Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-03-19
DEATH OF DIR. JNo. ALEXANDER.
A LoNG AID USEFUL LIEE ENpEn.

LONG AND USEFUL LIFE ENDED.
John Alexander N. d., an account O
= whose illness from paralysis was given il
this paper last week, died at his home a
$50 o'clock Monday morning. March 1f
one week and day after he wa
stricken. During his sickness he haC
been unable to speak or hear. l
r was evident however that his minC
was working, as he refused certain rem
. edies, and showed willingness to take
Others. From the first, owing to his ad
vanced age, there was little doubt of the
t result. All physicians of the town. with
several from other places, were united
and earnest in their efforts to prolong hi:
life, and did everything in the science OF
medicine for his relief His residence
was besieged by his hosts of friends, anx-
ious to show their sympathy for him and
to minister to him. 1t was the universal
hope that he might at least regain his
full consciousness.
His feeling that he was not so old as
his years might indicate, led him to keep
secret the date of his birth. but the gen.
eral suppOsition is that he was born in
one of the last years of the last century
say May 5, 1899, and was therefore
nOnagenarian. His parentage was Scotch
Irish, and he was born near Belfast, Ire
land. He came to this country in his 18th
year, landing at Baltimore. After ex-
tended travel. he settled at st. Clairsvile
and followed teaching public schools for
a living. He first read medicine under
the direction of DR.. Thomas Carroll. He
attended also the Ohio medical school.
In 1882 he began practicing for himself
at Flushing, where he remained seven
years, coming in SO to this place. In
1912 he married Lucy, daughter of Gen.
Huey, of Washington. Pa. He has re-
sided in this place continuously since
first locating here, and has been for over
! fifty years an active and intelligent
force in every good movement. His life
viewed from a distance may seem to have
no marked features, yet examined more
closely will be found to have been one
long adventure. His practice extended
| for miles into the surrounding country.
He was by nature bold and persistent,
stopping for no obstacle, as impossible
roads or swollen and unbridged streams
He was always ready to go, and seemed
to delight in overcoming the difficulties
that beset the practitioner of those early
days. Almost dozen times he met with
accidents of broken limbs and bruised
flesh. His horses were of the best blood,
fiery and untame1, and it was his delight
to struggle with and master them. There
is perhaps to-day no better posted man
on famous horses, no man with larger
knowledge of pedigree and breeding, in
this county than was DIR. Alexander. |
Heaccumlated large and select library |
on the horse, and once replaced a file of
the Ttrf, Field and Farm, which had
been burned. His introduction of the
thoroughbred stations, kansas" and
"Invincible," here, was the starting of the |
vast horse breeding interest now shown
in this locality.
As a doctor of medicine, he was at the
summit of his profession. He was thor
oughly learned in the book lore of the
medical art, and had the rarer sort oflearn-
ing that comes from experience and ma
tive sense. Up to the very last he was
entirely progressive and studious of
the latest methods. With the tremen-
dous progress that his science has made
during the sixty years that he practiced,
he kept fully abreast, and during his last
years, sensitively apprehending that he
might be called "Old- fashioned" he test
ed every new discovery in actual work,
and was more keenly on the alert than
younger men for modern ideas. In his de-
cisiOn on case he was prompt, and in his
treatment energetic and answering. He
was not welcomed to consultation be-
cause his opinions were too thoroughly
Independent, and his own. He was cheer
ing and kindly in his manner toward his
patient, and his quiet decisive way, his
vigorous form, strong face, and ready
Jest, were always welcome in the sick
room. He had most tender heart, and
where he could not heal suffering he
sympathized with the sufferer, and when
he could not prevent death he wept with
the bereaved He was the very soul of
professional honor. He was kind in his
practice, and ever ready to visit and at
tend the poor, from whom he could ex
pect no pay. No man called him in vain,
and no man did he Cypress for payment.
In the other matters of life, as in his
profession, he was a man of strong con-
viction. and unbending will. He was
ever the upholder of order, temperance
and religion. No benevOlence, no moral
no church or educational
work but found in him strong support
er He was for over thirty years men,
ber of the Presbyterian Church at this
place, constant in attendance at divine
worship, and aiding all church work.
Politically, he was Whig, coming ma
turally into the Republican party at its
birth. In 1910 he was Grand Marshal of
the memorable log cabin demonstration
at this place. Though his political prin-
ciples were firm, he was no partisan, but
charitable to his opponents.
There seemed to be nothing selfish in
his nature; ''he went about doing good"
and that is the highest encomium that
man can have. His pride was great, his
will stubborn, yet these are petty faults.
He would not yield an intellectual
point, yet in question of the heart he
was submissive as child. He clung to
his opinions, yet he gave where there was
but one opinion. He was respected by
all loved and revered by MANY. His pa