Daniel O. Willis, MD, Vernon Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Jan Craven, December 1997
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Source: History of Louisiana by Henry Chambers. Vol 3, p. 57-58
Daniel O. Willis, M. D.
From the standpoint of important service, leadership in his profession and 
work in behalf of public spirited movements, Dr. Daniel O. Willis is one of
the first men to be mentioned in the citizenship of Vernon Parish.  He has
practiced at Leesville for twenty years, except for the time he was in the
army as surgeon during the World war.
He was born in Rapides Parish March 8, 1875, son of Daniel H. and Julia
(Graham) Willis, his father a native of Sugartown, Louisiana, and his mother
of Texas.  His grandfather, Daniel H. Willis was a Baptist minister and for
the last twenty-two years of his life was blind.  The great-grandfather of
Dr. Willis was Joseph Willis who had the distinction of being the first
Baptist preacher west of the Mississippi.  He built the first church in
Louisiana called Shiloh at Shiloh.  Doctor Willis' parents were married in
Louisiana and his father was a farmer and stockdealer and also conducted a 
sawmill.  He served through the war between the states participated in the
battles of Bull Run and Shiloh and many others, but was never wounded.
He was a democrat and he and his wife were both devout Baptists.  He died
in 1899 at the age of sixty-two while his widow is now seventy-nine years
of age and occupies the old homestead where her son Willis was born.  Of 
her eleven children, seven are living.
Dr. Daniel O. Willis was educated in local schools, graduated from an academy
taught by Professor Evans at Babbs Bridge and subsequently pursued his 
medical course in the University of Tennessee, both at Memphis and at
Nashville.  He was graduated Doctor of Medicine in 1904.  While a student of
medicine, he practiced at Natchitoches Parish.   As a young man he did some
contract work in the building of the Kansas City Southern Railway and was 
connected with the construction through Vernon Parish at Leesville when that
town contained eleven saloons and one grocery store.  Since 1904 Doctor Willis 
has made the practice of medicine his primary work, but at the same time has
enlisted himself energetically in behalf of every movement for the upbuilding
of Leesville and community.
He married in December, 1896, Miss Ella Lamberth, who was born, reared and
educated at Leesville.   They have three children: Murphy Daniel Willis is a 
graduate of the Bliss Electrical College at Washington, District of Columbia
was in training school during the World war, being with the First Louisiana
Infantry, and is now an electrician at DeRidder; the second son Horace O.
Willis, was also in training as a soldier during the World war, and is 
superintendent of production for the Gulf Oil & Refining Company at Stevens,
Arkansas.  He is a graduate of Bowling Green University of Bowling Green,
Kentucky.  Pearl Willis is the wife of Richard Miller, merchant at Leesville.
She is a graduate of the Bush Conservatory of Music of Chicago, Illinois.
Mrs. Willis died in 1921.
Doctor Willis is a Baptist, is a York Rite Mason and since 1906 has been
affiliated with the Royal Arch Chapter and the Council degrees.   He is a 
democrat and has held a number of health offices in the city and parish,
serving three years as parish coroner.  Doctor Willis was president of the
parish medical society for five years, has been a member of the House of
Delegates in the Louisiana State Medical Association and served one term as
vice-president of the state association.  His professional abilities have
been kept improving by post-graduate work.  He spent four and a half months
in Chicago in 1906 and in 1914 was at Milwaukee.  As soon as America entered
the World war, he volunteered as a medical officer, was assigned duty at 
Chickamauga Park, from there was transferred to Camp Gordon at Atlanta and
was commissioned captain and served as brigade surgeon of the One Hundred
and Fifty-seventh Brigade at Atlanta.  He went overseas and for eight months
was abroad with the Eighty-second Division as a regimental surgeon and was
promoted to the rank of major.  He received his honorable discharge in 
April, 1919.  He was elected and served two terms as commander of the 
Leesville Post of the American Legion.  Doctor Willis is now president of the
club for the boosting of Vernon Parish and Leesville.   He is a stockholder
in the Louisiana Life Insurance Company and one of the liberal and progressive
men of his section of the state.