The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1899-05-19
DIR. E. b. WARD GONE.

The Veteran Physician, the Doctor of the
Old School," Passed Away at his Home
in LainGsburg, Friday Evening, Aged
Sixty-thr.e Years.
Friday night, while his many friends
about the county were still hoping that
he would yet improve in health and
still be spared many days to minister
to the ills of patients, and once more
instruct and amuse his scores of readers
with his witty and humorous writings,
the poet, the political writer, the stu
dent of humanity as we'll as of humani-
ty's ills, DR.. E. B. Ward quietly fell
asleep and now rests in that sleep from
which no cry of distress, no emotions
of joy or disappointment, no midnight
call to take him for many miles over
rough roads in bitter cold, nothing
save the voice of his Maker alone can
awake him. DR.. Ward has gone away
from US all to his long rest, while those
who are left behind can only hope that
some measure at least of knowledge of
the good he had done and the friends
he had made served to brighten his
last days and make the approaching
rest seem sweeter after the hard life's
work done.
Edgar b. Ward was born in Ontario
county, New York, in 1885, and the
next year was brought by his parents
to Michigan where they settled on a
farm at Lodi Plains. Never a strong
and robust lad, he was easily led to
turn his attention to his books and
studies in an unusual degree He at
tended school, laying the foundations
for classical course, in Nutting's
Academy at Lodi Plains, and from this
preparatory school he went to Oberlin
college, Oberlin, Ohio, where he pur-
sued his classical and literary studies
still further. He then returned to
Michigan, entered the medical depart
ment of the University at Ann Arbor
and graduated with the medical class
of '5S, having married Miss Elizabeth
Allen, of Lodi, the year preceding his
graduation.
After receiving his degree from the
University he went to Centerville, Iowa,
where he remained in practice for two
years before returning to Michigan.
In 1860 he returned and located in
Woodruff township, Shiawassee county,
where he staid about six months before
moving to Owosso. He made Owosso
his home for about year and q half
when, seeing that along the Old Grand
River Road the settlers had become
well to do, while in this city there was
scarcely q chance to make living, he
improved the opportunity of buying out
the homestead and practice of DIR.
North, in Laingsburg, the latter having
decided to go to Jackson. Laingsburg
has been his home ever since excepting
part of the years 1875 and 1876, which
he, too spent in practicing in Jackson.
In this county he built up large prac-
tice which extended into distant town
ships, and many are the stories of wild
night rides and thrilling adventures
which he might have told, the accom-
panying poem, "The Dying Doctor"
no doubt having been inspired, If not
actually composed while on one of
those killing rides, which, aided by ex-
I posure and fatigue, must at times have
made him feel the very exhaustion of
death and have made him think that
perhaps he. too, would some time die
that way-perhaps such was even his
wish, to die in the harness. II so II
was one more hardship to be confined
to his house and see himself gradually
fail and approach the parting place.