DAKIN, Channing, M.D.

DAKIN, CHURCH, ALLIN

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/3/2014 at 11:23:56

HISTORY of CERRO GORDO COUNTY, IOWA
WHEELER, J.H. Vol. II. Pp. 534-35. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago. 1910

BIOGRAPHY ~ CHANNING DAKIN, M.D.

One of the leading physicians of Mason City, Iowa, is Dr. Channing E. Dakin, one of her native sons, his birth having occurred here July 8, 1876, his parents being Dr. James B. and Julia May (Church) Dakin, natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively. He laid the foundation of an excellent education in Mason City 's public schools, being graduated from the high school with the class of 1891. He subsequently entered the University of Iowa, at Iowa City, finishing there in 1896 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Early in life he came to a decision to follow in the paternal footsteps in the matter of a vocation, and with this end in view he entered the Bennett Medical College in Chicago and obtained his degree with the class of 1899. After his graduation he further fortified himself for the work of his chosen profession by the position of interne in the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, in which institution he remained for about two years and in which he gained most valuable clinical experience. He then returned to his home in Mason City, and here he has been engaged in the active practice of his profession since January, 1901. He has won the confidence of all who have sought his professional services and he is generally recognized as one of the most reliable and enlightened of the local medical fraternity. He has successfully maintained the same high prestige gained by his honored father, the late Dr. James B. Dakin, to whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages of this work.

Dr. Dakin is affiliated with numerous of the organizations which have as their prime object the elevation and unification of the profession, among those being the American Medical Association; the Iowa State Medical Society; the Austin Flint-Cedar Valley Medical Society; and the Cerro Gordo County Medical Society. He is a particularly close student of his profession and keeps in touch with the advances made in both medicine and surgery. He served as health officer of Mason City in 1901-1906.

Politically Dr. Dakin gives his heart and hand to the principles of the Republican party and like all good citizens is interested in those matters which pertain to the general good of the community. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Carnegie Public Library of Mason City and fraternally he is identified with the local order of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

On the 6th of May, 1903, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Dakin to Miss Norra Allin, daughter of T. B. Allin, a prominent citizen of Iowa City, and three children have blessed their union, named Allin, Shirley and Katherine. Mrs. Dakin is a member of the Twentieth Century Club.

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Excerpt from Globe-Gazette's September 29, 2012 "Past comes to life in cemetery walk" by John Skipper:

MASON CITY -- Mason City's past and present had a splendid rendezvous Saturday in Elmwood-St. Joseph Cemetery's third Cemetery Walk.

. . . Dr. Channing E. Dakin was a prominent doctor from 1901 to 1944 and he was brought to life Saturday by his grandson, Tom Dakin.

Placing his hat and his medical bag on a large boulder inscribed with the Dakin family name, Dr. Dakin talked about having an office on the fifth floor of the Brick & Tile Building next to a dentist who didn’t medicate his patients before he pulled their teeth.

Dakin said he often wore his suit while at work, rather than a white jacket, because he frequently made house calls.

“They don’t do that now, I understand,” he said.

The house calls were made first in horse and buggy and later by automobile.

He said one of the biggest medical challenges for him and other doctors was the onset of polio. The first case in Mason City was reported in 1910, he said. . . .

Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette, Mason City IA

Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2014

Cerro Gordo Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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