- FREDERICK W. BYERS, M.D., physician and surgeon, whose home
and office are in Monroe
- Green county, has a reputation extending throughout the Northwest
for both professional and personal qualities. He is an eminent
physician, a skillful surgeon, and a genial and accomplished
gentleman, with a legion of friends. His career has been in every
way honorable and successful, and its record is a pleasing task
for the historian’s pen.
- Dr. BYERS was born in Shippensville, Penn., Feb. 10, 1837,
a son of Jacob and Mary
- (SHAKELEY) BYERS, natives of Maryland and Pennsylvania. There
were the parents of six sons and four daughters, and six of their
children are now living: Samuel W. of Nashua, Iowa; Elizabeth,
wife of Daniel KEPPLE, of Ionia, Iowa; Jacob L. of Queenstown,
Penn; Dr. Frederick W.; Maria, wife of Jacob W. KAHL of Shippensville,
Penn.; and Albert L., who lives on the old home farm at Venus,
Venango Co. Pennsylvania.
- Jacob BYERS began life as an apprentice and mechanic but
after some years he turned to keeping
- tavern, became a farmer in middle life, and spent many years
on a farm near Venus, in Venango county, where he died in 1876,
at the age of seventy-eight. His widow survived him three years,
and died at the age of sixty-seven. They were members of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church, and he was a very active worker
in that denomination. He was a Democrat up to near the breaking
out of the Civil war, when he joined the Republican party, as
did his sons. His father, Frederick BYERS, was killed in 1800
while engage in felling trees. He was of Irish descent, and two
of his ancestors participated in the siege of Londonderry. There
were four brothers of this name who came to America, settling
in Virginia and Maryland, and from them the family under consideration
has sprung. Henry SHAKELEY, the maternal grandfather of Dr. BYERS,
was of German descent and a native of Pennsylvania. He was a
soldier in the war of 1812, and survived the dangers of the battlefield
to be killed long afterward by accident at a house raising. He
left a large family, Dr. BYERS’ maternal great-grandmother,
who was in her maidenhood a Miss SNYDER, was scalped by the Indians
when a girl and left for dead. She recovered, and afterward married
Nikolas ALLIMONGE, who spoke both French and German, and is supposed
to have come from Alsace or Lorraine.
- Frederick W. BYERS was reared to manhood on his father’s
farm in Pennsylvania, and spent his
- youth in hard work and study. He attended the public schools,
and Cooperstown Academy, and then taught school for seven years,
partly in the East and partly in Illinois, to which State he
had come in 1857, seeking the opportunities that are said to
abound in a new country. The young man taught school in that
State four years, and in the meantime kept up his medical studies,
with a view to adopting the healing art as a life calling. Early
in 1862 he obtained appointment as nurse and hospital assistant
in Camp Douglas, Chicago, and in February 1863, was graduated
from Rush Medical College. The young physician was appointed
assistant surgeon of the 96th Illinois Infantry, and served with
much credit throughout the war. His career was a commendable
one, and he was promoted to chief surgeon of the artillery brigade
of the 4th Army Corps, and later, while at Atlanta, was detailed
to the field hospital of the corps. He was on continual duty
with that hospital in the field until mustered out at Chicago
July 7, 1865.
- With a professional reputation thoroughly established, and
an experience in the common ills and
- pains of mankind, as well as a fine knowledge of operative
surgery, Dr. BYERS established himself at Lena, Ill and for twelve
years was engaged in professional work in that part of the West.
In 1877, he came to Monroe, and at once entered upon a lucrative
practice. Dr. BYERS received the appointment of United States
examining surgeon for pensions in 1880, and is still serving
in that position.
- Frederick W. BYERS and Miss Olive DeHAVEN were united in
marriage July 5, 1865. The
- DeHAVENs were Huguenots driven from France. They went to
Holland, but before the American Revolution, emigrated to Pennsylvania.
Mrs. BYERS is a daughter of Alpheus and Eliza (HAWLEY) DeHAVEN,
and is of an unassuming and womanly character, devoted to home
and church. To Dr. and Mrs. BYERS have been born ten children:
Morna, Winifred, Stanley, Harry, Mary, Joe Rodney, Grace, Amy,
Fred and Ben B. Morna lives with here parents. Winifred married
E. C. CORNELIUS, and died Sept. 20 1899, leaving one child, Alice,
now (1901) eleven years old. Stanley died Nov. 5, 1872, when
three years of age. Harry lives in San Francisco, Cal., where
he is in the service of a telephone company; he is married and
has one daughter name Olive. Mary, Amy and Fred died in infancy.
Joe Rodney was teller in a bank at Monroe six years, and now
holds a similar position in a bank at Minneapolis. Grace is a
teacher in the Monroe schools. Ben B. is a pharmacist at Janesville,
Wis. Joe Rodney and Ben B. both enlisted in the Spanish-American
War in 1898, the former being a first sergeant and the latter
a bugler in the 1st Wisconsin Infantry. The family home at Monroe
is quite a social center.
- Dr. BYERS had three brothers, Samuel W., Jacob L., and Joseph
K., who were soldiers in the
- Union army during the war of the Rebellion and served until
its close. Joseph K. entered the service as a lieutenant in the
volunteer service, was transferred to the regular army, and retired
a major. He lost an arm at Fredericksburg, and was a prisoner
of war five months in Libby prison. He is buried in the National
Cemetery at St. Louis.
- Mrs. BYERS is a member of the Episcopal Church, while her
husband is of the Lutheran
- persuasion. He is well versed in Masonic lore, and his name
appears on the membership rolls of Lena Lodge, No. 174, A.F.
& A.M.; Lena Chapter No. 105, R.A.M.; Freeport Commandery,
No. 7, K.T.; and the Masonic Veteran Association of Illinois.
This last body meets once a year, and he is its assistant chief.
Gen. BYERS has been an active worker in the Grand Army of the
Republic since its organization and is past post commander and
past medical director of the department of Wisconsin. He is a
member of the Wisconsin Commandery of the Loyal Legion, has been
vice-commander-in-chief of the United States.
- The Doctor has received political honors of no slight importance
from his fellow citizens. In 1885
- and 1886 he represented his district in the State Legislature,
was chairman of and rendered important service on the military
committee, introducing and securing the passage of the bill that
effected the reorganization of the National Guard of Wisconsin.
He was surgeon in the National Guard of the State from 1882 to
1895, with the rank of major. In 1895 he was made surgeon general
of the state of Wisconsin with the grade of brigadier general,
which position he held until Jan. 7, 1899, when he was retired
from active service with that rank. General BYERS assisted in
the organization and equipment of Wisconsin’s Spanish-American
volunteers, and officially inspected the camps and hospitals
at Chickamauga, Jacksonville, Fla., and Charleston, S C. He is
a Republican.
- Dr. BYERS belongs to the Wisconsin State Medical Association,
and the Southern Wisconsin
- Medical Association, and is an honorary member of the Association
of Military Surgeons of the United States. In addition to his
course at Rush Medical, he attended lectures in the Medical Department
of the University of Nashville; also the Missouri Medical College,
St. Louis; completed the Sophomore year in Wittenberg College,
Springfield, Ohio; and all his life has been a close student,
a thorough reader and a hard worker.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin,"
(c)1901 Union Publishing; pp. 603-605.
-
- Courtesy of Carol.
|