My Genealogy Hound

Andrew J. Widener is a prominent member of the medical fraternity of Clark County, and, although still a young man, he has already established a reputation of which many an older physician might justly feel proud. His father, William B. Widener, a farmer by occupation, was born in Georgia in December, 1819, and was married to Miss Mary Osborn, also of Georgia, by whom he had nine children, the subject of this sketch being the sixth in order of birth. In 1852 the family emigrated to Clark County, Ark., and here the father died in 1880. During the late war his experiences as a soldier were somewhat varied. Although his sympathies were with the Union, he served in the Confederate army in an Arkansas regiment of infantry for some time, and participated in the battle of Brownsfight, and others. In his political views he sided with the Republican party. He was a member of the Church of Christ, to which church his widow also belongs, and in which they were both earnest workers. He was also a member of the Union League. His widow is still living at the age of sixty-five, and resides with her son, the subject of this sketch. Andrew J. Widener is eminently a self-made man. His education is the result of his own exertions, as he went to school on credit and afterward worked on a farm to pay for it; his medical education was obtained the same way. He received his literary education at the Amity Academy, finishing at the State University at Fayetteville. When a boy of seventeen, against his father's wishes he commenced the study of medicine, and afterward taught school. In 1884 he resumed the study of medicine under Dr. F. Biggs. In 1884 and 1885 he attended lectures at the American Medical College; then taught school for five months, and then commenced the practice of medicine at Dobyville, which he continued for eighteen months. In 1886 and 1887 he again attended lectures at the American Medical College, where he graduated, since which time he has been engaged in the practice of his profession at Gurdon, where he has already built up a large practice. In connection with this practice, Dr. Widener is also engaged in the drug business, keeping his own dispensing medicines, etc. May 2, 1888, he was married to Miss Susie E. May, daughter of J. M. and J. C. May, of this county, and this union has resulted in the birth of one child, a daughter. Both Mr. and Mrs. Widener are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the former being recording steward. In 1889 he was elected corresponding secretary of the Arkansas Eclectic Medical Association, and in 1890 he was re-elected to the same office.