Albert H. Simmons, M. D., of Girard, Illinois, bears a
name which has been held in esteem and almost reverence in Macoupin County
for many years. He was born January 23, 1856, in Miami County, Ohio, and is
the only son of Dr. Adam and Elizabeth (Bowersox) Simmons, the former of
whom is one of the most distinguished as well as one of the oldest
physicians in the county.
The Simmons family is of Swiss ancestry,
the great-grandfather of our subject having been born in Switzerland in
1750. He came to America and settled in Pennsylvania, where his son, the
grandfather of our subject, was born in 1786. The latter married a lady of
Virginia birth and they reared a family of which the senior Dr. Simmons was
the most eminent member.
Completing his literary education in 1853,
Dr. Adam Simmons became interested in the reform medical movement which led
him to attend the first lectures of the Eclectic Medical College of
Cincinnati. There he was associated with those lights of Eclecticism, Drs.
Howe, Hannah and Scudder, and was graduated at the institution in 1865. Dr.
Adam Simmons practiced two years in Wisconsin, eight years in Indiana and
two years in Ohio, prior to locating permanently at Girard in 1865. Until
1899 Dr. Adam Simmons continued to practice medicine and surgery with the
success which attends the careful, skillful practitioner, and gained a
reputation which extended all over the State. He was prominently identified
with the Eclectic organizations over the country, and was a valued member of
the State Eclectic Medical Society, acting many years as secretary for the
same. He is much beloved in Girard where he is passing the evening of life,
surrounded by all that comforts and satisfies honored age. His three
children are the son, who so successfully has carried on his own work while
continuing that of the father, and two daughters, namely: Mrs. E. G.
McKinney, of Colorado; and Mary E., of Girard, Illinois.
In Dr.
Albert H. Simmons is found all that liberal education supplementing
heredity, and enthusiasm for the science, could produce in the building of a
true physician, one whose thorough knowledge makes him sure of his ground,
and whose philanthropy extends as a beneficent mantle over the undeserving
as well as the deserving. On June 8, 1882, he was graduated at the American
Medical College, at St. Louis, Missouri, and then entered upon an
association with his father, which was a liberal education in itself. Since
the retirement of the older physician, the weight and responsibility have
been entirely with the successor, this being particularly great on account
of the older physician's prominence. The demands of the day upon a
physician's time are many, and Dr. Simmons has but little opportunity to
take part in social life, his energies being given to practice,
investigation into scientific discoveries and attendance upon the sessions
of various leading medical organizations.
Dr. Albert H. Simmons
married Olive L. Fletcher, who is a daughter of Burwell Fletcher, one of the
progressive and prominent citizens of Macoupin County. They have two sons, —
Bayard E. and Donald F. The family are members of the First Baptist Church.
Dr. Simmons is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Modern Woodmen
of America, and is politically identified with the Republican party.
Extracted 2018 May 08 by Norma Hass from Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens of Macoupin County, Illinois, published in 1904, pages 282-283.
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