Bio of Crary, Dr. Charles W. (b.1835) Wabasha Co., MN
=========================================================================
USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information
on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities,
as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is
obtained from the contributor of the file.
These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or
presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to
use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written
consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter,
and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent.

If you have found this file through a source other than the MNArchives 
Table Of Contents you can find other Minnesota related Archives at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm
Please note the county and type of file at the top of this page to find 
the submitter information or other files for this county.
FileFormat by Terri--MNArchives

Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Barbara Timm and Carol Judge
=========================================================================
This bio comes from "HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY" 1884.
Check out Barbara's site for more great information on this book:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnwabbio/wab1.htm
There are also some pictures and information from descendents for some 
of the bios on her pages.

Crary, Dr. Charles W., is a native of northern New York, and is descended
from a line of Scotch-English ancestors, who settled in the Empire State
early in the present century. The doctor's paternal grandfather, Nathan
Crary, was born in Scotland, came to America in 1779, being then fifteen
(Errata page reads "twenty") years of age, and settled in Connecticut,
where he remained for more than a quarter of a century. A few years before
the war of 1812-14, Mr. Nathan Crary removed to St. Lawrence county, New
York, locating in Pierpoint, where he died in 1851, at the advanced age of
ninety-two years. Nathan Crary married Lydia Arnold, aunt of the late
Stephen A. Douglas. She was a native of Brandon, Vermont, and survived her
husband about five years. To them were born a large family of children. Of
these, John Wesley Crary, father of Dr. Crary, was one. He was bred a
millwright, settled in Potsdam, New York, and carried on a very extensive
business along the borders, building the first mills ever erected at
Ottawa, then By-town, the capital of the Dominion of Canada. Dr. Crary's
lineage on his mother's side was purely English. The family had long been
residents of the Empire State, when John Wesley Crary married into it. His
wife's name was Mindwell P., daughter of Judge Lemuel Holmes, of Franklin
county, New York, and a captain in the war of 1812-14. Mr. J. W. Crary is
still living at St. Paul, Minnesota, with his youngest son, Dr. W. H.
Crary, of that city, and is in the enjoyment of perfect health. His wife
died in Redwing, this state, February 24, 1877, at sixty-six years of age,
leaving to her husband and children the memory of a life than which no
nobler or more unselfish has been lived among women. To J. W. Crary and
his wife were born three sons and one daughter. The eldest of these
children was Charles Wesley Crary, the subject of this sketch, who was
born at Potsdam, New York, May 6, 1835, and shortly afterward removed with
his parents to the old farm on which he was raised, one and half miles
southeast of town. Charles W. Crary received a thorough academic training
in the old St. Lawrence Academy, in his native town, from which he
graduated in 1855. That same year he entered upon the study of medicine in
the office of Carrol C. Bates, M.D., one of the most celebrated surgeons
of northern New York. In the fall of 1858, young Crary, having completed
his studies at the Albany Medical College, graduated M. D., and receiving
his parchments from that institution, located for practice at Fort
Covington, New York. The following year, May 4, 1859, Dr. C. W. Crary
married Miss Mary P. Porter, also a native of Potsdam, New York, born
January 4, 1837, and a graduate of the academy, class of 1856. Miss
Porter's father, Orlin Porter, was a prominent clergyman of the Methodist
Episcopal church; her mother, Pamelia Porter (nee Allen), was a direct
descendant of the old Ethan Allen stock of Vermont. The doctor and his
wife number a long line of clergymen among their ancestors on both sides
of the house. Dr. Crary having married, continued in practice at Fort
Covington, until the call came for additional troops in the fall of 1861,
when within twenty-four hours' time he enlisted a full company of one
hundred men, and tendered his services to the government. These
enlistments were upon the express condition that Dr. Crary would remain
with the company during its term of service. The company was accepted by
the governor of the state, Dr. Crary was commissioned captain, and his
command became Co. H, 98 regt. N. Y. Vols. The regiment was ordered to
Washington, and in the following spring took the field under McClellan.
Capt. Crary was with his regiment until May 31, 1862, when he was wounded
at the battle of Fair Oaks, and sent to Annapolis, Maryland. Was in
hospital there thirty days and then sent north on sick leave. Returned to
his regiment at the expiration of sixty days, and being incapacitated for
marching by the injury he had received, was released from his promise to
remain with his company, and tendered his resignation as captain of Co. H,
to accept the assistant-surgeoncy of the 114th regt. N. Y. Vols. He was
soon afterward ordered to the department of the Gulf, under Banks, and
reported at Port Hudson. He was in all the engagements fought by that
command, ten in number, and served as medical purveyer of the corps (the
19th) until it was ordered to the Shenandoah valley in the summer of 1864.
That same fall he was promoted surgeon, and assigned to duty with the
185th regt. N. Y. Vols., then before Petersburg. The doctor was
subsequently breveted lieutenant-colonel in the medical department, for
honorable and meritorious services in the field, and during the last six
months of his service was acting brigade-surgeon of the 1st brigade, 1st
division, 5th Army Corps. The war having closed, Dr. Crary was mustered
out of the service at Syracuse, New York, July, 1865, after having been on
active duty for nearly four years. During this time he was present in
seventeen hotly-contested general engagements, besides numerous
skirmishes. The chief of these actions were the battles of Fair Oaks, Port
Hudson, Pleasant Hill, both of the Winchester fights, Hatcher's Run,
Gravely Run and Southside Railroad. The same year that he left the army,
Dr. Crary settled in Malone, New York, where he was enjoying a very
considerable practice, which he relinquished to accept the post of
contract-surgeon U. S. A., at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, his
brother-in-law, Maj. A. S. Kimball, being quartermaster of that
department. He had been in Fort Gibson about eighteen months, when, in the
spring of 1868, the smallpox broke out among the Indians at Cabin creek,
some sixty miles up the Grand river from Fort Gibson. Having been
recommended for that work by the agents of the Creek, Cherokee and
Seminole Indians, Dr. Crary threw up his contract at Fort Gibson, and made
special terms with Gen. Parker, commissioner for Indian affairs, to
vaccinate all the Indians in the Creek, Cherokee and Seminole nations.
Receiving due authority from Washington, and having made all arrangements
with the medical department to forward him a fresh supply of non-humanized
vaccine- virus every seven days, Dr. Crary entered upon his work. All the
details of this service were thoroughly mastered and reduced to a system
before it was commenced, and once entered upon it was not relinquished
until under his own hand thirty thousand Indians had been vaccinated. The
doctor was accompanied for weeks together while upon this duty with Mrs.
Crary, camping out as they journeyed from station to station, at which the
Indian runners had assembled detachments of the tribes in readiness for
the doctor's coming. During the five months spent upon this service, the
doctor and his wife only received the kindest and most hospitable
treatment at the hands of the tribes among whom they sojourned. In 1869
Dr. Crary removed with his family to Philadelphia, remained thirteen
months attending clinical lectures at the Blocksley and Pennsylvania
hospitals, received his parchments from Jefferson Medical College in the
spring of 1871, and shortly afterward located for practice in the city of
St. Louis. The five years spent in this city were very prosperous ones,
and during their continuance the doctor built up a lucrative practice, and
enjoyed the confidence of the profession, as was evidenced by his being
made a permanent member of the American Medical Association, at its
session in St. Louis, in 1873. Having become a pronounced homoeopathist in
1875, the doctor formerly relinquished his relations to the old school of
practice, and entered upon the newer and more progressive one, in which he
has been signally successful. Owing to pecuniary reverses, the result of
unsuccessful political aspirations, Dr. Crary resolved to remove from St.
Louis, and being charmed with the scenery of this lake region, located
here in 1876. During the eight years of his eminently successful practice
in this city, Dr. Crary has won for himself hosts of friends, and four
years since (1880) received the compliment of an election to the
presidency of the Minnesota State Homoeopathic Institute, which position
he filled with acceptability. A perfect gentleman in manners, genial in
nature, generous to a fault, a fine horseman, a true friend, and a man
among men, Dr. Crary-with his smiling face, and his two hundred and thirty
pounds avoirdupois-is justly considered the heavyweight of the medical
fraternity of Lake City. To Dr. Crary and wife have been born four
children, of whom only one survives, the eldest, Minnie P., born at
Potsdam, New York, May 21, 1860.