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Rock County, Wisconsin

Biographies

"Justin Herbert Burdick"

JUSTIN HERBERT BURDICK, M.D. Both grandfathers of this eminent physician of Milton
were pioneers of Rock County. The paternal grandfather, George Stillman BURDICK, was a native of Rhode Island, and of English extraction. In his native State he was a member of the State militia. By occupation he was a lifelong farmer, and migrating about 1842 to Wisconsin, he located in Lima township, Rock County, where he followed farming for many years, removing to Milton a few years before his death, in 1890, at the ripe old age of eighty-nine years. His wife survived him several years, passing away at the age of ninety-two. Both were devout members of the Seventh-day Baptist Church. George S. BURDICK was a man of quiet, retiring disposition, but of firm principles and strict integrity,. He had four children, two sons and two daughters.
The maternal grandfather of our subject, Abel BABCOK, also a native of Rhode Island, about
1842 cast his lot with the fortunes of the growing Western State of Wisconsin. In the East he had been a woolen manufacturer, and after his arrival in Wisconsin he opened at Milton the "Dulac House," one of the finest hotels of the village. A few years later he entered mercantile business, which he followed successfully until incapacitated by old age. He lived to about the age of eighty years. His family consisted of twelve children.
George BURDICK, the father of our subject, was born in New York, and when a minor came
with his parents to Lima township, Rock Co., Wis., where he was reared on his father's farm. He married Harriet BABCOCK, who was born in Pennsylvania, and to them were born two children: Clifford R., who died at the age of two years; and Justin Herbert, our subject. The father purchased land in Lima township, and adopted farming as his vocation. For the past fifteen years he and his wife have made Milton their home. They are prominent members of the Seventh-day Baptist Church, of which society he is a trustee.
Justin Herbert BURDICK, our subject, was born in Milton Dec. 29, 1851. He was reared on
the farm in Lima township, five miles northeast of Milton, attending the district schools, and later, from 1868 to 1874, Milton College, selecting the classical course. Choosing medicine as his profession, he began his studies in 1874 under Dr. O. ALLEN, and in 1875-76 attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from the Medical Department of the Northwestern University, Chicago, in 1877. Until September, 1878, he was connected professionally with Mercy Hospital, Chicago, and then began private practice at Utica, Dane Co., Wis., continuing thus from 1878 to 1887. There had been inherited a taste for manufacture which now for a few years asserted itself. Relinquishing his practice, Dr. BURDICK began at Milwaukee the manufacture of steel elastic nuts for bolts, a device that has been widely introduced among the leading railroads of the country, East and West, and especially in the Northwest, their advantages in the great saving of construction and maintenance of track commending general use. For six years he continued actively engaged in this manufacture, but professional life called him back. He retains his stock in the National Elastic Nut Co., of Milwaukee, but in 1893, he re-entered the profession of medicine, locating at Milton, where he has ever since enjoyed a lucrative and growing practice.
Dr. BURDICK married, Aug. 30, 1882, Miss Fannie E. COON, daughter of Samuel H. and
Lucy (COON). Five children were born to them, Percy Willard, Paul Howard, Lucy Adene, Justin Hugh, and Clifford Leslie. Mrs. BURDICK died Nov. 12, 1896, aged thirty-four years, and for his second wife Dr. BURDICK married, Sept. 1, 1898, Miss Clara L. STILLMAN, a native of Rhode Island, daughter of Jairus M. and Clara (LANGWORTHY) STILLMAN. By this marriage Dr. BURDICK has two children, William Stillman and Ruth Evelyn. Dr. and Mrs. BURDICK are members of the Seventh-day Baptist Church at Milton. Politically he has always been a Republican. For the past four years he has been executive officer of the Milton board of health. He is also a trustee of Milton College. His pleasant home in Milton he erected in 1893. He is public-spirited, and both as a physician and a citizen ranks high in the estimation of the people of Milton and the surrounding region, where he is widely known.
 
Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin" (c) 1901, pp. 17-18.
 
Courtesy of Carol

This page last updated July 12, 2002
 
©2002 WIBiographies-Rock County
 
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