After nearly forty years spent .in ministering to the needs of suffering
mankind, Dr. Edmund C. Park, of Flora, Illinois, has practically retired
from the practice of his profession and is now living a semi-retired life on
his handsome farm in Clay county. During the Doctor's long and useful career
he has been physician, soldier, merchant and agriculturist, and at all times
a public-spirited citizen, and no one has the confidence and esteem -of his
fellow men in a greater degree. Dr. Park was born in South Carolina, October
18, 1836, and is a son of Edmund C. and Susan M. (Wilkins) Park, both born
in that state.
Thomas Park, the grandfather of the Doctor, was a
prominent educator and occupied a chair in Columbia College, Columbia, South
Carolina, where he died, and where he was the owner of a large plantation
and a number of slaves. His son, the father of our subject, was educated to
be a physician, and in 1840, with his wife and children, came to Illinois,
settling at Greenville, Bond county, where he practiced medicine until 1849.
Dr. Park then started for California, having contracted the gold fever, and
with eight other adventurous souls started to cross the country overland.
When the little party was near Independence, Missouri, however, the cholera
plague struck their camp and three of the party, including Dr. Park's
father, passed away, the lad then being only thirteen years of age. He was
left alone with his mother, who was the daughter of Samuel Wilkins, a native
of South Carolina and a Missionary Baptist missionary and preacher for many
years. He moved to Illinois in 1844 and entered land, but only remained a
short time, returning to his native state, where his death occurred.
The early education of Edmund C. Park was secured in the schools of
Greenville, Illinois, where he had as a schoolmate the late Robert
Ingersoll. After the death of his father he went to California, but did not
remain long in that state, returning by way of the Isthmus. While on the
return journey, and in Havana, Cuba, he witnessed the public execution of
Narciso Lopez, the Spanish- American filibuster, who after a career marked
by murder and revolutionary activities was put to death September 2, 1851.
On his return to Illinois, Dr. Park took up the study of medicine under the
tuition of his uncle, Dr. C. K. Hender, of Olney, and he subsequently
entered the Chicago Medical College, being graduated therefrom. He began
practice in LaClede, Illinois, where the outbreak of the Civil war found
him, and in 1862 he gave up his practice to answer the call for volunteers.
Becoming first lieutenant of Company H, Sixty-second Regiment, Illinois
Volunteer Infantry, he was soon promoted to the rank of captain and detailed
to hospital duty. He served with distinction with the same organization
until the close of the war, having an honorable record for faithful,
cheerful and capable service, and then returned to LaClede to pick up the
broken threads and resume his practice where he had left off. In 1872 Dr.
Park moved to Flora, and there began a practice that lasted for something
like forty years, during which time he gained the affection and confidence
of his fellow men in an exceptional degree. Known as an experienced
physician and surgeon, and as a man who had served his country, his practice
was large from the start, but each year found him widening his circle of
patients, acquaintances and friends, and when he decided that he had
completed his duty and that he had earned a rest from his labors the
community expressed their regret in no uncertain terms. During five years
the Doctor was the proprietor of a pharmacy, but of this he also disposed,
and he is now living practically retired, the greater part of his attention
being given to apple raising. He has been deservedly successful in a
material way, and in addition to his large farm is the owner of considerable
city property in Flora. Always conscientious in regard to public duty, Dr.
Park has been called upon to fill various offices, and he is now acting very
capably as county coroner. He has been stanch in his support of Republican
principles, and the leaders of the party in Southern Illinois consider him
one of their valuable workers. For many years a Mason, he belongs to LaClede
Lodge and Chapter, being past master of the former and having represented it
in Chicago more than forty years ago. He and his family attend the
Presbyterian church, and all are well known in religious and charitable
circles.
In 1857 Dr. Park was united in marriage with Miss Emma
Dowler, daughter of Frank Dowler, an early settler of Indiana, who later
moved to Fayette county, Illinois, being a merchant at the time of his death
in Vandalia. Mrs. Park died in 1896, having been the mother of four
children, as follows: Emma Lula, who is living with her father and acting as
his housekeeper during his declining years; Kate, who married William J.
Selby and resides in Flora; Marion, deceased, who married Samuel Norwood, of
South Carolina, and was living in that state at the time of her death; and
Dr. Edmund C., Jr., who now has an excellent practice in Chicago, and who
was for fifteen years one of Flora's best known professional men.
Extracted 09 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, published in 1912, volume 3, pages 1246-1247.
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