Duval County FlArchives Biographies.....Stout, Henry Rice 1843 - 
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Henry Rice Stout

    It is not all of life to climb the ladder of material success and attain
eminence in one's profession or business. The truly great and successful man is
the one who, while advancing his own interests, finds time and opportunity to
serve the people of his community by promoting public improvements, establishing
institutions for the common good and lending a helping hand to the individual.
While Florida has made rapid and substantial progress the past few decades, it
has been due largely to the fact that so many people of ability and learning
were attracted from every section and made their homes in the Land of Flowers.

    Considering the population and vast extent of undeveloped territory of a few
years ago, the growth into importance in population, and wealth, has been little
less than marvelous. Many young men have within a few years attained wonderful
success in Florida, but even in this progressive community there is not too much
of haste to prevent even the most rapidly growing sections from giving to some
of her earlier settlers their due meed of respect and esteem for the work which
they have done.

    The medical profession is one in which the physician is brought into the
most intimate relations with those whom he serves. But it is not so frequently
the case now as in former years that the family physician is the family friend.
There are, however, many of the older physicians in the State who, while having
advanced to the highest degree in their profession and devoted themselves to
relieving distress in every form, have been keen in discerning the material as
well as the physical interests of their people and advocating and promoting
public improvements, at the same time showing so much of human sympathy that
their influence is such that it will live long after they have been called to
their fathers. Even in the early days Florida offered such great advantages and
opportunities that there were attracted then, as there are being attracted
today, men of the greatest ability and intellectual attainment. Here they have
made their homes and rounded out lives of the greatest success and usefulness.
One of the most eminent physicians in the State who has made his home in
Jacksonville for over a third of a century, and is one of the best beloved
citizens of the metropolis, is Henry Rice Stout.

    Dr. Stout is a native of New York, and is descended from pioneer settlers of
the colony of New Amsterdam. The family was noted for its cultivation and
intellectuality. His father was an Episcopal clergyman, and there were numerous
relatives who attained distinction in the service of the Anglican church. Among
the more prominent of these are his brother, Rev. Charles T. Stout, of Key West,
Fla.; his brother-in-law, the late Rev. H. N. Bishop, D. D., of Chicago, and his
nephew, the Rev. E. J. Randall, also of Chicago.

    Dr. Stout was born at Westfield, Chatauqua county, N. Y.. on March 17, 1843,
his parents being Rev. Charles R. and Mrs. Laura Chapin Stout. His father was in
charge of parishes in Ohio. Wisconsin and Illinois at various times during his
youth, and lie received his earlier education in the public schools of Waukesha,
Wis., and Chicago, Ill. As a youth, he entered Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio,
and had taken a third year's course when the war broke out, and he immediately
left college and returned to Illinois. He immediately enlisted as a private
soldier in "Company A," one hundred thirty-fourth Illinois volunteer infantry,
and served throughout the war in that command. When he wa> discharged from the
army he decided to make th* practice of medicine and surgery his life's work,
and with this object in view he entered Hahnemann Medical College, at Chicago,
where he devoted himself to his studies for a full three years' term, and was
graduated with the degree of M. D., in 1868.

    At this time he began the practice of his profession at Chicago, and was
fairly successful there until 1875, when he removed to Florida, and made his
permanent home at Jacksonville. The success which attended him there in so far
as his profession is concerned, has been most pronounced. He has a large
following of devoted friends and admirers, his clientele being composed of a
personnel that could not be excelled. That his ability and learning has been
recognized by his professional brethren is shown by the number of honors which
they have conferred upon him. He has been president of the Homeopathic Board of
Medical Examiners of the State of Florida since 1889; he has been president of
the Florida State Homeopathic Medical Society, and also served a term as
president of the Southern Homeopathic Medical Association, which body elected
him as a delegate to the International Homeopathic Medical Congress, which
assembled in London, Eng., 1896. He is also a member of the American Institute
of Homeopathy, and at the Washington session of that important body was
appointed chairman of the section of sanitary science for the ensuing year. He
is also a member of the American Anti-Tuberculosis League, and in this
connection has written many valuable professional papers on the climatic
advantages of Florida to be derived by those suffering from tuberculosis. In his
writings he has called attention to the fact .hat in a majority of cases coming
to the State in the early stages there is decided improvement, if not a
permanent cure, for almost every case of tuberculosis. He also emphasized the
fact that a person cured of this ill in Florida is free to go to other parts of
the country, while those cured in the greater altitudes of the West and
Southwest are compelled to remain in the climate where the cure was effected.

    One of Dr. Stout's contributions to the descriptive literature of Florida is
a most valuable article entitled, "The Climate of Florida," which was prepared
for the Medico-Climatological Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, and
read before that body in Chicago, June, 1893. This article contains a faithful
and exact description of the climate of Florida, and gives valuable comparative
tables showing the advantages of the climate of that State as compared with
other health resorts in this country, and of those of the Old World; while the
old fallacy regarding the Florida humidity and the attendant fear of malaria are
also met and scientifically refuted. In fact, so valuable is this article that
it has been formally approved by the Board of Trade of Jacksonville, and is
being widely circulated by the railroads of the State.

    He is a member of the local advisory committee of the American Health
League, which was organized under the auspices of the Committee of One Hundred
on National Health of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Another pamphlet of importance written by Dr. Stout gives a scientific history
of the yellow fever epidemic in Jacksonville in 1888. He has written extensively
for medical journals, but his most successful work in the line of professional
authorship was a book entitled, "Our Family Physician," which was filled with
timely remedies that might be used in the family when the services of a
physician were not procurable. The value of this work gave it the utmost
popularity, and it has had a circulation of several hundred thousand copies.

    He has also been a frequent contributor to the press, and is always found
advocating those propositions which consider the material advancement of public
interests and substantial public improvement. He was an enthusiastic advocate of
the establishment of public parks in Jacksonville, over a quarter of a centruy
ago, and it is only today that many of the cities of the country are awakening
to the benefits to be derived from these public "breathing spots." He has had in
mind, too. the best interests of the children, and has devoted no little time
and effort towards the establishment of a noon recess in the public school which
shall permit the children going home for a midday meal. In this effort to
improve the material condition of children, Dr. Stout attended a present popular
effort which has the amelioration of the condition of children as its prime
inspiration.

    He was one of the few devoted public spirited persons who organized the
Jacksonville Public Library Association early in the 70's, and was one of the
first presidents of that association. the growth and success of which is shown
in the splendid public library of which Jacksonville may well be proud today. He
is a devoted member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and has been a vestryman
of St. John's Episcopal Church in Jacksonville for the last thirty years. He is
a member of the Church Club, and of the Seminole Club, and prominent in numerous
secret and fraternal orders. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, of
the Woodmen of the World, of the Knights of Honor, of the Ancient Order of
United Workmen, for all of which he is medical examiner. He is also medical
examiner for a number of important insurance companies, and is on the staff of
St. Luke's Hospital. In local affairs and State politics he allies himself with
the Democrats, though nationally he is an advocate of the principles of the
Republican party.

    When Dr. Stout was married, May 7, 1869, he was mated to Mary Eddy, a
daughter of D. C. and Isabel Campbell Eddy, of Chicago. They have had four
children, three of whom are now living, as follows: Henry R, Isabel Chapin. now
Mrs. John Denham Bird, and Jessie, now Mrs. Augustus Oswald MacDonell, Jr.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

FLORIDA EDITION
MAKERS OF AMERICA
AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS
VOL. II.
Published under the patronage of
The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida

ADVISORY BOARD:
HON. W. D. BLOXHAM          COL. FRANK HARRIS
HON. R. W. DAVIS            SEN. H. H. MCCREARY
HON. F. P. FLEMING          W. F. STOVALL
      C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY
1909
A. B. CALDWELL
ATLANTA, GA.


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