Biographies:   Dr. David W. ASHUM, Eau Claire, Eau Claire Co., WI 

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David W. Ashum, M. D.  Standing prominent among the medical profession of
Eau Claire county is Dr. David W. Ashum, who was born in Findley, Ohio,
January 18, 1854.  His parents were John and Fannie (French) Ashum, natives
of Virginia and descended from German and English ancestry.  The father
was a farmer by occupation, and both parents were of fine sensibilities,
high minded, cultured tastes, of refined manner and charming personality,
and were highly esteemed for their sterling qualities of mind and heart,
and many blessings followed them for their acts of charity to those in need.
They both died when Dr. Ashum was a small boy.

The early education of Dr. Ashum was principally received in Michigan.  He
became interested in the study of medicine and applied himself arduously 
to it under the preceptorship of Dr. John A. Waterhouse, an eminent physician
at Bay City, Michigan.  He entered the Eclectic Medical Institute at 
Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated with the class of 1881.  He commenced his
practice at Bay City, Mich., and at the end of one year he removed to 
Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where he organized a lumberman's hospital, under
the name of the Michigan and Wisconsin Hospital Company.  In the spring of
1883 he removed to Eau Claire and here started another lumberman's hospital,
which he conducted for seven years.  He was instrumental in effecting the
organization of the American Hospital Aid Association, at Stevens Point,
Wausau, Eau Claire and Ashland, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis and Grand Rapids,
Minnesota.

As a practitioner Dr. Ashum has been successful.  He has built up a large 
practice and made many warm friends among all classes of people.  He keeps
abreast of the times and is thoroughly up-to-date in the practice of his 
profession.  In the fall of 1889 he attended the new York Polyclinic, and
he holds membership in the National and State Eclectic Medical Societies.
He is a member of the National Union, the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons
and the A. O. U. W.

Dr. Ashum was married at Alpena, Michigan, May 17, 1883, to Miss Carrie
Harper, daughter of John and Abbie (Milliken) Harper, the former a native
of New Brunswick, and the later of Maine, both descended from Scotch
ancestry.

Alexander Harper, father of John Harper, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and
came to the western continent in 1818, first settling at Halifax.  Benjamin 
Milliken, father of Abbie Harper, was a native of Maine, and served in the
War of 1812.  is father, Joel Milliken, was a soldier in the War of the
Revolution, and was likely born in this country, being a son of one of three
brothers who came from Scotland, and who at one time owned nearly all of the
Saco Valley, having purchased it from the Indians.  Dr. and Mrs. Ashum were
the parents of two children:  John H. and Maude Harper Ashum.  Mrs. Ashum 
died March 8, 1911.

--Taken from "The History of Eau Claire County, 1914, Past & Present",
pages 327-328.