Parker County, TX - Biography - Dr. I.P. Vollentine

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Dr. I.P. Vollentine

Dr. I.P. Vollentine, a prominent physician of Parker County, was born in 
Stewart county, Tennessee, near Fort Donelson 22 April 1835. His father, 
Rev. S.K. Vollentine, was born in North Carolina in 1791, and was a farmer. He
was a soldier in the war of 1812. His father, James Vollentine, a Revolutionary
soldier, came to the United States from Europe, locating in Nrth Carolina. He
was of Scotch-Irish blood, and was a cooper by trade. James Vollentine was
married two years after locating in North Carolina, and they had five
children. His death occurred in 1841, at an advanced age. The mother of 
Dr. I.P. Vollentine, was a cousin of General Robert E. Lee. Dr. I.P. Vollentine
was the sixth son of 12 children, five now living:

Mrs. Charity Whitesell of Corsicana, Texas
Mary E. Ezelle of Palestine, Texas
Mrs. Margaret Ford of Union City, Tennessee
Mrs. Martha McConnell of Fort Worth

I.P. Vollentine attended the St. Holmes School and Beulah Institute of 
Tennessee, afterward entered the Jeffersno Medical College at Philadelphia, and
graduated at the Transylvanian University, Kentucy, at the age of 21 years.
After practicing one year in Hickman County, Kentucky, Dr. Vollentine spent
17 months in Scott County, Missouri, and then started for Texas, making the
700 miles on horseback, and crossing Red River at Colbert's Ferry. The fact of 
his having a brother at Fort Belknap attracted him to the West. He was the first
physician to locate in Palo Pinto county, and his practice covered that and
adjoining counties, and he rode day and night to visit his distant patients.
In 1859 he came from Palo Pinto county to Weatherford. During the War,
Dr. Vollentine was a Union man, and seved as Surgeon at Fort Belknap from
1863 to 1864, and had charge of the post during the last year. After this
he resigned his position and returned to Palo Pinto county, at the time of Bank's
raid, and while at Fort Belknap, the Doctor was requested to take the oath to
support the Confederate cause, but refused. In 1867, Dr. Vollentine located
in Parker County, where he found Dr. Milligan, Dr. Willis and Dr. McDermit, all
of whom are now missing from Weatherford. He immediately began the practice
of medicine, and is now the best known physician in Parker County. In those
early days the principal diseases afflicting the people were influenza, 
scarlet fever, measles, etc, eith only rare cases of surgical work - the
cutting out of an arrow spike or a frontiersman's bullet being the chief
cases in the latter line.

In his political relations, the Doctor votes with the Republican party; and
socially affiliated with the Odd Fellow's order, and is a charger member
of the One-Half Century Club. Dr. Vollentine has suffered the loss of his
right hand at the wrist.

February 26, 1861, he was united in marriage to Miss E.J. Dalton, a daughter of
M.L. Dalton of Tennessee. He was a pioneer stockman, and was killed by the
Indians in Palo Pinto County, Texas, in 1871, on his return from driving a
herd of cattle to Kansas. With two companions, he had reached Loving's valley, 
where they were attacked and killed.


History of Texas Together with a Biographical History of Tarrant and Parker
Counties
Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
1895