Howard County IN Archives Biographies.....Moulder, John McLean 1850 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 15, 2006, 4:17 pm

Author: Jackson Morrow

JOHN McLEAN MOULDER, M. D.

   It is not always easy to discover and define the hidden forces that move a
life of ceaseless activity and large professional success: little more can be
done than to note their manifestation in the career of the individual under
consideration. In view of this fact the life of the distinguished physician and
public-spirited man of affairs whose name appears above affords a striking
example of well defined purpose with the ability to make that purpose subserve
not only his own ends but the good of his fellow men as well. He has long held
distinctive prestige in a calling which requires for its basis sound mentality
and intellectual discipline of a high order, supplemented by the rigid
professional training and thorough mastery of technical knowledge with the skill
to apply the same, without which one cannot hope to rise above mediocrity in
ministering to human ills. In his chosen field of endeavor Dr. Moulder has
achieved success such as few attain and his present eminent standing among the
leading medical men of Indiana is duly recognized and appreciated not only in
his own city and county but also throughout the state. In addition to his long
and creditable career in one of the most useful and exacting of professions he
has also proven an honorable member of the body politic: rising in the
confidence and esteem of the public he has filled worthily high and important
trusts and in every relation of life has never fallen below the dignity of true
manhood nor in any way resorted to methods and wiles that invite criticism or
censure. He is essentially a man among men, moving as one who commands respect
by innate force as well as by acquired leadership. As a citizen he easily ranks
with the most influential of his county in the arena of politics where he has
long been a power. His course has ever been above suspicion and those favored
with an intimate acquaintance with him are profuse in their praise of his manly
virtues and upright character.

   Dr. John McLean Moulder is one of Indiana's native sons and it has always
been to him a matter of pride to claim Howard county as his place of birth. His
father, Thomas M. Moulder, also a native of the Hoosier state, was born in Parke
county, but when a young man accompanied his parents in 1845 to Howard county,
with the subsequent growth and development of which the remainder of his life
was very closely identified. His father, John Moulder, was one of the early
pioneers of Howard county and a man of considerable local prominence and
influence. He was a member of the commission appointed by the governor to locate
the seat of justice and select and lay out a suitable site for a court house,
which duty he discharged to the satisfaction of all concerned besides being
otherwise interested in the public affairs of the newly organized county. Thomas
Moulder taught school for a number of years in various parts of the county, but
later studied medicine and in due time became a successful physician and
surgeon. Locating at Russiaville, he built up an extensive and lucrative
practice, which he continued until his death in the year 1889. Eliza J.
Williams, who became the wife of Thomas M. Moulder, was born in Virginia, but in
the year 1844 accompanied her parents. James and Elizabeth Williams, to Howard
county, Indiana, the family settling in Honey Creek township when the few
pioneer clearings were but niches in the dense primeval forests. Mr. Williams
was among the sturdy, honest yeomanry to whom the West is so largely indebted
for its growth and prosperity, bore an active part in the development of the
township in which he located and became one of its enterprising and praiseworthy
citizens. Mrs. Moulder survived her husband several years and departed this life
on the 11th day of July, 1899. Thomas W. and Eliza Moulder were the parents of
five children, namely: Louisa, who married Mack P. Jeter, a merchant of
Russiaville; Ella, deceased; James is engaged in the mercantile business at
Frankfort; Anna, wife of A. W. Fry, of Swayzee, and John McLean, of this review.

   Dr. Moulder was born February 4, 1850, in Honey Creek township and spent his
early life in the town of Russiaville, where his father was a resident physician
and one of the representative citizens. His first educational experience was in
the country district schools and the schools of his town, the training thus
received being afterwards supplemented by a high school course in Kokomo and one
year in the National Normal school at Lebanon, Ohio. A close and diligent
student, he advanced so rapidly in his studies that at the early age of twenty
he was given a position in the Kokomo public schools and during the ensuing four
years he was practically at the head of the educational system of the city. He
earned an honorable record as an efficient and popular teacher but not finding
educational work entirely to his taste he yielded in 1873 to a desire of long
standing by taking up the study of medicine which he decided to make his life
work. After spending the greater part of the year in the office of Dr. Amstrong,
of Kokomo, he entered the Indiana Medical College at Indianapolis where he
prosecuted his studies and researches until becoming well grounded in the
principles of his profession, later becoming a student of the Ohio Medical
College at Cincinnati, from which he was graduated with a creditable record in
the year 1875.

   Immediately after obtaining his degree Dr. Moulder formed a partnership with
Dr. Armstrong, his former preceptor, the firm thus constituted lasting' twelve
years, during which time the subject rose to a high standing in his profession
and achieved more than local repute as a successful physician and skillful
surgeon, he and his associate commanding the largest practice in the county and
among the most extensive and lucrative in the northern part of the state. He
continued the general practice with eminent professional success and financial
emolument until 1895, when he began making a specialty of the eye, ear. nose and
throat, and it was not long until his reputation as a skilled specialist
attracted to him a large number of patients from all parts of the country, this
growing and exceedingly lucrative patronage continuing unabated to the present
time.

   Dr. Moulder has spared neither pains nor expense in fitting himself for the
special line of practice to which he devotes his time and attention, having
taken several post-graduate courses in Chicago. where, under the direction of
some of the most noted specialists of the age, he acquired great efficiency and
skill and in due time became not only eminently successful in his office work,
but also a recognized authority upon those parts of human anatomy which have
been the objects of his critical study and painstaking research. In the year
1905 he formed a partnership with his son-in-law, Dr. C. J. Adams, a graduate of
the Indiana State School of Medicine, also of the Chicago Eye, Ear, Nose and
Throat Institute and one of the rising specialists in this part of Indiana. The
firm is well equipped with all the latest improvements and appliances used in
the treatment of those special parts, having elegant and commodious office rooms
and everything in the way of modern research that scientific ingenuity has thus
far invented.

   Dr. Moulder has always been a close student and having availed himself of
every opportunity to widen the area of his professional knowledge and make him
efficient in the practice, it is not at all surprising that his advancement has
been rapid and satisfactory and that he now holds such a high and honorable
place among the leading physicians and surgeons in a field long noted for the
high order of its medical talent. He is widely and favorably known as a general
practitioner and specialist, having met in the course of his career all of the
eminent men of his profession in Indiana and many of national and international
repute, being on familiar terms with not a few of the distinguished leaders of
medical thought and participating in their deliberations. He is a member of the
American Medical Association, the Indiana State Medical Society and the Howard
County Medical Society, having been honored with important official positions in
the last two, besides serving very acceptably for a number of years as county
health officer and filling other minor posts in the line of his calling. He was
appointed on the State Board of Health in 1889, and in 1891 was made assistant
surgeon general of Indiana on the staff of Governor Chase, in both of which
capacities he acquitted himself with credit that added to his already well
established reputation as a medical man.

   Dr. Moulder has not only kept in close touch with the trend of current
medical thought but is also a close student of all social, political and
scientific subjects, being broad-minded, full of spirit and a leader in those
matters relating to the advancement of the community and welfare of his fellow
men. He is a man of decided convictions on all public questions, maintains his
stand with resolute firmness and has made his usefulness felt in formulating and
directing political policies, as well as in various official trusts with which
he has from time to time been honored. He is a Republican, not in the narrow
partisan sense, but from a sense of right, believing the principles of the party
to be for the best interests of the people, and having faith in the great
mission which it is still destined to fulfill in American affairs. In 1885 he
was elected mayor of Kokomo and held the position with credit to himself and to
the satisfaction of the public for a period of four years, during which time the
city made greater advancement than in any other period of its history as the
number and magnitude of public improvements and large private enterprises that
were inaugurated and carried to successful issue, abundantly indicate. It was
during his incumbency that the water works were built and the electric light
plant established, these with the discovery of natural gas in the Howard county
field and the great influx of capital seeking investment in factories and
manufacturing enterprises of various kinds, marking an era of unparalleled
industrial growth and prosperity and transforming Kokomo from an ordinary inland
town into one of the most flourishing and .prosperous cities and great business
centers of the West. As an individual and in his official capacity the doctor
became a leading factor in advertising the advantages of the city abroad and
inducing manufacturers to locate their plants within this highly favored section
of the country, not a few enterprises attributing to his activity and influence,
the success they have achieved. He has always manifested a deep interest in
schools and other means for advancement and diffusion of knowledge and for a
number of years served with ability and conscientious fidelity on the local
board of education. The doctor is a Scottish Rite Mason and has long been an
active and enthusiastic worker in this ancient and honorable fraternity, besides
holding various official positions in the different branches with which
identified. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Order of Elks,
while the Methodist Episcopal church of which he has been a faithful and
consistent member for many years represents his religious creed.

   On the 31st day of August, 1876, Dr. Moulder was united in the bonds of
wedlock to Lucy O'Brien, of Hamilton county, Indiana, the accomplished and
popular daughter of Hon. James and Charlotte (Lindsay) O'Brien, who were
pioneers of the county of Hamilton and who became residents of Kokomo in the
year 1873. James O'Brien was for many years a prominent lawyer and jurist,
having practiced in the courts of Hamilton and Howard counties and served as
judge of the circuit court and state senator. Dr. and Mrs. Moulder enjoy great
popularity in the social circles of Kokomo and are widely and favorably known
outside the city of their residence. They hold membership with the Grace
Methodist Episcopal church, in which for thirty-five years the doctor has acted
as usher and for a period of twenty years has held the office of trustee in the
same organization.

   Few residents of Kokomo have occupied as large a place in the public eye as
Dr. Moulder and no one has more worthily discharged his manifold duties or shown
himself more worthy of the high esteem in which he is held than he. His life has
been filled with activity and usefulness while his untiring energy and eminent
ability have gained for him a conspicuous and honorable place among the
distinguished medical men of the day and generation. In every sphere of endeavor
in which he has taken a part, socially, politically or professionally his
unpretending bearing and strict integrity have elevated him in the confidence of
his fellow citizens and his influence, always powerful and salutary, is destined
to continue a potential factor for substantial good long after he ceases from
his labors and retires from the busy scenes in which he has so long been a
prominent and effective actor.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)

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