My Genealogy Hound

Dr. James McComb, physician and surgeon at Lebanon, Mo., was born near Jacksonville, Ill., March 12, 1832, and is the son of James and Elizabeth (Lewis) McComb, natives of Knox County, Tenn., and of Scotch descent. The paternal grandfather, William McComb, crossed the ocean to America, and died, after several years, in Tennessee. James McComb, Sr., was reared by an uncle in Tennessee, his parents having died when he was quite young, and attained his growth on a farm. He was married to Miss Lewis in Tennessee, and afterward moved to Morgan County, Mo., where he died in 1837. The mother died several years afterward. They were the parents of ten children, six now living: William, Lewis, Mary, Amy, Dr. James and David. Dr. James McComb was but five years of age when his father died, and he remained with his mother until after her death, which occurred when he was seventeen years of age. He received his early education in the log school-houses, but later attended two years at Warsaw College. He then taught school for two years in order to get money to further his education. In 1856 he attended the State University, in the meantime studying medicine. In 1857 he took his first course of lectures at St. Louis Medical College, and practiced as a first course student until 1865, when he graduated at the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia. In 1858 he came to Laclede County, Mo., and located at Lebanon in 1863, where he has since practiced his profession with great success. He is now the oldest practicing physician in the county, and has built up a large and lucrative practice. He was married in 1860 to Miss Mary L. Holman, who was born in North Carolina, and who became the mother of seven children: Charles A., James A., Virgil J. (a druggist), George E. (deputy county clerk), William E., Ernest H. and Floyd J. The latter three are in school. Charles and James graduated in medicine, and are now practicing their profession, the former at Dixon, Mo., and the latter at Bentonville, Ark. The Doctor is a member of the Masonic fraternity, also the A. O. U. W., and he and Mrs. McComb and their children, except the youngest two, are members of the Christian Church.