Fountain-Parke County IN Archives Biographies.....Surbaugh, Alexander 1816 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 27, 2007, 10:26 pm

Author: H. W. Beckwith (1881)

   Alexander Surbaugh, physician and surgeon, Harveysburg, was born in
Greenbrier county, Virginia, September 30, 1816. His father, a native farmer of
Virginia, died when Alexander was three years of age. His mother, also born in
Virginia, after the death of her husband married Joseph Daneron, whose death
occurred in Virginia. She next married Mr. Mark Bruffee, a Methodist minister,
and with him moved to Indiana in 1836, and in 1838 located three miles south of
Rockville, where she died in 1846. She was a Methodist. Alexander was an only
son by the first union. His parents were poor, so that the boy could not satisfy
his desire for education. He, however, acquired sufficient to enable him to
teach, which he followed for several years. When nineteen years old he entered
the ministry in the Methodist church, and became at once successful, yet never
gave all his time to the church. In 1840 he began the study of medicine under
Drs. John B. and S. T. Clark, at Russellville, Indiana, with whom he read five
years, also teaching. He then finished his preparatory reading under Dr.
Slavens, of Portland Mills. When writing an application for a school the doctor
stepped in, and taking the written article destroyed it, and urged and induced
Mr. Surbaugh to begin the active practice of medicine. Dr. Surbaugh located at
Howard, Parke county, Indiana, where he remained seventeen years. In the third
year he was offered a partnership with his former preceptor, but his practice
continued him at Howard. Dr. Surbaugh bought a farm near Howard, which he owned
for twelve years, but meeting with reverses on account of security, he sold and
moved near Harveysburg, where he bought a small farm. He again sold and moved
into Harveysburg, and bought the Spencer Hotel, of which he is now landlord, and
also practices his profession. He is a physician of experience and success. He
has quite successfully treated the disease known as milk-sick, having had as
many as 150 cases in his time. Politically, Dr. Surbaugh was formerly a whig,
but is now a republican. Dr. Surbaugh has been a Mason since 1852. He was
married September 5, 1839, to Martha Ann Scott Cummings. She was born in
Virginia, October 15, 1815, and came with her parents to Parke county, Indiana,
about 1838. She died May 8, 1851, leaving four children, three of whom are
living. Dr. Surbaugh was next married March 17, 1852, to Catharine Duzan, of
Vermilion county, Indiana. She was born in Kentucky, March 25, 1824. They have
nine children living: Mary V., Rachel D. and Everard M. of first family, and
William O., Sarah J., Lizzie M., Frances E., Effie M. and Nollie C. of second
family. Ida died April 27,1880, of typhoid fever. This was a severe blow to the
family, as she was a young lady of an intellectual and christian character, and
at the interesting age of sixteen years.

Additional Comments:

Mill Creek Township

HISTORY OF FOUNTAIN COUNTY,

TOGETHER WITH
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE WABASH VALLEY,

GLEANED FROM EARLY AUTHORS, OLD MAPS AND MANUSCRIPTS
PRIVATE AND OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC, THOUGH, FOR THE MOST
PART, OUT-OF-THE-WAY SOURCES.

BY H. W. BECKWITH,
OF THE DANVILLE BAR; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETIES OF
WISCONSIN AND CHICAGO.

WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHICAGO: H. H. HILL AND N. IDDINGS, PUBLISHERS.
1881.


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