Francis M. Crain, M. D. Biography


	This biography appears on pages 197-198 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				FRANCIS M. CRAIN, M. D.  

	In the thirty-three years of his practice of medicine and surgery 
in Spink county Dr. Francis M. Crain has become well established as one 
of the leading physicians of Redfield and his section of the state. 
Throughout the entire period he has kept in touch with the trend of 
modern thought and progress in connection with the science of medicine 
and his work has been fruitful of excellent results. A native of 
Indiana, he was born in the town of Angola, June 5, 1857, and is a son 
of Abram D. and Harriett (Perry) Crain. The father was a pioneer 
settler of Indiana, to which state he went with his parents from New 
York. He was a native, however, of Canada, and the family is of Scotch 
lineage. In both the paternal and maternal lines Dr. Crain represents 
old families that have been established on the American continent since 
the colonial period in the history of this country. Both his father and 
mother are now deceased and their remains were interred at Angola, 
Indiana. The latter was a cousin of Commodore Perry, the famous naval 
commander.  

	After completing a course of study in the Angola high school Dr. 
Crain entered the Fort Wayne Medical College of Indiana, from which he 
was graduated with the class of 1882. The following year he came to 
South Dakota and entered upon the active practice of his profession in 
Doland. In 1891 he matriculated in the Rush Medical College of Chicago 
and was graduated therefrom in the spring of 1892. In 1899 he took 
post-graduate work in New York city. Throughout the period of his 
residence here he has been a close student of the profession along all 
those lines where science has brought to light new truths concerning 
the origin and treatment of disease. He is accorded an extensive and 
well merited practice, which is indicative of his success in 
professional work. He is a director of the Redfield National Bank and 
in connection with his brother, who is president of that bank, he owns 
about eighteen hundred acres of South Dakota land.  

	On the 4th of November, 1885, in Doland, Dr. Crain was united in 
marriage to Miss Mildred J. Moore, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ezra 
Moore, who were farming people of New York state and now lie buried at 
Potsdam, New York. Dr. and Mrs. Crain have become parents of four 
children: Castle, who is a graduate of the Northwestern University at 
Evanston, Illinois, and is now deputy county treasurer of Spink county; 
Cleveland C., who graduated in 1915 from the South Dakota University; 
Carroll F., who is now a medical student in the State University; and 
Crystal, a high-school student in Redfield. 

	In his political views Dr. Crain is a democrat and is an ardent 
admirer of the principles of the party. He is a Royal Arch and Knight 
Templar Mason, a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is likewise a member of the South 
Dakota State Medical Society, of which he is now first vice president, 
and of the American Medical Association. He has ever been conscientious 
in the treatment of his patients and unfaltering ill his attention to 
the duties of the profession. Thus he has gradually advanced in his 
chosen calling and for a long period has maintained a foremost position 
among leading physicians and surgeons of Spink county.