 |
- SAMUEL BRUCE BUCKMASTER, M.D., is one of the best-
- known physicians of the Northwest. His learning and character
command the confidence of the public, and he is rapidly acquiring
a National reputation in certain important departments of medical
science.
- Dr. BUCKMASTER was born in Lima, Ohio, April 26, 1853, and
- is now at the full prime of his manly powers. He has had
an extensive and varied experience, and is an alert and vigorous
man. He is a son of Samuel R. and Mary (TRACY) BUCKMASTER, both
natives of Pennsylvania, who were the parents of five sons and
two daughters, four of whom are now living: Joshua, at San Francisco;
Ella, Mrs. THOMPSON, of Chicago; Dr. Samuel B.; and Harry E.,
of Chicago.
|
- Samuel R. BUCKMASTER was a manufacturer in Ohio, whither
his parents moved when he was only six months old, settling in
Holmes county, and living there some years. There he grew to
manhood, and there he was married. About 1835 he located at Lima,
Ohio, and engaged in the manufacture of furniture. He was a prominent
man in his day, and served as sheriff of the county for several
terms. At the breaking out of the Civil war he organized Company
B, 1st Ohio Calvary, was appointed captain of that company, and
served a year or more, when he was severely injured by his horse
falling upon him. He left the service a chronic invalid, and
died from his injury in 1878, at the age of sixty-five. His wife
died in 1865, when about fifty years old. One of his sons, Jasper
N., ran away from home and enlisted as a drummer boy at the age
of fourteen, and being a brilliant boy rose rapidly in the service,
receiving commission as a captain before he was eighteen; he
died of injuries received in the war. Dr. BUCKMASTER had two
other brothers in the war, George and Joshua, and two brothers-in-law,
who were taken prisoner and confined at Andersonville.
- Joshua BUCKMASTER, the grandfather of Dr. Samuel B., was
a native of Maryland, of English
- descent, and moved into eastern Ohio while it was yet a wilderness.
He had a family of several sons and daughters. He moved to Lima
later in life, and died near Toledo when eighty-six years old.
He was a man of sterling character. He served in the war of 1812,
being a volunteer with PERRY in his battle at Put-in-Bay, and
his father was a veteran of the Revolutionary war. The BUCKMASTERs
are an old New England family, and the name is familiar in colonial
records since 1638, the year they came from England to settle
at Sudbury, Mass. Mrs. Mary (TRACY) BUCKMASTER lost her father
when she was a small girl. He was a native of Pennsylvania.
- Dr. Samuel BUCKMASTER was reared in Lima, Ohio, until he
reached the age of twelve
- years, when his mother died, and he went to live with his
brother George, in Toledo, Iowa, only spending a year with him,
however. He attended high school at Peru, Ind., and business
college at Toledo, Ohio, taught school one term, and then became
bookkeeper for the Ford-Hamlet bending works, at Tippecanoe City,
Ohio. When eighteen years old he went to Yreka City, Cal., and
taught school three years in that place. Returning East, he was
a bookkeeper in Chicago four years. While in California he was
near the lava beds where the celebrated Modoc war occurred; he
went in as a volunteer, and helped care for the bodies of Gen.
CANBY and the other peace commissioners who had perished at the
hands of Capt. Jack and his band of bloodthirsty savages. On
his return East our subject began the study of Medicine at Janesville
with Dr. Henry PALMER, surgeon-general of Wisconsin. He was graduated
from the medical department of the University of Virginia in
1879, and the next fall took a special course in the University
of the City of New York and at Bellevue Hospital. In the spring
of 1880 he received the appointment of third assistant physician
at the State Hospital for the Insane, at Madison, Wis., and a
year later was made second assistant. Another year and he was
promoted to be first assistant, and in July, 1884, when thirty-one
years old, he was the unanimous choice of the State board of
supervision of Wisconsin institutions for the position of superintendent
of the State Hospital. He made a record rarely surpassed for
efficiency in every department of his labor, and in five years
became widely known. In December, 1889, he resigned his position
that he might give his children proper educational advantages
- the hospital being too far from the city - and located in Chicago,
in which city he was engaged in practice several years.
- While superintendent of the hospital Dr. BUCKMASTER was credited
with making many
- improvements in caring for the insane. He was the first superintendent
in the West to adopt the non-restraint system; and in recognition
of his work in this line was elected vice-president for Wisconsin
of the Medico-Legal Society of the United States. His portrait
was published in the group of twelve eminent alienists given
as a premium by the "Medico-Legal Journal."
- While in Chicago Dr. BUCKMASTER was elected adjunct professor
of physiology in the
- College of Physicians and Surgeons, and later held the position
of professor of medical and surgical electricity in the same
institution. He also became professor of physiology and president
of the West Side Dispensary, which treats nearly 25,000 patients
yearly. He has read numerous valuable and instructive papers
before various medical bodies, and is a frequent contributor
to medical publications; belongs to several medical societies,
and is a member of the Loyal Legion bearing the name of President
Rutherford B. HAYES. Membership in this order passes from father
to son, and he holds it because his father was an officer in
the Union service, and died, as noted above, from injuries received
while in service.
- Dr. BUCKMASTER did not find the climate of Chicago congenial
to either his family or himself,
- and he accordingly bought an interest in the sanitarium at
Hudson, Wis., of which popular resort he was superintendent for
three years, when he disposed of his interest there, accepting
a similar position in the Oakwood Sanitarium, at Lake Geneva,
Wis. His health giving out, on account of the close confinement
necessitated by his work, he disposed of his interests there,
and spent a couple of months in Minnesota recuperating. While
there he visited Dr. HART, who was an Indian agent, and, an outbreak
occurring, he nearly lost his life. Dr. BUCKMASTER came to Janesville
Dec. 1, 1898, with the intention of making his permanent home
in the city. Here his wife's people live, and here he has many
friends. He has practiced from the day of his arrival here, and
now commands a patronage second to no physician in the State.
- The Doctor was married to Miss Minnie HOLDREDGE May 9, 1882.
She is a daughter of
- Samuel and Mary (LEE) HOLDREDGE, and a lady of many accomplishments,
being a graduate of the Boston College of Oratory, and was instructor
in elocution at the Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis. Her great-grandfather
was a Revolutionary soldier, and made a speech at Cooper Institute
when one hundred and ten years old, speaking to ten thousand
people; he lived six years after that remarkable event. Dr. and
Mrs. BUCKMASTER have three daughters; Mary E., Ada A. and Agnes
T. She is a member of the Congregational Church, and is in every
way a worthy associate of so learned and popular a character
as her husband. The Doctor is a Republican in political sentiment.
|
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 224-226; lithograph from same book.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|
