Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 707
THOMAS MCFARLANE, M.D.

One of the interesting citizens of Mondamin, Harrison county, Iowa, is Dr. Thomas MCFARLANE, who has been a resident of this county since 1878, and a practicing physician in Mondamin since 1881. He enlisted for service in the Civil War and served with distinction for three years in that terrible struggle. Doctor MCFARLANE is one of the best-read men in the county and has one of the most valuable libraries to be found in this section of the state. He is interested in the life of his community and is the kind of a citizen of whom any community should be proud.

Dr. Thomas MCFARLANE was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, January 14, 1844, a son of John and Mary A. (MULHOLLAND) MCFARLANE, natives of Scotland and Ohio respectively. His father was graduated from the medical department of Trinity College, in Dublin, Ireland, and soon after came to the United States and located in Washington, Ohio.

Dr. Thomas MCFARLANE was a small boy when his parents moved to Portage City, Wisconsin, and there he received his elementary education. He enlisted in the Civil War, March 12, 1862, as a member of Company A, Second Wisconsin Infantry, and served in the Army of the Potomac. At the battle of Antietam he was wounded in the arm and discharged from the service on account of disability. On August 22, 1864, he again enlisted in the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery, but did not see any active service during the remainder of his time at the front. Owing to his knowledge of drugs he was soon taken from the heavy artillery and put into the pharmaceutical department of the hospital at Fort Willard and remained in the hospital until the close of the war, receiving his discharge July 5, 1865.

After the close of the war, Doctor MCFARLANE attended the normal school at Normal, Illinois, and then entered Rush Medical College, at Chicago. He was in attendance there for two years and then went to the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, and was graduated in the class of 1876. He began the practice of his profession in Yates City, Illinois, but two years later went to Wichita, Kansas, where he practiced for one year. His next location was at a point seventy-five miles southwest of Wichita, near the Indian Territory line, and there he helped found the town of Anthony. He was largely instrumental in making this town the county seat of Harper county, but when a railroad constructed through that section of the state went through another town eight miles away, the embryonic county seat of Anthony was soon but a memory. In 1878 Doctor MCFARLANE came to Harrison county, Iowa, and at first began to teach school in Cincinnati township. After one year's service in the school room in this township he taught school for the two succeeding years in Little Sioux, while at the same time he practiced medicine with Doctors WALLACE and SILSBY.

In 1881 Doctor MCFARLANE located at Mondamin, where he has since continued to reside. He bought out the Williams drug store and established himself in the drug business, while at the same time he continued the practice of his profession. Later on he took on a line of hardware and bought and sold live stock, grain, etc. Two years later, however, he lost all of his worldly possessions by a destructive fire and he then decided to confine himself solely to his practice from that time. He has built up a large practice in Mondamin and vicinity, and is one of the oldest practicing physicians in this section of the state.

Doctor MCFARLANE was married in 1881 to Phoebe SILSBY, a sister of Doctor SILSBY. Her death occurred in 1884, and on September 16, 1888, Doctor MCFARLANE married, secondly, Sadie L. LOGAN, a daughter of T. M. C. and Hattie LOGAN. To this second union were born two children, Rex and Joy. Rex married Gertrude CLIFFTON and has one daughter, Helen. Joy is still making her home with her parents.

Doctor MCFARLANE has been a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. He is a stanch Democrat and has twice been elected coroner of Harrison county. Mention already has been made of the extensive library of Doctor MCFARLANE, and he is never happier than when seated in his library surrounded by his cherished books. He keeps his library strictly up to date and has one of the most valuable private libraries in the state.

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