The
symbolic letters which follow the name indicate the professional service
to which Dr. Corr devoted his life, but the character of the man is
perhaps best told in the words of one who wrote: “He was a Christian
gentleman — a type of that pure and noble manhood that elevates and
educates humanity to a higher station, and his life was spent in doing
good and uplifting his fellow-beings to that higher, nobler and better
elevation where God intended his children should be.” Such was the man
whose life record should call for more than passing attention from the
readers of this volume. In it is much food for thought, indicating the
possibilities for accomplishment in material things, in the intellectual
world and in the higher realm of the spirit.
Dr. Corr was born
in Honey Point township, Macoupin county, February 10, 1840. The
ancestry of the family is traced back to England, although the paternal
grandfather of Dr. Corr was a native of Virginia and lived in King and
Queen county. His father, the Rev. Thomas Corr, was born in that county
in 1800, but when quite a young man became a resident of Kentucky and
when nineteen years of age was there married to Miss Preshea Wood, who
died in Monroe, Iowa, October 9, 1888, at the age of eighty-six years.
It was in 1834 that Rev. Thomas Corr, traveling by steamboat and wagon,
came to Illinois, where he resided until called to the home beyond in
1852. He was the father of twelve children, three of whom served in the
Civil war.
Primitive methods of instruction,
such as were afforded in the pioneer log schoolhouses, gave Dr. Corr his
early advantages, but not content with his mental training he himself
made the plans for his further education. Farm work early became
familiar to him and, when his elder brother at the outbreak of the Civil
war enlisted, the development and cultivation of the farm largely
devolved upon him. In 1863, however, he managed to enter upon a year’s
course of study in Blackburn University, from which at a later day he
received his Master’s degree. Patriotism supplanted all other dominant
qualities in his nature. In May, 1864, he joined Company F, One Hundred
and Thirty-third Illinois Infantry, with which he served for four
months, having to pay a farm hand twenty-one dollars per month, while he
received but thirteen dollars. His brother Frank, being the elder, had
claimed the privilege of going first to the field and had been killed in
the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Three brothers of the family and two
adopted brothers went to the front.
At the close of his military
experience Dr. Corr assumed the management of the farm and at the same
time utilized every possible moment for the study of medicine. In
October, 1865, he entered Chicago Medical College for a three years’
course of study and was graduated March 4, 1868, being the first
physician in Macoupin county who had such an extended course of
preparation. The same year in which he entered college Dr. Corr wedded
Miss Lucinda Hall, who continued teaching school nearby that she might
look after the interests of and care for his aged mother while he
completed his medical studies. A sketch of her life appears below.
The professional services of Dr. Corr and his wife were perhaps the
more effective because they were so closely related in other interests
as well. He entered upon active practice at Chesterfield, where he
remained for seven years, and then opened his office in Carlinville. At
length the exposure of general practice undermined his health and this
led him to prepare for a special work, and after five years’ study at
home he pursued post-graduate work in New York, Baltimore and Chicago.
From 1886 until his death he devoted his time exclusively to treatment
of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, and his skill in this
delicate surgery gained for him a merited reputation far and wide.
Gifted as a writer, he held the confidence of the medical world and lent
valuable aid with his pen in the science of diseases of the eye, ear,
nose and throat and their treatment, being a contributor to the best
known medical and scientific journals of the country. Following his
death the St. Louis Clinique said: “He was thoroughly devoted to his
profession; and, while engaged in the special field, he was still in
touch with modern medicine in almost all its branches. He could discuss
with clearness almost any medical topic, and his remarks had an
especially practical turn. He was a broad-minded, progressive,
scientific physician; was liberal in his views, but at the same time an
uncompromising foe to all forms of fraud and quackery. He had done much
toward shaping medical legislation in his state and opposed the adoption
of any measures not favorable to the protection of ignorant persons from
the medical pretender.” The East St. Louis Medical Society in its
memorial paper concerning Dr. Corr said: “He was a most genial and
versatile man. He was educated and skilled not only in his chosen
specialty, but in the general profession and in matters of art, science
and literature. Dr. Corr had faith in the medical profession and sought
its dignity and elevation. He looked upon it as a sacred calling and
indefinitely higher than a mere trade. The elevation of its standard was
one of the main objects of his life. To this end he sacrificed every
personal interest. He believed that medical organization was the best
means to accomplish this end. He was an honored member and faithful
attendant of numerous medical societies. He was frequently placed upon
the most prominent committees and performed his work without a murmur.
Probably not more than two or three men in the state of Illinois did
more for medical societies or were better known in the medical
profession than Dr. Corr. His contributions to medical journals were
numerous, of a high order and usually pertaining to the welfare of the
profession. He was deeply interested in matters of public hygiene and
wrote many able articles upon this subject. In all the relations of life
he performed well his part.”
Dr. Corr’s contributions to medical
literature were many and valuable. His publications include the
following: State Medicine and Sanitation, (1890); Anomalies in Opthalmic
Practice, (1895); Medical Aspect of Crime — A Strong Plea for Moral
Training, (1896); Little Things in Opthalmology, Three Papers, (1891);
Vision: Its Physical Defects and Mode of Correction, for Teachers,
(1890); Trachoma of the Conjunctiva, Not a Disease of Its Own Kind,
(1895); First Clinic Ever Given in East St. Louis, Illinois; A Case of
Error of Refraction Complicated with Esophoria, Producing Persistent
Asthenopia, (1890, July); Relations of Opthalmology and Otology to
General Medicine, (1901, July); Minor Diseases of Nose and Throat that
Hinder Voice Culture, (1901); Choroiditis and Choroido-retinis in Young
Persons, (1898); Specialism in Medicine: the Relations of the Specialist
and General Practitioner, (1899); Advance in Opthalmology and Otology,
(1899); A Resume of Opthalmology, (1900); Minute and Foreign Bodies
Superficially Wounding the Eye, (1901); Lligh Myopia, Operations for;
Symptomatic Relations of the Eye in Derangements of the Nervous System,
(1902); The Relations of Catarrhal Conditions of Nose and Nasal Ducts
and Errors of Refraction to Corneal, Conjunctival Diseases. Question of
Priority Incidentally Involved, (1898); Influence of Nasal Diseases
Perpetuating Diseases of the Eye, (Illustrated) (1899); Cyclitis,
(1899); Anisometropia, a Case Showing the Necessity of Some Objective
Method of Determining Refraction, (Illustrated) (1902).
Dr. Corr
was one of the promoters and charter members of the Macoupin County
Medical Society, which was organized in 1873 and during the greater part
of the time during the first decade of its existence he served as its
secretary. In April, 1880, he was elected its president and in 1883
prepared the decennial history to be used and during those years he had
not missed a meeting and had contributed more papers than any other
member. For more than thirty years he belonged to the Illinois State
Medical Society and was its first delegate from Macoupin county. At
Ottawa, in 1897, he was chosen its president and the same year was
elected president of the Army and Navy Medical Society, which originated
in the Illinois Medical Society. In 1893 by appointment of Governor
Altgeld he was made a delegate to the Pan-American Medical Congress held
in Washington, D. C., and later Governor Tanner made him a member of the
Illinois State Board of Health, the governor having requested him to
send in his name for appointment. He was then chosen president of the
board, the interests of which were greatly promoted by his active and
valuable service. He did much to secure legislation that would advance
system among medical practitioners and prevent the whole body from
having to bear the criticism that resulted from the acts of unscrupulous
and unqualified officers.
Dr. Corr was editor of the eye and ear
department for the Southern Illinois Journal of Medicine and Surgery,
was a member of the local pension board of examiners of Montgomery and
Macoupin counties for several years and later was expert examiner of eye
and ear for the Southern Illinois Pension Bureau, which position he was
filling at the time of his death. He was also oculist on the staff of
Henrietta Hospital in East St. Louis, and surgeon-oculist to the Air
Line Railroad while in Carlinville and maintained a small private
hospital at his home. His practical inventive genius was well marked.
His schematic eye for use in practice and teaching with the
opthalmoscope is the best of its kind even for post-graduate teaching.
It is natural size and has the motions and measures for the emmetropic,
astigmatic and myopic globe.
In February, 1902, Dr. and Mrs.
Corr went to Southern Florida for the benefit of his health, which had
been failing for several years. The change did not prove availing,
however, and on the 2d of April he passed away. Few funeral services had
been as largely attended. In the line of march to the cemetery were
representatives of the Macoupin Medical Society and delegates from the
East St. Louis Medical Society, the Dan Messick Post, G. A. R., and the
Modern Woodmen camp, of all of which Dr. Corr was a member. His
professional relations extended beyond the local organizations and he
was a very active member of the Southern Illinois Medical Association,
its interests he did much to harmonize and was also made a member of the
North Central Association. He belonged to the American Medical
Association and was active in its opthalmic section. His political faith
was that of the republican party and he never regarded the obligations
of citizenship lightly. He also belonged to the Methodist church and
there was nothing narrow nor sectarian in his Christianity, but rather
that great breadth of spirit which reaches out in sympathetic approval
of and cooperation in all Christianizing influences of every
denomination.
His fellow-members of the Modern Woodman camp
wrote of him at his death: “He has gone in and out among us, faithful to
all his vows, with a zeal for the welfare of the order and with a warm
grasp of the hand and a word of cheer and sympathy for every neighbor in
distress. He has lived an ideal life, exemplifying in a true, tender and
loyal manner all that is best in the social, political and religious
relations of man. As a friend of the poor and unfortunate, as one whose
every motive was based upon a noble principle, as an admirer and friend
of all who ever engaged in teaching the youth of our community lessons
of wisdom, virtue and patriotism, he will be long remembered.” One of
his professional brethren said of him: “Dr. Corr was my friend and this
means more than the usual term, for it tells the story of more than a
quarter of a century. Beginning as a student and going on through the
ups and down of a busy professional life, one unbroken chain of kindly,
sympathetic good-fellowship. His qualities of mind and heart endeared
him as a brother. To know him was always to know where to find him, true
as steel.” To Mrs. Corr, following the death of her husband, one who
knew him well wrote: “He was a philanthropist in the truest sense of the
word, his life being devoted to the elevating of his fellow-men. Lofty
and noble in purpose, he was ever fearless in his defense of the right.
He followed the light of truth and ever lived an upright, Christian
gentleman. He was known best in his home life, as those who loved him
most can testify. The beauty of his private character was ever uppermost
there, and in the sanctuary of home was felt that personal magnetism
which held the admiration of all. A generous friend, a devoted husband,
he was honored in life as his memory is revered in death.” Such a spirit
can never be lost to the world and must have stepped into a greater,
more beautiful life when the door closed upon him, shutting him from
mortal vision. But such a friend, so dear, so loyal, so great-hearted,
can never be replaced to those who were intimately associated with him.
Extracted 20 Oct 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Macoupin County, Illinois: Biographical and Pictorial, by Charles A. Walker, published in 1911, Volume 2, pages 198-204.
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