Biographical Sketch of Dr. Matthew J. Young, Franklin County, Missouri

>From "History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford and 
Gasconade Counties", Biographical Appendix, Goodspeed Publishing 
Company, 1888.

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Dr. Matthew J. Young was born on September 10, 1854, in Hamilton 
County, Ill., near the town of McLeansboro.  His father, Mathew M.
Young, a native of Tennessee, was a lawyer, and said by those 
acquainted with him to have been not only a profound scholar in
legal lores, but also of brilliant attainments in the sciences and
polite arts.  He claimed kindred to the celebrated Dr. Edward Young,
author of "Night Thoughts," and was a descendant of those English
who settled in the northern part of Ireland.  The family originally
immigrated to South Carolina, and from thence to Tennessee.  In 1850,
actuated by the spirit of adventure, he came to Missouri, where he 
met and wedded Miss Olive, daughter of Braxton J. Inge, then residing
at St. Clair.  From thence he moved to Illinois, where his eldest son,
the subject of this memoir, was born, and from there to Alabama, where
he began the practice of law.  During the rebellion his sympathies 
were with the South, and during the first year of the Confederacy he
acted as treasurer, subsequently holding different positions of trust
and honor.  On the fall of the Confederate government, he again went
to Missouri, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 
1876.  Dr. Young received the rudiments of his education at the 
Bolivar Academy, in Madisonville, Tenn., and continued his studies,
after the removal of his parents to Missouri, at the Steelville Acad-
emy, located in Crawford County.  From this place he went to St. Louis
and became a pupil of Prof. James T. Clark, a gentleman qualified in
every respect for the instruction of youth.  Returning to the home of
his parents, he began the study of medicine, and graduated from the
Missouri Medical College in March, 1876.  Leaving his alma mater, he
began, when not quite twenty-two years old, the practice of his pro-
fession at Richland, Mo.  On December 13, 1876, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Ann E. Barnes, youngest daughter of Capt. James H.
Barnes, a Virginian, and one of the pioneers of Franklin County.  In
January, 1877, accompanied by his bride, he left Missouri and located 
in Collin County, Tex., and although enjoying a fair reputation and
practice there, he became dissatisfied with the mixed element and un-
stable condition of society in Texas, occasioned by the extent and
class of immigration, and the following year he located at Bingen, 
Ark., where he remained three years, enjoying a reputable practice, 
but his health becoming impaired by malarial influence, he decided to
seek a more salubrious situation.  Returning to his boyhood home, in
Missouri, he located at his present home, where, for the past six 
years, he has enjoyed a fair share of public confidence and patronage.
The Doctor is a Democrat, but liberal and conservative, and claims to
be devoid of sectarian and political prejudices; he is an optimist in
all things, and considers his profession the most exalted calling a
man can pursue; that while by its practice he obtains a livelihood it
should be considered as a great morality rather than a business.  For
a number of years he has been a member of the Masonic order, and re-
cently has identified himself with the order of United Workmen, 
assuming on the institution of the order in his town, the functions of
medical examiner and recorder.

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