newspaper article Dr. Lemuel North

NORTH

Posted By: S. Ferrall (email)
Date: 10/12/2004 at 06:19:47

Puyallup, Wash., March 11 -- Dr. Lemuel I. North, of Puyallup, who says he may be the oldest practicing physician in the nation, recently celebrated his one-hundredth birthday. The week he was 100 years old he called on thirty-three patients and he gives medical advice regularly to his practice here. The doctor was born in Lee county, Ia., in February, 1821, and graduated from Cambridge University, England. He served in the First Iowa Infantry in the Civil War. In 1908, while visiting in Iowa, Dr. North relates, he learned that a prize of 160 acres of land was offered at a Pioneers' celebration for the person who could show he was the first white child born in the state. He won the prize and still owns the land.

source: Wyoming State Tribune; Cheyenne, Wyoming;
March 11, 1921

submitters note: obviously this article isn't entirely accurate because Iowa didn't become a territory until 1838, 17 yrs. after Dr. North's birth in 1821. Lee co. was formed in 1836, the same year that Wisconsin territory (including what would become Iowa territory) was formed from Michigan territory.