Rayburn, C. E.

RAYBURN

Posted By: Gary Norris (email)
Date: 12/21/2012 at 09:21:24

The History of Poweshiek County, Iowa
Des Moines: Union Hist. Co., 1880.

RAYBURN, C.E.—Bear Creek Twp—pg 848. Physician, Brooklyn. The subject of this sketch was born in Highland county, Ohio, July 7, 1835. His father, M.C. Rayburn, was an agriculturist in that State. The Rayburns were of Scotch-Irish ancestry. C.E. received the benefits of the common schools of his native county and assisted on the farm until he attained the age of nineteen. In 1854 he conceived the idea that Iowa offered superior inducements to enterprising young men, and that year he came to Poweshiek county, locating at Montezuma, where he adopted the profession of school-teaching, attending select schools during vacations. In 1857 he commenced the study of medicine in the office of Drs. Vest & Watts, of Montezuma, and remained with them until 1860, then commenced taking a course of lectures in the medical department of the Iowa State University, at that time located at Keokuk, graduating in 1864. During the intermissions between lectures he was practicing his profession at Lynnville, Jasper county. In September, 1864, he enlisted as assistant surgeon in the Sixtieth United States colored regiment, receiving his commission from Abraham Lincoln. He joined the regiment at Helena, Arkansas; was promoted three months later to post-surgeon of Helena Post, which position he retained until the spring of 1865, when he was transferred to Little Rock, Arkansas, and placed in charge of the Third Iowa battery’s ambulance corps, where he remained until the autumn of 1865, when he was honorably discharged. After his return he embarked in the drug trade in Brooklyn in connection with practicing his profession, which he operated for a time, but of late years has devoted his entire attention to his profession. He has been for a number of years one of the surgeons for the C., R.I.&P.R.R., and examining physician for the A.O.U.W., of which order he is a member; is also a Master Mason. Dr. Rayburn is among the early settlers of Poweshiek county and is well and popularly known.