Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-03-12
Former Mayor Of City is
Victim Of Paralysis With
Which He Had Suffered
for Over a Year.
WAS DISTINGUISHED
IN HIS PROFESSION
Well Known Professional
Man Had Served City and
County in Offices; Promi-
nent Army Surgeon.

DR.. D. A. sLaForce, former mayor OF
Ottumwa, ex-representative from Wap-
clio county, and a physician and sur
geon OF prominence, died Sunday az
ternoon at $50 O'Clock, at the family
residence, 427 West Fourth street.
Dr.. LaForce has been i'll since August,
1910, when he had slight hemor-
rhage of the brain, which resulted IN
partial paralysis. Since that time he
has not been able to follow his pro.
fession, in which he took rare delight.
DR.. LaForce was a native OF Indiana,
but had spent most Of his life in Iowa
He was member of the state legis-
lature in 1884 and was mayor Of OF
tumwa from 1898 to 1897. In his pro-
fession he was one af the best in
formed men of the state and he was
the beloved physician in many homes.
He was actively engaged in the prac-
tice of medicine for over fifty years.
The funeral services will be held at
the family residence at 2 o'clock TO-
morrow afternoon. Rev. 7. W. JET
frey and the knights Templar Will be
In charge. Interment will be made IN
the Ottumwe cemetry.
- Born in Indiana !:
DIR. Daniel Alexander LaForce was
a snu OF DaIiel q and Margarets- w;
Monroe LaForce, both OF WOoHord
county Kentucky. He WAS born May
II, 1887 in Lexington. Ind.
DR.. LaForce was OF French Hugue-
not descent. The Duke de la Force
was commander In chief of the Hugue-
not forces one of the French provinces
in the struggles Of the Huguenots
in maintaining their Protestant faith.
AS small boy this same duke escaped
slaughter in the great massacre Of st.
Bartholomew by feigning death lying
in the street with the dead body of an
other victim thrown over him. Later
he became grand marshal Of France.
On account of later prosecutions
many Of the Huguenots sought refuge
in America, locating chiefly in Virginia
and the Carolinas. When Daniel Boone
led the first colonists into Kentucky,
Randolph LaForce with his family
ancestors OF DR.. LaForce were OF the
number. =.
The parents of Doctor LaForce had
. family of four sons and three daugh-
ters who lived to maturity. but all of
them have died except the oldest DR..
James w. Laforce of Monrovia, CAL,
who is now in his eighty-sixth year.
Moved to Iowa In 1912.
A few years before the birth Of DR..
LaForce his parents moved from Ken
lucky to Lexington, Indiana, where he
was born. In 1912 they moved to
iowa. In the opening of the new pur-
chase 1S43 they settled on farm near
Birmingham, Van Buren, county. In
a few years they moved to Libertyville
in Jefferson county and still later to
Ashland, .Wapello county, where DR..
TaForce's father "kept tavern" and
lJwned a general store. At that time
Prof. Hull, later of the faculty Of Oska-
loosa college, conducted an academy
OF unusually high merit for time, and
DR.. LaForce attended this.
After course at the Iowa Wesleyan
college he began to study medicine in
1857 at Ashland under the preceptor-
ship of his brother DR.. James w. La
Force and of DR.. Samuel M. Evans.
He also attended lectures at the Col
lege of Physicians and Surgeons at
Keokuk, Iowa AS was frequently
the custom of the time, after complet-
ing the first course CT medical lee
lures he began to practice medicine
IN the vicinity Of Ashland. In the
next year he located near Denver. to
which place he had gone overland
across the plains with his brother,
taking a herd of cattle. Having thus
acquired sufficient funds he took an
other course of lectures, graduating
from the Keokuk college in the spring |
Of 1863. He took post graduate
course in 1882 at the Chicago Medical
college. now the medical department
Of Northwestern university.
Was Surgeon in War.
After graduation he was appointed
assistant surgeon in the United States |
hospital at keokuk, where many thou
sands of sick and wounded soldiers |
were brought during the war The
next year he was commissioned assist |
ant surgeon of the 56th U. s. G. troops |
In the field and early promoted to sur
geon. He was soon detailed to the
United States hospital at Helena,
Ark, where he was second in com
mand. On the death Of his chief on
the field Of battle he was made sur
geon in full charge from May 8, 1864,
until the close Of the war. During the
last year he was again promoted to
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