Dr. H. A. Powers 1856-1928

POWERS, ROBERTS, LAMBORN, BUCKHART, HARRIGAN, STRONG

Posted By: Richard Lowe (email)
Date: 3/11/2003 at 23:52:27

Dr. H. A. Powers
Dies in Hospital
At Rochester

Widely Known Pioneer
Physician. Had Undergone
Operation. Funeral Friday.

By Rev. Marion L. Sunderlin

Dr. Henry A. Powers

Born Dubuque, Iowa. March 15, 1856. Died Rochester, Minnesota, May 14, 1928. Age, 72 years, 1 month, 29 days.

Dr. Henry A. Powers was the son of P. H. and Catherine (Harrigan) Powers. He was born and reared on the home farm in Buchanan county, Iowa. Here he attended the district school, later graduating from the Jesup high school. He taught school in the winter months for four years and later was employed in the State Insane Hospital at Independence. While there he took up the study of medicine and in the fall of 1879, entered the medical school of the Iowa State University where he graduated in 1882, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. That same year he engaged in the practice of medicine in Emmetsburg and has remained here continuously to the present time, a period of forty-six years.

Dr. Powers has been married twice, first in 1885, to Miss Anna Roberts of Emmetsburg to which union there were born two children, namely, Catherine Mildred, who is the wife of W. S. Buckhart, and Henry Roberts, associated with his father. The mother of these children died in 1895 and in 1898 Dr. Powers was married to Miss Sara Catherine Lamborn of Jackson county, Iowa, to which union has been born a son, Harold Wayne.

Dr. Powers was a member of Earnest lodge, No. 399, A. F. & A. M.; Ernest Chapter No. 108, R. A. M.; also the Order of the Eastern Star, Esther Chapter No. 111. The Doctor has been a Mason since 1878. He was a member of the Palo Alto County Medical society, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical association. He served during the years of 1895 to 1911 as a member of the school board of this city, for the years of 1902-3-4-5 as president of the board. He also served as examining physician for the draft board during the war.

As a citizen, D. Powers was almost ideal. Keenly awake to the welfare of the community, he always co-operated with his fellow citizens in all efforts to advance the prosperity of the locality and to secure better moral and social conditions. As a physician and surgeon, he gave his whole heart. To him his work was the call of God. No service was too hard but he welcomed it gladly and with a smile. His heart, ever warm, grew still warmer with the years. He possessed to a marked degree the happy faculty of inspiring confidence on the part of his patients and in the sick room his genial presence and his conscious ability to cope successfully with the disease have contributed much to the enviable standing which he has long enjoyed. As a physician, he was respected and honored; as a friend he was a brother beloved. His faith was in God. True to his faith, he “fought the good fight of faith.” He endured to the end. It was here as a Christian that his true heart was revealed. Here the fire burned that gave strength during the long watches and over the weary miles. Here was a peace and a satisfaction that could not fail. As he had planned his life, so was it finished. He was in the harness until the last. Inactivity had no place in his thinking. His whole life had been one of giving. He had become one of our very own. He shall be missed by thousands whose lives he had touched and whose burdens he had learned to bear.

Those of the immediate family who remain are the beloved wife, the children – Mr. W. S. Buckhart of Buffalo, N.Y., Henry Roberts and Harold Wayne of Emmetsburg; brother, James Powers of Glendale, California; sisters – Etta and Nellie Powers of Glendale, California, Mrs. Margaret Strong of Lake City, Iowa.

“Twilight and evening bell.
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell.
When I embark.
For though from out the bourne of time and place.
The flood may bear me far.
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.”

Source: Emmetsburg Democrat, 17 May, 1928, p.1