Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 696
SAMUEL F. DE VORE, M.D.

One of the many excellent physicians of Missouri Valley, Iowa, is Samuel F. DE VORE, who has engaged continuously in the practice of medicine in that city since 1899. In his younger days Doctor DE VORE was a public school teacher and subsequently enjoyed a successful career on the lecture platform. For the past twenty years, however, he has been engaged in the active practice of medicine, and since removing to Missouri Valley, has enjoyed pronounced success as a specialist in the treatment of cancer. In past times this terrible scourge has appeared to be the most hopeless disease to which human flesh is heir-hopeless because very few scientists have been able to discover the real cause or any effective cure or treatment for this disease. After years of study and persistent scientific investigation, Doctor DE VORE has evolved a cure which has proved very successful and which has made him famous throughout the northwest. He enjoys a wonderful patronage because he has consecrated his life toward relieving one of the most dreaded diseases with which mankind may be afflicted. Doctor DE VORE has had twenty years' experience aside from his splendid professional training as a specialist and today enjoys a reputation which extends throughout the middle and western states.

Dr. Samuel F. DE VORE is a son of Espy and Emma J. (LEONARD) DE VORE, and was born at Pearl City, Illinois, March 10, 1867. Espy DE VORE was a native of Pennsylvania, and his wife, who was Emma J. LEONARD before her marriage, was a native of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Espy DE VORE have been farmers all their lives, and now live retired in Cherokee county, Iowa, having removed from Illinois to Iowa about 1875. They are the parents of five children: Newton I., of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Robert L., of Joplin, Missouri; Mrs. Katie May MCDEID, of Aurelia, Iowa; Dr. Samuel F. DE VORE the well-known physician and specialist of Missouri Valley, Iowa, with whom this narrative deals.

The elementary education of Doctor DE VORE was received in the public schools of Cherokee county, Iowa. After finishing the course in the county schools of that county, he qualified for a teacher, and for two years taught in the schools of Cherokee county. For a number of years following his career as a teacher he traveled over the length and breadth of the United States as a lecturer, meeting and addressing all classes and conditions of men. From his boyhood days Doctor DE VORE had been possessed of a strong inclination to study medicine, and finally gave up the lecture field for this profession. He became a student in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College and was graduated from that institution in 1895. Subsequently he took a post-graduate course in the best universities and hospitals of London, England, and finally in New York city in 1903.

Immediately after he was graduated Doctor DE VORE began the practice of his profession in Sioux City, Iowa, and remained there from 1895 until 1898. One year later he removed to Missouri Valley, where he has since practiced his profession. Doctor DE VORE not only enjoys a large general practice, but early in his professional career, he specialized in the treatment of cancer. He operates a hospital in connection with his practice in the treatment of cancer and now receives patients from all parts of the country.

Dr. Samuel F. DE VORE was married May 6, 1914, to Mrs. Mary H. HUNGERFORD, of Columbus, Nebraska. He is the owner of a farm of two hundred acres in Calhoun township, Harrison county, and gives to the management of this farm a considerable share of his personal attention. On April 18, 1915, Doctor and Mrs. DE VORE became the parents of a daughter, Mary Hasler.

Politically, Doctor DE VORE is a Republican. Because of his extensive practice, however, he has never had much opportunity to participate actively in the councils of his party. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the blue lodge at Missouri Valley, known as Valley Lodge No. 232; Triune Chapter No. 13; Ivanhoe Commandery No. 17, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Shrine, Abu-Bekr Temple, at Sioux City, Iowa. Doctor DE VORE also is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Professional success results from merit. Frequently in commercial life one may come into possession of a lucrative business through inheritance or gift, but in what are known as the learned professions, advancement is gained only through painstaking and long continued effort. This is the secret of Doctor DE VORE's wonderful success as a specialist. It is the secret likewise of the great practice which he now enjoys.

Return to 1915 Biographical D Surnames Index

Back to 1915 Biographies Index