Floyd O. Brinkley, M. D., Linn Co., MO., then DeSoto Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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Floyd O. Brinkley, M. D.  A resident of De Soto Parish more than 
twenty years, Dr. Brinkley has during that time not only been a busy 
practicing physician, but has made himself a man of influence in the 
affairs of the locality and the parish.  He is president of the Parish 
School Board and is also well known as owner of the Forest Park plantation 
near Gloster.  De Solo Parish has a record for remarkable progress 
accomplished there in the improvement of school facilities and teaching 
standards in general.  Dr. Brinkley has been on the board throughout this 
progressive epoch.  The result accomplished has been due to a splendid 
spirit of cooperation on the part of the school board, the parish superintendent, 
the body of teachers and the parents and patrons.

Dr. Brinkley, whose Forest Park plantation is on the Jefferson highway, 
is a native of the State of Missouri,  born at Linneus in Linn County 
December 12, 1872, son of Alexander and Nancy (Withrow) Brinkley.  
Alexander Brinkley, who was born in the State of Iowa, was nine years 
of age when his parents moved to Linn County.  He has spent the rest of 
his life there, is now seventy-six and has enjoyed a large measure of 
prosperity as a farmer and stock raiser, owning bank and mercantile 
stocks and has four hundred acres of the rich land in Northern Missouri.  
His home has been in the Town of Linneus since 1914.  As a young man he 
taught school for a year or so. and has been active in school work and 
in the Methodist Church.  His wife, Nancy Withrow, was born in Missouri, 
of Kentucky parentage.  They had a family of five sons and one daughter, 
Dr. F. 0. Brinkley being the oldest.  William P. is a farmer and merchant 
at Linneus.  Captain Charles A. graduated in law from the University of 
Michigan; was a soldier in the Spanish-American and Philippine wars, and 
during the World war was in France and Germany, coming home with the rank 
of major.  He has since remained in the regular army and now has the rank 
of captain stationed at New Orleans.  The fourth son, Capt. Milo Hamilton 
Brinkley, was educated in the University of Missouri, is a civil engineer 
by profession and served with the rank of captain during the World war on 
duty at Washington and is now connected with the Interstate Commerce 
Commission at Washington.  The youngest son, Joseph A., was formerly with 
the United States Forestry Bureau, and is now with the Weyerhauser lumber 
interests in the State of Washington.  The daughter, Mary, married Harry 
Allen, of Linneus, and died at the age of twenty-five,

Floyd 0. Brinkley had the environment of a Missouri farm during his youth, 
and after the common schools attended the Missouri Wesleyan College at 
Cameron and the Missouri State Normal School at Warrensburg.  He taught 
several terms of rural schools and began the study of medicine in the 
Barnes Medical College of St. Louis, but graduated in 1901 from the 
University Medical College of Kansas City.  For a short the he practiced 
at Eversonville, Missouri, and in 1902 came to Louisiana, locating at 
Stonewall in De Soto Parish.  Ten years later he acquired Forest Park 
plantation near Gloster, and has since combined the supervision of 
extensive planting and farming interests with his medical practice.  
For several years he traveled about this district on horseback, performing 
his professional duties, and has been known professionally over a large 
extent of country.  As a farmer he specialized in Aberdeen Angus cattle 
for some years, but now has a herd of Jerseys.

Dr. Brinkley first became a member of the Parish School Board in 1911 by 
appointment, and has been elected and reelected and since 1917 has served 
as president of the board.  He is a member of the Masonic Order, is one of 
the stewards of the Stonewall Methodist Episcopal Church and has been 
Sunday School superintendent for fifteen years.

Dr. Brinkley married Maud E. Howe, daughter of Burton Howe.  She was born 
in Eversonville, Linn County, Missouri.  Her parents moved to De Soto Parish, 
Louisiana, and it was their presence here which caused Dr. Brinkley and 
wife to come.  Dr. and Mrs. Brinkley are the parents of four children: 
The son Homer Lee entered the Officer's Training School at Fort Sheridan, 
near Chicago, was commissioned a second lieutenant and was assigned duty as 
an instructor in the Student's Army Training Corps at Birmingham, Alabama, 
and is now government demonstration agent for Calcasieu Parish.  The son 
Harold was a member of the Student's Army Training Corps while a student 
at the Louisiana State University, and is now manager of his father's plantation.  
Floyd is attending the Louisiana State University, and the daughter, Thelma, 
is in the local high school.

NOTE:  The sketch is accompanied by a black and white photograph/drawing of the subject.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 367-368, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.