Newaygo County MI Archives Biographies.....Flora, David W., M.D. November 20, 1828 - 
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Author: Chapman Brothers

DAVID W. FLORA, M.D., physician and surgeon, at Newaygo, was born at 
Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 20, 1828.  He 

is a son of George W. and Margaret (Sloop) Flora, and was reared to manhood 
after the method common in the 

training of farmers' sons of that period.  He obtained his his elementary 
education at the common schools 

and found the curriculum of study open to him uner the metropolitan school 
regulations to be only 

incentives to the investigation of the wife fields of knowledge to which the 
higher institutions of 

learning furnished the "open sesame."  He supplemented his primary studies by 
two years' attendance as a 

student in the literary department at the college at Augusta, Ky.  He was 
deeply impressed with the 

exhaustive and concise character of the text-books with which he became 
familiar, and learned from them 

the lesson designed by discriminating instructors, - that they could only 
serve a specific purpose in 

designating the route to the possibilities lying in the great field of 
scientific research beyond our 

mental horizon.  To join the already mighty army of suthors and investigators, 
became his highest 

ambition, and, in casting about for a profession which afforded the widest 
scope for the consummation of 

his desires, he fixed upon that of medicine.  His idea was not that of 
limiting himself to the study of 

drugs, or their effects upon the human system, or in any sense restricted by 
the scope of a practitioner 

devoted to the one purpose of ameliorating human suffering, but in the 
broadest sense possible, and 

including anatomy, comparative anatomy, physiology and botany, 0 the whole 
field included within the 

limits of natural history.

After leaving Augusta he became a teacher, and devoted sevenyears to that 
profession, preparatory to 

entering upon the course prescribed by custom for such as contemplated the 
practice of medicine.  In 1857, 

he entered the office of Dr. A. G. Boynton, of Columbus, Ind., and read under 
his supervision.  He 

afterwards attended lectures at the Ohio Medical College located at 
Cincinnati, and also at the Kentucky 

School of Medicine, at Louisville, and later at the Chicago Medical College.  
He spent one term at each of 

the institutions named.

When thus engaged, the mighty question of country of no country was forced to 
an issue by the rebellious 

South, and i succeeding events Dr. Flora found duty and opportunity closely 
linked.  In all that this may 

mean, a passing tribute is doe to the influence wielded by the schools and 
instructors of the period 

between the settlement of this country and the advent of war.  The spirit of 
patriotism engendered by the 

struggle for independence had been therby kept alive, and the fair green plant 
suddenly burst into 

marvelous bloom and boare a glorious fruitage, solving the problem of the rise 
and fall of nations and 

demonstrating that the inherent principles of liberty are synonymous with 
those of truth and are as 

eternal; also that they foster in the American people impulses which render 
the National institutions as 

impreishable as are the ties of hoe and kindred.

Dr. Flora was in the ardor of youth and the flush of ambitious hopes to rise 
in his profession.  He 

foresaw through the vista of advancement the acme of his aspirations; and, 
recognizing the stability of 

small things for a foundation, he made haste to respond to the second call for 
troops after the disaster 

at Bull's Run, and entred the service as a private, enlisting in August, 1861, 
in Co. F, 39th Ind. Vol. 

Inf., and was made Hospital Steward of the regiment.  He was soon placed in 
charge of the regimental 

hospital, and made himself active in the care and treatment of the men and 
officers.  His faithful, 

conscientious labors and the efficiency of his sanitary measures came to be 
understood at headquarters, 

and he was detailed to organizse a general hospital for the army corps.  He 
was informed that na 

opportunity was open to him to appear before an examing board of regular army 
surgeons, under whose dictum 

he was mustered out by special order of the Secretary of War, preliminary to 
his appointment as Assistant 

Surgeon, U.S.A.  He was assigned to the transportation service and assumed 
charge of a train conveying 

sick and wounded soldiers to the general ospital at Louisvile, Ky.  This duty 
involved the bringing in of 

the sick and wounded from outlying posts, adn when it was completed he was 
placed in charge of the 

convalescent barracks in the city, which post he filed from May 1, 1862, to 
April 1, 1863.

His next charge was Hospital No. 9, in Louisville, where he remained until 
September of the year last 

named, when he was ordered to Camp Nelson, Ky., to care for 1,000 sick 
soldiers left by Gen. Burnside, 

when he marched on Knoxville, Tenn.  The attendant difficulties in this 
service rivaled the details in 

some of the rebel hospitals.  Dr. Flora had but two assistants to aid him in 
the care and management of 

2,000 disabled soldiers and 1,000 contrabands and laborers, and in less than 
six weeks himself and fellow 

surgeons succumbed to the severity of the situation and were prostrated by 
typho-malarail fever and 

dysentary.  His comrades went home to die, but he soon recovered his health, 
and on the first of October 

he resumed duty at the General Hospital at Madison, Ind.

While there he inaugurated a series of original investigations to discover the 
nature of certain class of 

obscure ailments which caused the victims to be classed 
as "malingerers," "hospital bummers," etc.  This 

calss of patients commonly became permanent appendages to the hospitals, and 
if discharged "cured" and 

sent to the front, invariably returned and in time became the "opprobrium 
medicorum" of the profession.  

By the aid of the microscope and chemical tests, Dr. Flora succeeded in 
diagnosing and placing under 

proper treatment this class of patients.  The incurable were discharged and 
the other "ilk" were sent to 

their commands so described that they returned no more.

While in charge of one of the divisions of the general hospital, Dr. Flora 
devoted a portion of his time 

to morbid anatomy, histology and natural history, especially in the department 
of entomology.  During his 

microscopic investigations of embryology in insect life, he conceived the idea 
of photographing magnified 

objects, and aided by a photographer, he succeeded in obtaining what he 
supposed to be the first 

photographs of that character.  It afterwards transpired that he had a 
contemporary in the work, - Dr. 

Dean, of Washington, who was engaged at the same time (1865) in photographing 
sections of the spinal cord. 

 Micro-photography has now reached amazing proportions, but Dr. Flora claims 
originality if not priority 

in the discovery.  In addition to his duties and researches, he mad important 
contributions to the 

medical, literary and scientific magazines.

On receiving his discharge from the army, Dr. Flora established his practice 
in Chicago, and while there 

became favorably known to a wide fircle of miscellaneous readers by articles 
on current sanitary topics, 

one of which at least was exigent and opportune.  Many will remember the able 
and exhaustive paper on 

Trichinae published by the Chicago Times, and copied by hundreds of journals 
of lesser pretensions.  It 

was then becoming the subject of much interest to scientific thinkers, and 
alram to other classes.

In 1868 the Doctor came to Denver, Newaygo County, and not long afterward to 
Newaygo.  His business here 

has been extensive and satisfactory.  His intellectual grade in his profession 
is understood and 

appreciated, and he takes precedence of his compeers as the oldest resident 
practitioner.  He has been 

medical advisor among the poor a large proportion of the time since he settled 
here, and he has served 

many years as a local health officer.  He is at present Justice of the Peace.

In 1872, Dr. Flora perfected and patented a safety mask for the purpose of 
protecting the respiratory 

organs from dust in mining and dry-grinding, by cotton films charged with 
antiseptics, forming a perfect 

safeguard against germs of infection in contagious diseases.

Dr. Flora was married in Seymour, Jackson Co., Ind., April 7, 1857, to Sarah 
C., daughter of Charles and 

Harriet Hanley.  She was born at Cohoes, N.Y., May 10, 1835.  Charles A., 
elder child, was born in 

Bartholomew Co., Ind., and is a printer by trade.  Daisy, only daughter, was 
born in Newaygo, Oct. 7, 

1869.

Additional Comments:
1884 Portrait & Bio Album of Newaygo Co.

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