Cushman, Willard Stevens (MD);  St. Landry Parish; now East Baton Rouge Parish
Louisiana.   Submitted by Mike Miller





**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************




Cushman, Willard Stevens, M. D., successful physician and coroner of East
Baton Rouge parish, Baton Rouge, La., has won gratifying success in the
practice of medicine and surgery.  He obtained his degree of M. D. from Tulane
University of Louisiana in the year 1900, and immediately began the practice
of his profession at the town of Baker, in East Baton Rouge parish.  There he
remained 12 years, engaged in an active general practice.  In 1912 he was
elected coroner of East Baton Rouge parish, and to better discharge the duties
of this office removed to the city of Baton Rouge, his present place of
residence.  He is a member of both the East Baton Rouge parish and the
Louisiana State Medical societies, the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks, and various other fraternal organizations.  In 1903 Dr. Cushman was
married to Miss Lilah Merritt, of Baker, La., and 2 daughters,  Mabel and 
Helen, born to this union, brighten the home of the parents.  Dr. Cushman was
born at Bayou Chicot, St. Landry parish, La., Feb. 9, 1876, and was reared in
that parish up to the age of 16 years, when his parents removed to the city of
New Orleans, where he graduated in 1897 from the Boys' high school, later
entering the medical department of Tulane university, from which he graduated
as previously stated.  Dr. Cushman is a son of Bingham and Lucy (Heath)
Cushman, both of whom were born in the state of Louisiana.  The father was a
veteran of the Civil war.  He enlisted in the Confederate army as a member of
a Louisiana company.  In the course of the war he was taken prisoner at the
battle of Lookout Mountain, and during the succeeding 3 years was held as a
prisoner of war at Rock Island prison.  In early life Bingham Cushman, the
father, was a school teacher, and for 19 years prior to his death, in 1912, at
the age of 70 years, he held a clerical position in the office of the Federal
surveyor of customs at New Orleans.  He was a descendant of the New England
family of Cushman that has furnished many distinguished characters, and of
which family there has never been known any member who was a pauper or an
adult who was illiterate, the members of this family having been distinguished
for thrift and intelligence throughout the family history.  The founder of the
Cushman family in America was the distinguished divine, Robert Cushman, who,
though the charterer of the good ship Mayflower, did not come over the waters
to the New World as a member of the party aboard that famous vessel, but did
come aboard another vessel that shortly followed the Mayflower to the New
England coast, and it is claimed that he preached the first England sermon on
American soil that was deemed worthy of publication in England.

Source:  Louisiana:  Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events,
Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp.
113-114.  Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D.  Published in 1914, by Century
Historical Association.