Frank Sherman Hough, M. D.

HOUGH, BATES, REYNOLDS, COOPER, WILCOX, RANDALL

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/5/2007 at 22:10:26

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

FRANK SHERMAN HOUGH, M. D.

Among those who stand as distinguished types of the world's workers is Dr. Frank Sherman Hough, who is one of the able and honored physicians, and surgeons of northwestern Iowa. A man of fine intellectual and professional attainments, of most gracious personality, of strong and noble character, and one who has labored with zeal and devotion in the alleviation of human suffering, he is clearly entitled to representation among the progressive and enterprising citizens of Osceola county. He is devoted to his chosen vocation and has lent honor and dignity to the medical profession, having due regard for the highest standard of professional ethics and exhibiting marked skill in the treatment of disease.

Dr. Frank S. Hough, the proprietor of the Sibley Hospital, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, December 22, 1864. He is the son of George W. and Candace C. (Bates) Hough, both of whom were natives of Michigan. When Doctor Hough was born his father was living in Lexington, Kentucky, temporarily for his health. George W. Hough, a native of Michigan, was the son of Simon and Abigail (Reynolds) Hough. Simon Hough was of English descent and moved to Michigan from New York state. Abigail Reynolds had several brothers in the Revolution. She was originally of English descent and settled in Connecticut upon coming from their native land. Both the Hough and Bates families were among the earliest pioneers in the state of Michigan. Candace C. Bates, the mother of Doctor Hough, was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Bates, the father being a first cousin of Abraham Lincoln.

George W. Hough enlisted in 1861 in the Seventeenth Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and at a time when it must have taken a great deal of courage to leave home. At the time he enlisted he was a senior in the State Normal School and the young girl to whom he was to be married was a member of the same class and, in fact, they were engaged to be married before he went to the front. He served one year and then contracted rheumatism which so disabled him that he was honorably discharged from the service on account of this disability. Immediately after returning from the service, he and Candace Bates were married and they went south for his health. Later he became a member of the Hough, Patton & Company, brush manufacturing concern in Detroit, becoming a prominent factor in the business and social life of the city. When only twenty-eight years of age he was president of the Detroit common council and acting-mayor. He served as register of deeds of Greene County, Michigan, was a member of the State Legislature and a man who was rated at a hundred thousand dollars. He is now living a retired life in California at the age of seventy-five. George W. Hough and wife were the parents of seven children, the Doctor being the oldest one of the family. The other children are as follows: Mrs. E. H. Cooper, of Los Angeles, California; Mrs. Wilcox, deceased, whose husband was a minister; George S., who lost his life in a fire in Detroit, while a member of the Detroit fire department; Fred R., chief electrician at Ann Arbor University, Michigan; Henry P., a prominent electrical engineer of Detroit, and one child, deceased.

Dr. Frank S. Hough was educated in the Detroit high school, the Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake, the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing, State Normal School at Ypsilanti, Michigan, and graduated at the Michigan College of Medicine and Surgery at Detroit with a degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1890, at the age of twenty-five.

After graduating from the medical college in 1890 Doctor Hough had been engaged in newspaper work as a reporter upon the Detroit Evening News and the Sunday Journal at Toledo, Ohio, as well as other papers in the Middle West. Immediately after graduating he began to practice medicine in Detroit and for the next seven years followed his profession in that city. At the same time he was on the teaching faculty of his alma mater as instructor in chemistry for two years and later as a professor of materia medica. He was also an assistant in surgery to Dr. Hal C. Wyman, a famous surgeon who was on the staff of physicians connected with the college. In 1897 Doctor Hough came to Sibley and has been practicing here since August 10th of that year. He has been remarkably successful as a surgeon and physician and has already made a name for himself throughout this section of the state. Realizing the need of a modern up-to-date hospital in his home town, he established a hospital in the eastern part of the city in 1911 and has accommodations for fifteen patients, cares for an average of six patients daily, with a total of over two hundred cases treated annually. Three nurses are kept in constant attendance at the hospital and such is the demand for such an institution that he intends to enlarge its capacity. It is needless to say that it has been a great aid to Sibley and the surrounding country.

Doctor Hough was married in 1889 to Clara Randall, of Blenheim, Ontario, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Randall. To this union have been born five sons: Randall S., a student of the University of Wisconsin: Wyman George, a student of the University of Iowa; Frank S., Jr., a student in the Sibley high school, and Howell H. and Elliott Warren, who are in the grade schools of Sibley. Doctor Hough and wife are justly proud of their fine sons, whom they are giving the advantage of every opportunity in order to prepare them for useful careers.

Doctor Hough is a member of the Osceola County, Sioux Valley, Iowa State and American medical associations and takes an active interest in the affairs of these various organizations. At the present time he is the president of the Osceola County Medical Society. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and has attained to the Knight Templar degree in that fraternity. He is also a member of various fraternal insurance societies. He and his family are loyal adherents of the Congregational Church and contribute liberally of their substance to its support. The career of such a man as Doctor Hough is interesting in view of the fact that he is the means of doing so much good in the world. When he saw that Sibley needed a hospital he felt confident that the people of the city and community would patronize one if it was fairly modern. His foresight has been amply justified and he has not only been of incalculable benefit to the community, but he has also been financially successful.