William J. McGrath, M. D. William J. McGrath, M. D., has been engaged in the successful practice of his profession at Elkader, the judicial center of Clayton county, for slightly more than twenty years, and through his able and effective ministrations as well as his personal popularity he has gained definite prestige as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of this part of the state. The doctor was born in Lafayette county, Wisconsin, on the 17th of October, 1871, and is a son of James and Mary (Ryan) McGrath, both natives of the Emerald Isle and representatives of fine old families of Ireland. James McGrath was a lad of ten years when he accompanied his parents on their immigration to America, and he was reared to manhood in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. As a young man he went to the state of Wisconsin, where he eventually became one of the substantial agriculturists of Lafayette county. There he passed the remainder of his life, and he was about fifty years of age at the time of his death, his widow being now a resident of Darlington, that county. Of the eight children the eldest is Kate, who is the wife of John Egan, their home being in the state of Montana; Margaret is the wife of Albert H. Doyle, of Berkeley, California; James is a resident of the state of Oklahoma; Dr. Mc Grath, of this review, was the next in order of birth; John is a successful buyer and shipper of live stock at Darlington, Wisconsin; Mary is the wife of Patrick J. Daley, of Warren, Illinois; Jessie is the wife of Joseph Kelly, of Richland Center, Wisconsin; and Ella is the wife of William J. Riley, of Darlington, that state. Dr. William J. McGrath is indebted to the excellent public schools of his native, state for his early educational discipline, which was supplemented by a course in a normal school in the state of Indiana. In consonance with his ambitious purpose he was finally matriculated in the celebrated Rush Medical College, in the city of Chicago, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1895 and with the well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. Through close and appreciative study and effective post-graduate work within the intervening years he has kept in touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science, and he has recourse to the best standard and periodical literature of his profession, besides which he vitalizes his interest in his work and that of his confreres by means of active affiliation with the Clayton County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Within a few months after his graduation in Rush Medical College Dr. McGrath established his residence at Elkader, where he has since continued his earnest work as a physician and surgeon and where his success has been on parity with his recognized ability and his unequivocal devotion to his acting vocation. He lends his influence in support of those things which tend to advance the civic and material welfare of the community, but he has had neither time nor inclination for political activity or officeholding. On the 12th of January, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. McGrath to Miss Adelia Partridge, of Argyle, Wisconsin, and their only child is a son, Malcolm. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; page
263-264 |