Of greater importance than to achieve success is the rendering of services to mankind which win for us the gratitude of the suffering and afflicted. In this respect few men have greater cause for self congratulation than has Dr. James Gamble, the subject of this sketch. Almost fifty years of continuous labor have placed him among the few who may be said to be at the head of the medical profession of Scott County, and he may be termed the Nestor of the profession, owing to the fact that he is by far the oldest physician and surgeon in the County, and such has been the cordial, kindly, generous manner of his ministrations that, in the hearts of the recipients, there is a sense of grateful appreciation that words cannot express.
James Gamble was born in the north of Ireland, March 6, 182 His parents were James and Jane D. Gamble, who came to the United States in 1823, and settled on the Brandywine, in New Castle County, Delaware, residing there until 1835, when they removed to Pittsburgh, Pennsyl vania, where they spent the remaining years of their lives.
James obtained the rudiments of an education in New Castle County in the common schools, after which he took an advanced course of study at Pittsburgh. His first step after leaving school was to learn the printer's trade. He entered an office in Pittsburgh where he mastered the trade very readily, but having an ambition to attain a higher position in life than that of a "typo, ” in May of 1840 he came west to Illinois, and settled in Warsaw, where the late D. N. White had established the “Western World.” The following October he became associated with the late Judge T. C. Sharp, and they purchased the interest of Mr. White in the “World” office, and changed the name of the paper to the “Warsaw Signal,” which was published under their management for two years. Dr. Gamble then sold his interest to his partner, and went to St. Louis, where he entered the office of the late Professor Joseph N. McDowell as a student of medicine. In 1843 he went to New Orleans and entered the office of Professor Warren Stone, where he had the advantage of clinical practice in the Charity Hospital for two years, familiarizing himself with all the phases of surgery. In 1815 he returned to St. Louis, and was graduated in medicine and surgery from the medical department of the University of Missouri in March of 1817. The following July he located in Le Claire, Iowa, where he has resided ever since, ministering to "the ills that flesh is heir to." In 1862 he was appointed assistant surgeon of the Third Iowa Infantry Regiment, but on account of ill health was compelled to resign the position and return home.
Dr. Gamble was a member of the first lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows organized in Le Claire, but has not affiliated with the organization which succeeded the pioneer lodge. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity ever since Snow Lodge No. 44 was organized in Le Claire - forty years ago.
No citizen of that community has labored more earnestly for the interest and advancement of education in Le Claire than Dr. Gamble, and he has been a member of the school board ever since its first organization, which was in 1848, and is now serving his twentieth term as president of that body. He was brought up by Protestant parents and adheres to that faith, though not a member of any religious denomination. In politics he was an old-line Whig in his young manhood, but since that party's demise he has always affiliated with the Republican party, or, in his own language, has been "a Republican since the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter."
Dr. Gamble is a member of the American Medical Association, and has been for many years. He is also a member of the Scott County Medical Society, having become a member in 1856. The following year he was elected treasurer for one term, and in 1870 served as its president for one year.
He has always interested himself in every measure or enterprise which was calculated to benefit his neighbors, or contribute to the upbuilding of the community. He not only advocated such enterprises, but contributed liberally to their support. He is a self-made man and owes his success in life to his own energy, industry and ability. He has accumulated a competency, and owns the most valuable property in Le Claire. His large and handsome residence is on the highest plateau in the village, commanding a magnificent view of the surrounding country and the Mississippi river north and south. He has been a man of wonderful vitality, and though in his seventy-fifth year, he has always enjoyed good health, with the exception of one year after his term of service in the army. In stature he is five feet nine inches in height, with broad and well-developed chest, and averages in weight about one hundred and ninety pounds. As the oldest representative of Scott County's medical profession and as a citizen, no man is held in higher esteem by his fellow-men than Dr. Gamble, and he is well deserving of extended mention in a work which contains the biographies of Scott County's most eminent citizens.
He was united in marriage in Springfield, Illinois, July 20, 1848, to Miss Eliza , daughter of the late Robert and Jane Goudy.
BIOGRAPHIES