Horner, James Brainerd, (M.D.)

HORNER, ARNOLD, HURST, SMITH, WALKER, BRAINERD, WALKER

Posted By: Mary H. Cochrane, Volunteer
Date: 6/30/2019 at 18:50:56

Biography ~ James B. Horner, M.D.

"Biographical and Historical Record of
Ringgold and Decatur Counties, Iowa"
(Lewis Publishing Company (1887)), pp. 689-90:

JAMES B. HORNER, M.D., of Davis City, located here in June, 1875. He is a native of Wisconsin, and was born at Geneva Lake, July 18, 1849. When he was an infant his father moved to Marshall County, Illinois, and in 1855, the family removed to Appanoose County, Iowa. Here the father died September 25, 1873. After receiving a primary education in the public school, the doctor entered the Iowa Wesleyan University, where he remained two years. He may properly be called a self-educated man. His father left several children in moderate circumstances, and he was obliged to earn the money necessary to secure an education. He taught school several terms, and in 1871, commenced reading medicine with Dr. E. M. REYNOLDS, now of Centerville. He attended a course of lectures at the Bennett Medical College, in the winter of 1873-’74, and commenced practice at Moravia, Appanoose County, his old home, coming to Davis City in 1875, as before stated. In 1870 the doctor married, and commenced his professional studies after that event, so that the success to which he as attained is more remarkable form the fact that others were dependent upon him. In the fall of 1881, not having yet received the title of M. D., he again entered Bennett Medical College, and graduated March 29, 1882. At the same institution he took special instruction on the treatment of disease of the eye and ear, and makes a specialty of the treatment of those organs. His wife was formerly Miss LORENA ARNOLD, daughter of LEWIS and MARGARET ARNOLD, early settlers of Monroe County, Iowa, where the father died December 13, 1880. Her mother is still living. Mrs. HORNER was born in Monroe County, April 19, 1849. Dr. HORNER and wife have five children - FLORENCE MABEL, ERNEST M., LEWIS HURST, GRACIE G. and GEORGIA. The third child, MAGGIE, died in infancy.

Transcribed by Sara LeFleur, Decatur County Historial Society Musuem, January of 2014

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The Davis City Advance
Davis City, Decatur County, Iowa
Thursday, January 07, 1897

Davis City and Decatur County
DR. J.B. HORNER
A good physician is an absolute necessity in every town, as the health of a community should always be looked after first, and we are sure that Davis City is to be congratulated on having within her midst such an eminent and competent physician as Dr. J.B. Horner, a physician and surgeon who has been practicing for the past twenty-two years. Dr. Horner was born in Wisconsin, and raised on a farm, and came to this state in 1855 while but a small boy. He received a common school education there, thence going to the Iowa Wesleyan University, at Mt. Pleasant, and began reading medicine in 1871, and attended lectures in Chicago in 1874. Practiced eight years and then took another course and graduated in 1882 at the Bennet College of Electic Medicine and Surgery, of Chicago. He has been in Davis City for twenty-one years, and is the best practitioner in the city and one of the oldest in the county.

He is chairman of the Board of United States Examining Surgeons of Decatur County, and is frequently called to adjacent cities, in consultation. Last winter he took a post graduate course in New York City. The doctor has held nearly every office in the town, owns a fine residence and office all in the same block. He also has a large library and subscribes for the leading medical journals, and has a fine set of surgical instruments and electric battery. He makes a specialty of the eye, and diseases of women, and also uses the anti-Toxine Diphtheria cure. In the years 1891-2 he was president of the Iowa State Electic Medical Society. The doctor is very prominent in Democratic politics as well as in business matters.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2015

Biography ~ James B. Horner, M.D.

History of Decatur County, Iowa and Its People
Prof. J.M. Howell & Heman C. Smith. p. 108. S.J. Clarke Publ. Co. Chicago. 1915

Dr. James Brainerd Horner is of Scotch-Irish parentage, and is a native of Wisconsin. He was born July 18, 1849, near the well known summer resort, Lake Geneva. The beautiful park now known as Kay’s Park, just across the lake from the Young Men’s Christian Association Conference Park is a part of the homestead that his father, Samuel Horner, received from the United States government.

While yet an infant, James B. Horner removed with his parents to Marshall county, Illinois, and thence in 1855 to Appanoose county, Iowa, to the farm near Moravia, where his boyhood days were spent. Though but a child of five at the time of the removal to Iowa, the doctor retains a vivid recollection of many of the incidents of the long journey across the Illinois and Iowa prairies in the old-time covered wagon.

Dr. Horner’s early education was received in the district school. AT the age of eighteen he commenced teaching thereby earning the money to cover the expense of a two years college course in the Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. After leaving college he continued teaching and reading medicine with the late Dr. E. M. Reynolds of Centerville, until 1871 when he entered Bennett Medical College, Chicago. He was graduated from that institution with the degree of M. D. on the 29th of March, 1882, having interspersed his medical course with eleven years of successful practice. He has never ceased to be a student in his attitude toward his profession. He has given especial attention to the study of diseases of the eye and ear, and has been signally successful in his treatment of such diseases. In 1896 he took a post-graduate course in New York city. He has been a member of the Decatur County Medical Association for thirty years, serving the association many times in the capacity of president. He has also been honored three times with the presidency of the Iowa State Eclectic Medical Society. He is a member of the National Eclectic Medical Society and attended the annual session of that organization, at San Francisco in 1915.

In the same year that he began the study of medicine he was united in marriage to Margaret Lorena Arnold, the youngest child of Lewis and Margaret Arnold, pioneer settlers of Monroe county, Iowa. When he entered Bennett Medical College he was the father of two children. His family had increased to five when he received his degree in 1882. The fact that he was able wholly through his own efforts, to give himself his literary and, later, his medical education, while caring for his family bespeaks the energy and resolute determination that have contributed largely to his success and achievement. He began the practice of medicine at Moravia, but, through association with his brother-in-law S. W. Hurst and Samuel Bowman he removed to Decatur county in 1875, locating at Davis City. His name is intimately associated with the early history of the incorporated town. The writer thinks he may have been the first mayor of the town, if not, he was among the first to serve in that capacity.

Those were the days that tried men’s souls, in the little border town. The southern part of the county especially along the banks of Grand river, was infested by a band of outlaws and rowdies, who strove to make a rendezvous of Davis City. The conflict between law and order was a sharp one, and one that entailed much personal danger on the officials who stood for a clean town. The stories and tales which the Doctor recounts of those early days, would fill a volume with material of greater interest to the average reader than anything found in the pages of this biography.

For twenty-five years Dr. Horner resided in Davis City, practicing medicine and in every possible way serving the community as an enterprising citizen should. In 1900 he purchased the practice and residence of Dr. John Hansen of Lamoni, and moved with his family to that place, where he still resides with his youngest daughter. The death of his wife occurred September 9, 1911.

As a man and physician Dr. Horner enjoys the confidence and esteem of all who know him well. His sill as a trustworthy physician is recognized throughout Decatur county and other parts of southern Iowa and throughout northern Missouri. He has gained material prosperity, but he values yet more highly the standing which he has attained in his profession, the personal esteem in which he is held by his fellow practitioners and the wide opportunity his profession brings him for service to humanity.

In politics, Dr. Horner has always been stanch in his support of the principles of democracy. Although he has taken an active part in the affairs of the democratic party, he is a patriot, not a partisan. He served eight years upon the pension board, during both the Cleveland administrations, and was appointed again to the same position at the beginning of Wilson’s administration.

Dr. Horner has always been an interested student of the Bible. He is broad in his religious views, although he has never severed his connection with the Presbyterian church, with which he united in early manhood, and which he has always supported as he has had opportunity.

Very soon after Dr. Horner took up his residence at Davis City, he became a member of the Masonic blue lodge, and was instrumental in the organization of the blue lodge at Lamoni soon after his removal to that town. He has served as worshipful master for score of years or more, during which time he has perhaps conferred ore degrees and buried more Masons than any man in the county. He is also a member of the chapter and the commandery at Leon. His eldest son was a member of the blue lodge, and two daughters are members of the Order of the Eastern Star, with which order his wife was also identified.

To Dr. and Mrs. Horner were born seven children: Florence Mabel, superintendent of schools of Decatur county; Ernest Eugene, who died February 22, 1907; Maggie Lillian, who died at the age of five months; Lewis Hurst, who married Coral Smith, of Lamoni, and who resides near Davis City; Grace Gertrude, now Mrs. D. J. Walker, of Lamoni; Georgia Arnold, now Mrs. A. H. Smith, of Lamoni; and Helen Hildred, who keeps the home for her father. Dr. Horner is justly proud of the “third generation” with whom he is a great favorite. They are Dean (sic, should be Deam) Eugene and Margaret Ernestine, children of the deceased son, Ernest E. Horner; Lewis Brainerd, Elizabeth Grace and James Brandon Horner; Raymond Horner Smith; and Lowell Jerome Walker.

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The Davis City Advance
Davis City, Decatur County, Iowa
Thursday, January 07, 1897

Davis City and Decatur County
DR. J.B. HORNER
A good physician is an absolute necessity in every town, as the health of a community should always be looked after first, and we are sure that Davis City is to be congratulated on having within her midst such an eminent and competent physician as Dr. J.B. Horner, a physician and surgeon who has been practicing for the past twenty-two years. Dr. Horner was born in Wisconsin, and raised on a farm, and came to this state in 1855 while but a small boy. He received a common school education there, thence going to the Iowa Wesleyan University, at Mt. Pleasant, and began reading medicine in 1871, and attended lectures in Chicago in 1874. Practiced eight years and then took another course and graduated in 1882 at the Bennet College of Electic Medicine and Surgery, of Chicago. He has been in Davis City for twenty-one years, and is the best practitioner in the city and one of the oldest in the county.

He is chairman of the Board of United States Examining Surgeons of Decatur County, and is frequently called to adjacent cities, in consultation. Last winter he took a post graduate course in New York City. The doctor has held nearly every office in the town, owns a fine residence and office all in the same block. He also has a large library and subscribes for the leading medical journals, and has a fine set of surgical instruments and electric battery. He makes a specialty of the eye, and diseases of women, and also uses the anti-Toxine Diphtheria cure. In the years 1891-2 he was president of the Iowa State Electic Medical Society. The doctor is very prominent in Democratic politics as well as in business matters.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2015