Freestone County, Texas Biographies Biography of Dr. Bascom Lynn (Sep. 8, 1864-Jun. 30, 1921, buried Mission Burial Park South cemetery in San Antonio, TX. His tombstone states "Dr. Bascom Lynn 1864-1921".) A History of Texas and Texans, Volume III by Frank W. Johnson Editor: Eugenne C. Barker, Ph.D. The American Historical Society, Chicago and New York, 1914 [Page 1520] BASCOM LYNN, M.D. The first superintendent of the State Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Carlsbad, Dr. Bascom Lynn, of San Angelo, has been engaged in the practice of his profession in that city since 190, and probably no physician i west Texas is better qualified and has a better reptation based upon actual achievements in his profession than Dr. Lynn. His ability and standing in the profession was a fact accounting for his appointment by Governor Colquitt to the important task of [Page 1521] supervising the construction and equipment and opening of the State Sanitarium. Dr. Lynn was born September 8, 1864, in Freestone county, Texas, and was the fifth in a family of six boys and one girl born to Joseph and Elizabeth Lynn. Dr. Lynn is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his father came to America at an early date, establishing himself as a farmer and planter, and previous to the war was the owner of a number of slaves. In the struggle between the north and south he enlisted on the Confederate side, and was in the commissary department from the beginning to the end of the struggle. He was one of the early settlers of Freestone county, having located there in 1847, before the Texas frontier of civilization had extended north or west of the county. He combined the vocations of merchant and rancher, and continued in those lins until his death in 1872. His widow is still living at the age of eighty. The paternal grandfather had the distinction of being the first district judge in a district including Freestone county. Dr. Lynn attained his early education in the public schools, was reared on a farm, and after the varied experiences of his youth in different occupations, he took up the study of medicine in the University of Kentucky, where he was graduated M.D. in 1898. In 1900 he took a post-graduate corse in surgery at Louisville. His first practice was at Weldon, in Houston county, where he was physician and surgeon attending the state convicts in the State Penitentiary. Then in 1900 he moved to San Angelo, and has had a large practice in this city and vicinity ever since. The talent and long experience of Dr. Lynn have combined to give him his leading position in the profession at San Angelo. His associates speak of him in the highest term of regard, and if what he has accomplished in the past is a criterion of the future, his career is bound to be one of the splendid usefulness and benefit in the broader fields of medicine and public health. The State Tubercolosis Sanitarium was created by an act fo the thirty second legislature in 1911. The board of commissioners, comprising the governor and the state health officer and others, located the institution at Carlsbad, fifteen miles northwest of San Angelo. The situation is at the foothills of the Indian Mountains, and on the north branch of the Concho River. Besides the climatic and topographical features of the location, the presene of fine mineral wells is an important asset to the sanitarium. The buildings now existing consist of seven reinforced concrete structures erected in 1912, and opened by Dr. Lynn in a formal celebration on July 4, 1912. Dr. Lynn was appointed by Governor Colquitt as the first superintendent of the sanitarium in June 1912. The institution has accomodatins for seventy-five patients, and has a staff of competent physicias and trained nurses. One of the valuable features, and one which will be of increasing advantage as the years pass, are the large ranch and farm tracts about the ground, and at the present time three hundred and thirty-nine acres of the sanitarium grounds are under cultivation, much of the labor and supervision being supplied by the patients of the institution. Dr. Lynn is a Democrat in politics, and fraternally is affiliated with the Masonic Order, being a Knight Templar and Shriner, and also a member of the Woodmen of the World, and the Benevolent and Protectve Order of Elks. He is a vestryman in the Episcopal church at San Angelo. In 1886 Dr. Lynn married Miss Mattie Prendergast, a daughter of Judge H. D. Prendergast, who for a number of years was a district judge in Robertson county. In 1897 the doctor married for his present wife, Miss Zella Scruggs, of Mexia, a daughter of Sol. K. Scruggs, a farmer of Limestone county, who died about 1906. Dr. Lynn has two sons, Harvey L., aged eighteen, and Rice P. Lynn, aged fourteen. Harvey is now attending the Southwestern University and Rice is in the public schools of San Angelo. =============================================== Texas State Journal of Medicine, Volume 17 By Texas Medical Association [Page: 294] [Photo] DEATHS Dr. Bascom Lynn, San Antonio, Texas, died June 30, 1921. Dr. Lynn was born at Cotton Gin, Freestone County, Texas, September 8, 1864, He began earning his own living at the age of 14, working in a drug store at Mexia, Texas. He took a course of lectures in medicine at Galveston in 1893-94 and in 1898 graduated from the Kentucky School of Medicine, Louisville, Ky. He began practicing medicine on one of the State farms at Weldon, Texas, where he remained for two years, going from there to San Angelo. In 1897, Dr. Lynn was married to Miss Zelda Scruggs of Mexia, who survives him. He served as superintendent of Carlsbad Sanitarium from its establishment until 1914, when he resumed private practice at San Angelo. At the beginning of the World war he, with his two sons, entered the service. He was stationed at Camp Travis, where he had charge fo the influenze wards during the epidemic in 1918. After his honorable discharge from the service, he located at San Antonio, where he had since lived. Dr. Lynn had been a member fo his county medical society for seventeen years. He was considered most successful as a physician, and was highly regarded by all who knew him.