- JAMES A. LORD, M.D., deceased. For almost half a century
the name of LORD was
- prominently identified with the medical history of Rock county.
Our subject's father, Dr. Simon Lock LORD, was for many years
an influential and successful practitioner of Edgerton, and after
his retirement the large and lucrative practice was continued
by Dr. James A. LORD.
- The family is of Puritan extraction. The paternal great-grandfather
of James A. LORD, Adam
- LORD, was a Revolutionary soldier. He married Olive KNIGHT,
a lady of English extraction, and was a lifelong farmer of Maine.
Their son, James LORD, grandfather of our subject, also followed
the vocation of farming in Maine, and lived to the ripe old age
of eighty-five. He married Hannah DURELL, daughter of David and
Mary DURELL, of French Huguenot extraction, and to them were
born a large family.
- Simon Lock LORD, the father of our subject, studied medicine,
and in 1852 migrated from Maine
- to Iowa, locating first at Dubuque, and later at Dyersville.
In 1857 he came to Edgerton, Rock Co., Wis., and there began
a memorable practice which was broken by his distinguished service
in the Civil war. He enlisted in September, 1861, in the 13th
Wis. V. I., and was mustered in as assistant surgeon. Proceeding
with the regiment from Janesville, Wis., to Fort Scott, Kans.,
he was there detached to organize a hospital for 400 sick and
chronic and wounded cases. Once organized, the hospital was left
in charge of Dr. COOKLY, and Dr. LORD was transferred to Corinth,
Miss., and detached as flag surgeon by Gen. MITCHELL, then commandant
of the fleet. In June, 1862, he was detailed as surgeon in charge
of the 12 Wis. V. I., at Humboldt, Tenn., where he found Dr.
J. M. EVANS, surgeon of the 13th Wis. V. I., sick and relieved
the latter, who returned home to Evansville. Meanwhile Dr. LORD
had been appointed staff surgeon under Gen. RANSOM. In October,
1862, he received orders from Gen. GRANT's headquarters to report
at Holly Springs, Miss., while Gen. GRANT was moving on Vicksburg,
and was there ordered to take charge of the sick and wounded
as assistant medical director of the department in Kentucky,
and inspector of camps and hospitals. In the performance of his
duty as inspector he found 900 men unfit for duty behind the
fortifications, and transferred them to Mound City (Ill.) Hospital.
He was next instructed to proceed to Memphis, Tenn., and convert
the Adams block into a hospital. Under his charge it became the
finest hospital on the Mississippi river. Within ten days he
had the care of 400 sick soldiers in bed. After the battle of
Vicksburg the patients numbered 1,700, for whose care there were
employed 160 nurses and eleven assistant surgeons. In April,
1863, Dr. LORD was appointed surgeon of the 32d Wis. V. I. under
Gen. BRYANT, of Madison, Wis., and was with him at Vicksburg,
as staff surgeon, until after the capitulation. Relieved from
this special service, he rejoined his regiment, and was later
placed in the Medical Director's Department of the Tennessee,
for the examination of surgeons and assistant surgeons of colored
regiments. In November, 1863, he was ordered with his regiment
to Grand Junction, Miss. The month following Gen. HOWE was placed
in command of the brigade, and Dr. LORD was commissioned brigade
surgeon, still retaining his commission as surgeon of the 32d
Wis. V. I. In 1864 this command was under Gen. SHERMAN, in the
Meridian raid, and was afterward attached to Gen. HOWARD's brigade,
and ordered to Kenesaw Mountain and thence to Decatur, Alabama.
- Here the health of Dr. LORD finally gave way under the long
and arduous duties which he had
- most creditably discharged, and at the advice of his friends
he in September, 1864, resigned and returned home. For a year
he practiced at Janesville, then at the solicitation of old friends
he returned to Edgerton, his old home, where he practiced continually
until within a few years of his death, which occurred Feb. 18,
1893, when he was aged sixty-seven years. His widow, Mary M.
(WRIGHT) LORD, who survived until May, 1896, the only daughter
of Ansel WRIGHT, a Methodist clergyman, who was a native of New
York, and who in an early day moved to Iowa, where, until his
death, comparatively early in life, he was a circuit rider. To
Dr. Simon L. and Mary M. (WRIGHT) LORD were born nine children,
namely: Charles H., of Mexico; Dr. James A., our subject; William
F., of St. Paul, Minn.; Edward S., of Manitowoc, Wis.; Belle,
wife of George F. McGIFFIN, of Edgerton; Mary L., wife of Frank
WARE, of Hitchcock, Texas; Emily M., of St. Paul; Blanche C.,
wife of Charles L. TELLER, of New York City; and Nellie M., of
Edgerton, Wis. Dr. Simon L. LORD, the father, was for some years
quite prominent in politics at Edgerton. He was an active Republican.
From 1880 to 1882 he served in the State Assembly, and during
the succeeding four years, 1882 to 1886, he was a member of the
State Senate. Among the fraternal orders he was a leading Mason
at Edgerton. Early in life he was a member of the Methodist Church,
with which religious society his wife also was actively identified,
but at the time of his death he was not identified with any church.
- Dr. James A. LORD was born in Edgerton July 22, 1858. He
was reared in his native town,
- where he attended the public schools, completing his literary
education at Epworth Seminary, Epworth, Iowa, where he attended
one year. He began the study of medicine in his father's office,
and completed the course of study and lectures at Rush Medical
College, Chicago, graduating in 1879, with the degree of M.D.,
at the age of twenty-one. The young physician at once became
associated with his father in practice at Edgerton, continuing
in this manner until the father retired from active professional
life, after which he practiced alone. He was a progressive, careful
and enthusiastic physician, and enjoyed a large and lucrative
practice until his decease, Dec. 1, 1900.
- The Doctor married, April 6, 1881, Miss Ida G. WILLIAMS,
of Madison, daughter of John P.
- and Mary (MOSELY) WILLIAMS, and to them was born one son,
Karl W. Mrs. LORD is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Dr. LORD was a Republican in politics, and fraternally a Mason.
He was devoted to his profession, and kept thoroughly abreast
of the rapid strides of progress made these later days in medicine
and surgery.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 10-11.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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