Dr. Frank W. Sells (1872 - 1946)
SELLS, FUNKHOUSER, HOWARD, BECK, GRAETTINGER, LICHTY, DELAHOYDE
Posted By: Barry Mateer (email)
Date: 12/20/2022 at 15:11:39
1946, October 3
Osceola Sentinel, page 9Dr. Frank W. Sells
This week records the passing of another of Osceola’s best known men, dean of Clarke county physicians and surgeons, Dr. Frank W. Sells. Death came to the veteran doctor early Friday morning at the local hospital where he had been a patient for the past month.
Dr. Sells was know to thousands of men, women and children in Clarke county, to whom he had ministered either as a physician or business man.
While medicine was his chief interest he engaged in many other activities. He owned much real estate, including some 25 houses in the city which for years served the community with modern homes that otherwise might have been sorely lacking. Starting his building program soon after the first World war, his enterprise almost wholly took care of the then housing shortage.
His interest in horses, dating back to the years when he made his professional calls to all parts of the county by buggy, led to the establishment of a saddle horse and pony stable that was one of the largest in this part of the state.
It was in his profession, however, that he was best known, and for fifty years he ministered to the sick. For many years he conducted a hospital and retired from this only a few years ago, when ill healthy forced him to slacken his work. Even then, and until the time of his last illness, he conducted a imited practice.
Services were held Monday afternoon from the Webster funereal home with the Rev. Lloyd Latta officiating. Burial was in Maple Hill cemetery. Business houses were closed during the hour of the services.
Vocal music was furnished by Mrs. Mary Banta and Mrs. J.A. Wade, with Minnie Reeves at the piano.
Pall bearers were R. B. Simpson, R .E. Killmar, James Machholz, Osmer Cellman, O. D. Marquis and B. B. Bishop.Frank Wesley Sells, son of Abraham Harrison and Alice Funkhouser Sells, was born at Cambria, Illinois Oct. 27, 1872 and departed this life Sept. 27, 1946 at the age of 73 years and 11 months.
After graduating from Murray high school in 1888 he attended Simpson college, receiving the B. A. degree in 1893. In 1896 he received the degree of M.D. from Drake university. He did post-graduate work at the New York Post Graduate School, the Chicago Polyclinic, and the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat school.
He was united in marriage to Ethel Howard on June 1, 1896 and to this union one daughter, Alice Elizabeth, was born. His wife preceded him in death in 1915. On February 1, 1923 he married Clara Beck in Los Angeles, Calif.
Dr. Sells became a registered pharmacist in 1893 and has owned drug stores in Murray, Osceola and Des Moines. He practied medicine in Des Moines from 1896 until 1902; in Murray and Osceola from 1902 until the present. He was a surgeion for the C.B. & Q Railroad since 1902.
He was urged by members of his family to retire several years ago, but he said that he hoped to maintain his practice until he had given fifty years of service. This year completes his goal of 50 years.
He hobby was horse and pony raising, and to him has been given the tittle, “Palomino King of the Middle West.”
He has held a number of officies in medical societies. He was a member of the Fist Methodist church since 1911. He was also a member of the Masonic order and Za Ga Zig Shrine.
Dr. Sells will long be remembered as a loyal resident and supporter of Clarke county. With true public spirit he sought to strengthen its physical and spiritual life. Many will recall that he built 25 houses in Osceola for empoyees of the pipeline, who otherwise would have lived elsewhere.
He leaves to mourn his death, his wife, Mrs. Clara Sells; his daughter, Mrs. R. F. Graettinger of Los Angeles, Calif.; two grandsons, Dr. John Sells Graettinger, now serving with the U.S. Naval hospital in Dublin, Ga., and Robert F. Graettinger of Los Angeles, Calif.; two sisters, Mrs. Edward Lichty of Long Beach, Calif., and Mrs. Hugh A. Delahoyde of Los Angeles, Calif., besides other relatives and a host of loyal friends.
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