My Genealogy Hound

Dr. Frank DeVilbiss deserves honorable mention as one of the successful physicians and surgeons of Spring Garden, Mo. He was born in Licking County, Ohio, in 1839, and was the sixth in a family of seven children born to William and Julia (Cornell) DeVilbiss, who were natives of Maryland and Ohio, respectively. The father moved with his parents to Ohio when quite young, and there grew to manhood and married, and throughout life was an energetic and successful tiller of the soil. He died in 1865, but his wife survived him, and was afterward married to O. P. Freeman. After residing in California, Mo., from 1874 to 1878, they located in Wayne County, Mo., and shortly after moved to Duquoin, Ill., and in 1887 settled on a farm near the town, and are there now living. Alexander DeVilbiss, the grandfather of our subject, was an early settler of Ohio, and the town of Alexander was named after him. Dr. Frank DeVilbiss was reared on a farm, and assisted at home in the manufacture of brooms. At the age of twelve years, or in 1871, he came to Jasper County, Mo., with his parents, and in 1874 to California, Mo., and here received the greater part of his early education. In 1878 his parents moved to Wayne County, Mo., but he remained at California, and engaged in teaching school in Moniteau County for three winters. For eighteen months he was occupied in studying medicine, and then entered the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, from which institution he graduated in the spring of 1883, and then came directly to Spring Garden, where he has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession. He keeps his own line of drugs, and has built up quite an extensive practice. In 1881 he was married, in Moniteau County, to Miss Maggie Pettigrew, by whom he has two children: Edgar F., who is attending school in Spring Garden, and Mildred. Dr. DeVilbiss, before entering medical college, pursued his studies while engaged in teaching school. He affiliates with the Democratic party, but is not a member of any secret organization. He and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a steward in the same. Mrs. DeVilbiss’ parents, George and Nancy (Adams) Pettigrew, were born in Ireland, and came to St. Louis County, Mo., in 1853, where they were engaged in farming until 1862, and then settled on a farm in Moniteau County, where they are residing at the present time.