DR. MARION MEREDITH, who died at Vinton, Iowa,
December 28, 1904, had been successfully engaged in the practice of
medicine here for over forty years, during which time he was
prominently identified with the best interests of the town and county.
Marion Meredith was born in Greensburg, Indiana, in 1831. The death of
his parents left him an orphan before he was ten years of age, and in
early life he had a struggle to obtain an education. He prepared
himself for the practice of his profession at the Ohio Medical College,
Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated about the time the Civil war was
inaugurated. Tendering his service to the Union cause, he entered the
army as surgeon of the Sixty-eighth Indiana Regiment, and remained on
active duty until the war was over. Then he came west to Iowa and
settled at Vinton, where he established a practice with which he was
identified up to the close of his life. He had been in failing health
for several years but was able to be in his office, and conducted his
office practice until a short time before his death.
Dr. Meredith was an enterprising, public-spirited citizen, interested
in various business enterprises. He helped to organize the Vinton
Canning Company, the first institution of the kind here and one of the
first in Iowa, and was its president until his death. He was also a
stockholder in the canning factory at Waterloo, and he assisted in the
organization of the Peoples Saving's Bank and was a stockholder in it.
For years Dr. Meredith was prominently connected with the Masonic Order
at Vinton, belonging to the Blue Lodge, the Chapter and the Commandery,
and participating in the work of each. He was a member of the Benton
County Medical Society, and was for years its president. Politically he
was a Republican, well posted in politics, and a conscientious voter;
but he never in any sense was a politician, nor would he ever accept
office for himself. While he was generous in contributing to the
building and support of the various churches in the town, he was not a
member of any church.
At Greensburg, Indiana, he married Miss Sarah F. Lathrop, a native of
that place and a sister of Dr. W. P. Lathrop, who died at Glenwood,
Iowa, when on a visit there in 1876. He was a graduate of the Ohio
Medical College of Cincinnati, and had come to Vinton and engaged in
practice about 1854. Mrs. Meredith's parents, Harvey and Louise
Lathrop, when well advanced in life came from Indiana to Iowa, and died
at Vinton soon after. In Indiana Mr. Lathrop was a dry goods merchant.
To Doctor and Mrs. Meredith one child was born, Marion Harley, now the
wife of E. F. Young of Vinton.
Picture of Marion Meredith
