Allegany counties for four years, and spent one winter in Bellevue Hospital, New York. He then came to Mt. Vernon, where


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he remained till the year 1896, when he returned to New York. In 1855 he was married to Lucy A. Abbott, in his native county. They had two children, Eliza M. and Warren M. The doctor in politics was a Dem- ocrat and fraternally a Mason. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church. He was a member of the Mt. Vernon public school board from 1868 to 1878, with the exception of two years. He died in 1896, shortly after his return to his old home in New York.


Dr. Carl Flucks, of St. Wendel, Ind., was born in Germany, Decem- ber II, 1837. He is a son of Carl and Anna Flucks, who were native Germans, and lived and died in the land of their birth. The doctor re- ceived an exceptionally fine education in the German language and literature, and also in theology. He entered the German army at nine- teen, and was in the sanitary service for about seven years. He came to the United States in 1872, located in Terre Haute, and practiced medicine for about nine months, when he removed to St. Wendel, where he has since resided. He was married to Mary McHenry in 1873. They had six children, three of. whom were living in 1885. Dr. Flucks and family are members of the Catholic church, and politically he is a Democrat. The doctor is quite a fine musician, having attended some of the best musical schools of Europe.


The doctor left St. Wendel and moved to Arkansas for a while, where he was elected to the legislature. After a few years he re- moved back to St. Wendel. Who wouldn't, after having been elected to the Arkansas legislature? The old doctor is living in retirement at St. Wendel.


Dr. John W. Rutter was born in Posey county, Indiana, near Cyn- thiana in 1857. He was a son of John Rutter and Jane (Carter) Rutter and was raised in the same neighborhood where his parents were. He was educated in the Cynthiana public schools. He grad- uated from the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1881. He practiced medicine in Cynthiana twenty-eight years and came to Poseyville in 1909, where he still resides. He has been married twice- first to Frances Sketler, who died in 1906, leaving two children; then to Mrs. Belle W. White, of Eldorado county, Illinois, in 1908. Fra- ternally he is a Mason. He belongs to the Posey County Medical Society.


Dr. K. C. Fitzgerald was born in Philipstown, Ill., in 1884. He is the . son of Charles and Isabel Fitzgerald. The doctor was educated in the public schools of his native village and at the Kentucky Universtity, Lexington, Ky. He received his medical degree at the Kentucky School of Medicine, graduating in 1906. He served two years as in- terne in the City Hospital and in St. Anthony's Hospital, Louisville. He was a student of Dr. William Wathen, of Louisville, in his day one of the greatest gynecologists in the West. He located in New Har-


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mony, Ind., in 1908, where he still resides and practices his profession. He is a member of the city council. He was married in 1909 to Miss Nelgine Schnee. One child has been born to them, in 1912, named Eliz- abeth. He was in college a Greek letter man, a Phi Chi. In politics he is a Democrat. He belongs to the Woodmen, Odd Fellows and Masons. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical associations.


Dr. J. P. Gibson, of Stewartsville, was born at Barboursville, Knox county, Kentucky, in 1877. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the Union College, Barboursville, Ky., in 1896. He attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating therefrom April II, 1900. He served as contract surgeon for the North Jellico Coal Company at Milton, Ky., 1901-1902. He then located at Corbin, Ky., 1903, where he owned a drug store and practiced medicine till 1908. He then removed to Stewartsville, Ind., where he has since resided. He was married to Miss Mamie Spahr, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in July, 1900. They have four children-one boy and three girls. The doctor is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is Republican in politics.


Dr. Ernest Wilson, "Doc Ernie," as he is familiarly called by his friends, was born in Lynn township, Posey county, in 1867. He was the son of Alex. Wilson and Margaret (Stallings) Wilson, both of Lynn township, Posey county, Indiana. The doctor was raised on the Lynn township farm, attended the district schools, and finished his literary education at the State University at Bloomington. He obtained his medical degree at Miami University, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1896. He had prior to this taken a course in pharmacy, graduating at the Cincin- nati College of Pharmacy. He served as interne at St. Mary's Hos- pital, Evansville, Ind., in 1896 and 1897. He then practiced his profes- sion in New Harmony, Ind., about one year. He then located near Solitude, Posey county, Indiana, within a mile or two of his boyhood home, where he has resided ever since. He was married to Miss Elsie Neu- som, of New Harmony, in 1897. They have had two children ; one, a lit- tle girl, is living. Dr. Wilson is a stockholder and director in the Pco- ple's Bank at Mt. Vernon and owns considerable land-two or more farms-in Lynn township. He is a Democrat in politics.


Dr. Commodore P. Barrett, the third child in a family of twelve chil- dren, and the son of Isaac and Louisa Barrett, was born in Pike county, Indiana, November 26, 1869. He was raised on a farm and attended the district schools during the winter. Began teaching school in 1889 and continued several years in the country and village schools. Grad- uated from the State I. N. School at Princeton, Ind., in 1891. and from the Hospital College of Indiana at Louisville, Ky., in 1898. Since his graduation he has been engaged in the practice of his profession in


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Pike and in Posey counties. He was located for a time at Grafton and more recently at Oliver Station, in Posey county. At present he is located at Mt. Vernon, Ind. Dr. Barrett was married in 1898 to Miss Jada M. Glasson, of Warrick county, Indiana. This union has been blessed with three children, two boys and a girl.


Orba Leonard Woods, M. D., was born September 27, 1883. He is the son of Albert Franklin and Mary E. Woods. Attended the Prince- ton public schools and graduated from the high school in 1903. Worked for the United States Express Company in St. Louis about one year. Entered Indiana Medical College in 1905. This school became affiliated with the Indiana University and was known as the Indiana School of Medicine. Dr. Woods graduated therefrom in 1909. He then served as interne at St. Anthony's Hospital, Terre Haute. In the fall of 1910 he located at Poseyville, Ind., in the office of Dr. Runcie, deceased, where he still resides and practices his profession. December 14, 1910, Dr. Woods was married to Miss Margaret Deutsch, of Houston, Tex., formerly of Terre Haute, Ind. Two children have been born to them- Elsie Frances and Loren Paul. Since the doctor is young and well equipped for his calling, a large field of usefulness is open to him.




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