Shawnee-Lyon-Miami County KS Archives Biographies.....Biddle, Thomas C. 1857 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 29, 2006, 3:38 am

Author: James L. King (1905)

THOMAS C. BIDDLE, M. D.

    THOMAS C. BIDDLE, M. D., a distinguished physician and surgeon, is
superintendent of the State Hospital for the Insane at Topeka, the duties of
which office he has discharged since April, 1899. He was born on his father's
farm in Putnam County, Indiana, September 14, 1857, and is one of a family of 13
children born to his parents, Richard and Elizabeth (Jones) Biddle. His father
was a farmer by occupation.

    Dr. Biddle was reared in Putnam County, Indiana, and there attended the
common schools. He later attended DePauw University, and then took up the study
of medicine. He attended Rush Medical College, Chicago, graduating in 1881, then
pursued a course in the New York Post-Graduate Medical College. Immediately
thereafter he located at Reading, Kansas, and practiced his profession for a
period of six years. Seeking a larger field, he located at Emporia, Kansas,
where he continued successfully until 1895, when he accepted the appointment of
superintendent of the State Hospital for the Insane at Osawatomie, Kansas. He
filled that position most satisfactorily for three years, then resigned to
answer the call to arms during the Spanish-American War. He was commissioned
assistant surgeon in the 21st Regiment, Kansas Infantry, U. S. Volunteers, and
served most creditably until he was honorably discharged in December, 1898. In
April, 1899, ne was appointed to his present position as superintendent of the
State Hospital for the Insane at Topeka. The affairs of this institution have
been placed upon a firm basis and the people of Kansas can well take pride in
the manner in which it has been managed, free from the stigma of complaint and
scandal which has characterized the institutions of so many other States. This
institution was established in the late '70's, the first inmate being taken in
on June 1, 1879, and from that time until the close of the 19th century it cared
for 4,545 patients. According to the report made at the end of that period,
1,604 had been discharged as recovered, 698 discharged as improved, 297 as
unimproved, 7 as not insane, 130 transferred to the Osawatomie asylum, 44 on
visit or eloped, and 903 had died. This is surely a most creditable report. Dr.
Biddle is ably assisted in his work by Dr. W. C. Van Nuys and Dr. J. C. Bennett.
The capacity of the institution is 1,050, and gives employment to 145 attendants.

    Our subject was united in marriage with Elva Egbert, a daughter of S. W.
Egbert. In politics, he is an enthusiastic Republican, and has been an active
worker for party success. Fraternally, he is a Mason.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SHAWNEE COUNTY, KANSAS
AND
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

EDITED AND COMPILED BY
JAMES L. KING
TOPEKA, KANSAS 

"History is Philosophy Teaching by Examples"

PUBLISHED BY
RICHMOND & ARNOLD,
GEORGE RICHMOND; C. R. ARNOLD.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,
1905.

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