Physician bios

p. 917 - JOSEPH GRANVILLE NORWOOD, M. D., LL. D.

"The subject of this sketch was born in Woodford county, Kentucky, December 20th, 1807. His father, Charles Norwood, was a native of Westmoreland county, Virginia, and the son of John Norwood, an English gentleman, who came to Virginia about the year 1740. Charles, the eldest son of John Norwood, was born in 1753 and was married in 1781 to Ann Dale, of Westmoreland county. He was a soldier of the revolutionary war. Three sons and two daughters were born of his marriage: Frederick, John, Frances, Charles and Ann. Upon the death of his first wife he removed to Kentucky with his family and a number of relatives. He first settled in Franklin county, but after several years he purchased and removed to a farm in Woodford, about five miles from Versailles and seventeen from Lexington. After his removal he married Mildred Dale, a sister of his first wife. Of the children of this marriage Joseph G. is the only survivor. During the war of 1812, Charles Norwood built and operated a powder mill for the purpose of supplying the American army. In 1815 he moved to a small farm near Lexington where he spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1832.

"When quite young the subject of his sketch became a pupil of the graded school of Aldrich & Vaughn at Lexington. It was the fixed purpose of the elder Norwood that his son should become a physician, while the boy was equally determined to become a printer. The conflict of wishes between he father and son resulted in the son being placed with Mr Jacob Winn, a private banker and manufacturer of bale-rope and bagging. He remained with Mr. Winn for one year. The elder Norwood recognizing the bent of his son's mind, now made arrangements with Mr. John Bradford, of the Lexington ADVERTISER, by which he would be allowed to enter his printing office for the purpose of learning the trade for which he had previously shown such an earnest predilection. After working several years in this office he changed to the Kentucky WHIG, published by Nelson Nicholas. Mr. Nicholas died soon after young Norwood entered his office and when the material was sold he bought it of the administrator, Hon. R. Hawes. Seeing an opportunity to dispose of the property to good advantage, young Norwood soon after sold the office and subscription list to Thomas Smith, editor the Kentucky REPORTER. Mr. Norwood now left Lexington and spent nearly a year in travelling in the Southern and Eastern states, returning in the fall of 1827. Soon after his return to Kentucky he went to Cincinnati, and purchased material for a book and job office. There was no lack of work in the way of books and periodicals and the publishing house soon became a popular and paying business. In 1830, Mr. Norwood formed a partnership with James W. Palmer, who insisted on moving the publishing house to Louisville, which in the end proved to be a serious mistake, as Mr. Norwood had predicted from the start. Mr. Palmer offered to purchase his partner's interest in the business, and his offer was accepted. Mr. Norwood then entered a commission house conducted by a relative, but soon found that he knew nothing about the business, with little inclination to learn. He therefore withdrew from the firm and returned to Lexington with the fixed determination to devote himself to the study of medicine and the cognate sciences.

"He accordingly entered Transylvania College and earnestly applied himself to the study of medicine. He opened an office at Madison, Indiana, in March, 1835, and continued to practice his profession until about the close of January following, when he returned to Lexington and graduated the spring following. In 1840 he was called to the Madison Medical Institute and appointed to the chair of surgery. In 1843 he was chosen to fill the chair of materia medica, general therapeutics and medical jurisprudence in the medical department of the University of St. Louis. He remained with this institution until the spring of 1847 when he resigned to accept a place of assistant United States geologist for he country now embraced in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Dakota. The survey lasted until 1851. In 1851 he received the appointment of State geologist for Illinois, and continued in this survey until the spring of 1858, when he was removed from office by the newly elected Republican governor. In the spring of 1858 he was invited by Prof. G. C. Swallow to take the place of an assistant in the geological survey of Missouri and accepted the offer. He continued in this survey until 1860, when he was elected to the chair of natural science in the University of Missouri. He accepted the place and has been a member of the faculty ever since.

"He has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Louisa Taylor, daughter of a merchant, formerly of Richmond, Virginia. Her mother's maiden name was Lotspeich, being of Holland origin. Two sons and one daughter were born of this marriage. The daughter is living, the widow of Col. J. A. Hendricks, of Indiana, who was killed at Pea Ridge. The eldest son died of small-pox in 1831. Mrs. Norwood and her youngest son died of cholera, at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1833. In 1837 Dr. Norwood was married to Mary Frances, a daughter of Mr. John Pugh, of Madison, Indiana. Three sons and five daughters were born of this marriage. Two of the sons and one daughter died in infancy. The third and youngest son, Charles J. Norwood, was for some years engaged in the State geological surveys of Missouri and Kentucky, and was formerly professor of natural science in Bethel College, at Russellville, Kentucky. He is now editor of the HERALD-ENTERPRISE, Russellville, Kentucky. He married Miss Sallie White, daughter of Hon. Dougherty White, of Lancaster, Kentucky. Four of the daughters of this last marriage are living, and three of them are married. Louise is the wife of Mr. Overton A. Fitch, of Madison, Indiana. They have one child, now in his sixteenth year. Eliza Boone is the wife of Mr. Henry McConathy of Columbia. They have four children, two sons and two daughters. Emma is the wife of John D. Vincil, D.D., of St. Louis. They have one son. In the year of 1862, during the occupancy of the University building by Federal troops, Dr. Norwood visited the building every day and remained there protecting the property of the University. It may be well to say that, during these years, he has the reputation of having always done his duty according to his strength and ability."

The subject of this sketch is the son of Dr. Joseph Points, who was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, January 7th, 1797. His father and mother, Arthur and Ellen Points, were old settlers of that State. Joseph studied medicine in Fayette county, under Doctors Witherspoon and Ennis, and subsequently practiced his profession in that locality, remaining in Fayette county until 1836, when he came to Boone county, Missouri, and bought the farm where the subject of this sketch now resides. He continued the practice of medicine until his death, July 28th, 1875. There are now over forty physicians actively employed in the territory in which he once had the exclusive practice. He was married in Fayette county, Kentucky, September, 1819, to Miss Sallie, daughter of Joseph and Nancy Robinson. Eleven children, five sons and six daughters, were born of his marriage. Four of the children are now living. Mrs. Points was born December 28th, 1798, and is still living, at the advanced age of eighty-four years, retaining much of her former vigor and cheerfulness.

Dr. J. W. Points, the subject of this sketch, was born in Fayette county, Kentucky, November 24th, 1834. When in his second year, his father removed to Boone county, Missouri. He was educated at the common schools, and read medicine under his father and Dr. Lee Brown. He made his home on the old Points homestead and has succeeded to a large portion of his fathers practice. He was married, December 7th, 1855, to Miss Cordelia A., daughter of Samuel and Jane Huddleston, of Boone county. They have two children, William H., and Mary Elizabeth, who is now the wife of J.W. Grady, of this county. The first wife dying in 1864, Dr. Points was again married in 1874, to Mrs. Elizabeth Schell, of Cole county, Missouri. They have no children by this marriage. Dr. Points has been a citizen of Boone county all his life, except about six years spent in Cole county, Missouri. He is a member of the Methodist Church South. His father was likewise a zealous member of the same church. His mother is also a Methodist.

Dr. Anthony Wayne Rollins was born in Westmoreland county, PA, March 5, 1783. His father, Henry Rollins, was a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, and came to America during the Revolutionary war, in which he took a part on the side of the Colonies. Among other engagements in which he participated, he was at the battle of Brandywine. Dr. A. W. Rollins was reared amidst the disadvantages of poverty, and was thrown at an early period upon his own resources to fight the battle of life. Possessing a firm physical constitution and good native intellect, he went resolutely to work with a strong purpose to achieve success and to win a respectable position amongst men. By alternately working on a farm and attending such primitive schools as were at that early day to be found in the country, he gained the rudiments of a good common school education, which enabled him to become a schoolmaster himself. In this useful and honorable employment he was engaged until he got sufficiently ahead with ready means to enter Jefferson College, at Connonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he successfully completed his education. In 1803 or 1804 he went to Kentucky and lived successively in the counties of Bourbon, Fayette and Madison, engaging in school teaching and pursuing the study of medicine. He engaged in practice as a physician in Richmond, the county seat of Madison county, which he made his permanent home for twenty-five years.

On the 18th day of April, 1811, he was united in marriage to Miss Sallie Harris Rodes, the second daughter of Judge Robert Rodes, a prominent and distinguished citizen of Madison county, and a sister of the venerable Colonel William Rodes, of Richmond, and also of Major Clifton Rodes, now residing at Danville, Kentucky. She was a lady of refined and beautiful character, and the union was one which bought great contentment and happiness to the parties. By this marriage there were seven children, of whom only two are not living the eldest, the Honorable James S. Rollins, of Columbia, Missouri, and the youngest Mrs. Sarah H. Burnam, the elegant and accomplished wife of the Honorable Curtis F. Burnam, graduate of Yale College, and a distinguished lawyer of Kentucky.

In the spring of 1830, his eldest daughter, Eliza, having made a marriage engagement with Dr. James H. Bennett, then residing in Columbia, Missouri, and the health of Dr. Rollins failing, he determined to emigrate with his family to Missouri. Having purchased a fine body of land, partially improved, in the western part of Boone county, about four miles north of the Missouri river, he came and took possession of it in the spring of 1830, and pursued steadily thereafter the profession of agriculture until his death, which occurred at Richland, his residence in Boone county, on the 9th day of October, 1845, in the sixty-third year of his age. He was buried at the family cemetery with Masonic honors, of which ancient order he had been a life-long member; but his remains, with those of his affectionate wife, were afterwards removed to the Columbia Cemetery, where they now rest. Dr. Rollins took great interest in the establishment of schools, in building churches and in all other enterprises calculated to improve the social and physical condition of the people among whom he lived. His services in behalf of the State University are set down in the history of that institution, on other pages of this work. What is known as the Rollins Aid fund was created by him pursuant to the following provision of his last will and testament:

Item 7th Having felt the great disadvantages of poverty in the acquisition of my own education, it is my will that my executors, hereinafter named, shall, as early after my death as them may deem expedient, raise the sum of $10,000 by the sale of lands of which I may die seized, and which I have not especially bequeathed in any of the foregoing items, which sum of $10,000 I desire may be set aside for the education of such poor and indigent youths of Boone county, male and female, as are not able to educate themselves.

The principal of this sum, by careful management under the direction of the County Court of Boone county, has increased to $30,000, three-fourths of the annual interest upon which sum is annually expended in giving aid to such young men and women as desire to obtain an education at the State University, and the remaining one-fourth of the interest is added regularly to the principal. Already some hundreds of pupils have received substantial aid from this source, without which they would not have been able to prosecute their studies.

Dr. Rollins was a man of fine presence and noble mien, and cordially admired for his genial manner and high character. The engraving on another page is from a portrait by Bingham, now in the library of the University, and is said to be a good likeness of the distinguished subject. (Rollins portrait p. 254).

Dr. Rothwell was born in Garrard county, Kentucky, July 1, 1840. His father, Fountain Rothwell, a native of Virginia, now resides in the above named county, where he has spent the greater part of his life, being a large farmer and stock-raiser. His mother, JENNIE ROTHWELL, WAS A NATIVE OF Kentucky, and a daughter of Naaman Robberts, an officer in the war of 182. John was the fifth child and fourth son of a family of seven children. Of his brothers, Rev. W. A. Rothwell, M.D. now resides in Moberly; James M. Rothwell was captain in the Federal army, and is now an extensive coal miner in Kentucky; Samuel D. Rothwell was a lieutenant in the Federal army; Gideon B. Rothwell is now living on the old homestead in Kentucky. His sister is the wife of Rev. W. A. Cravens, of Carthage, Missouri. The doctor received a liberal education in his native State, graduating at Danville Central College in 1857. He commenced the study of medicine in March, 1858, with Dr. W. A. Rothwell, who then lived in Callaway county, Missouri, and continued with this gentleman until May, 1860, entering the St. Louis Medical College in the fall of the latter year. He was married in St. Louis to Miss Anna M. Cuthbert, daughter of Mrs. Cuthbert, principal of Cuthbert Academy, St. Louis, Missouri. In March, 1861, he commenced the practice of his chosen profession in Boone county, Missouri. During a part of the years 1861 and 1862 he was surgeon in the Confederate army; he then resumed the practice in this county, and continued it until the year 1874, when he went to Colorado with his invalid wife. Returning from that State two years later, he again commenced the practice in Ashland, this county, where he still lives. He was again married May 2, 1860, to Miss Savilla J. Ruffner, who was a daughter of Peter J. Ruffner, a large farmer and one of the early settlers of Boone county. Of this marriage one son and one daughter were born, of whom the son is still living. Dr. Rothwell is now practicing with Dr. W. T. Lemon; is a member of the Methodist church and of the town council of Ashland; an excellent physician, and an estimable citizen.

Dr. John M. Shock is a native of Boone county, Missouri. He is the son of David S. Shock, one of the early and substantial pioneers, a Kentuckian by birth, and a native of Fayette county. The father of David Shock was a Virginian and a soldier under Mad Anthony Wayne, in his famous campaign against the French and Indians. He remained in the army for three years. The Shocks are of French origin. The father and grandfather of Dr. Shock were members of the regular Baptist church. The subject of this biography was born one and a half miles north of Columbia, August 16th, 1824. He was brought up on the farm and attended the common schools of the country, which in his day were none of the best, but by close application he mastered the studies then taught in our district schools and became a teacher. After six years of diligent labor in the school room, he attended Popes Medical College in St. Louis, where he graduated in 1858. Returning from St. Louis, he commenced the practice of his profession in the neighborhood where he now resides. He has had all the practice he could attend to in the last quarter of a century. He is still in the prime of vigorous manhood, and at this writing is equal to the labor of the busiest year of his life. He has prospered in business almost from the start. He owns over five hundred acres of very fine land besides other valuable property. He was married in 1852 to Miss Sallie A. Sheley, daughter of Ransom Sheley, of Callaway county, Missouri. One child was born of this marriage. The first wife died three years after marriage and the doctor chose for his second wife Miss Catherine Ritchie, of Kentucky. She died in 1860, leaving one child. He was married the third time to Miss Sallie J. M. McQuitty, daughter of George McQuitty, a prominent farmer of Boone county. They have four children by this marriage, one son and three daughters. Dr. Shock is a zealous and influential member of the Baptist church and a teacher in the Walnut Grove Sunday school. He is a member of the Everett Grange, also a member of the Rocheport lodge of A.F. and A.M. His life has been a success. He is, in the strictest sense of the tem, a self-made man. (Shock portrait p. 106).

Dr. Sitton is the son of J.T. and Priscilla (May) Sitton, and was born on a farm two miles from Fulton, Callaway county, Missouri, March 8, 1822. His father was a native of Tennessee, and his mother of Kentucky, though they came to Missouri in an early day, where they became acquainted and were married. Dr. Felix G. was the eldest of a family of four sons and one daughter, the latter being deceased. One of the brothers resides at Ashland, in this county, and the other, Albert G. Sitton, is in the medical practice at Claysville. The subject of this sketch attended the common schools of his native county, and acquired a knowledge of algebra, natural philosophy, etc., at the school of Mr. Woodsworth, near Williamsburg. At that time he was eighteen years old. For the next two years he engaged in teaching, also continuing his studies in private. In the spring of 1845 he commenced the study of medicine under D. E. Rackliffe, of Portland, Callaway county, at the same time earning the means to prosecute his studies by his own industry. Two years later he went to St. Louis, where he finished his medical course and received his diploma from the St. Louis Medical College. He began the practice four miles north of Ashland in 1849, boarding first in the family of Mr. Strode, and practicing in that part of the county. In 1855 he moved to Ashland, where he has since resided and practiced his profession. June 14, 1846, he enlisted in Capt. Rogers company of Col. Doniphans regiment, and served in the Mexican war in the Army of the West, under Gen. Kearney. On account of failing health, however, he was discharged from service, and returned home in August. In the following May, his health being recovered, he went to ST. Louis to continue his studies in the hospitals. Dr. Sitton was first married January 4, 1853, to Miss Susan Strode, daughter of Jacob S. and Frances Strode. She died September 14, 1871, having borne 1852, and twenty-two years of that time he has served as moderator. He is an active temperance man and a strong prohibitionist. The historians of this work are much indebted to Dr. Sitton for a detailed history of new Salem church, of which he has been so long a member.