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Charles O. Fothergill, M.D.

In analyzing the career of the successful practitioner of the healing art it will be invariably found to be true that a broad-minded sympathy with the sick and suffering and an honest, earnest desire to aid his afflicted fellow men have gone hand in hand with skill and able judgment. The gentleman to whom this brief tribute is given fortunately embodies these necessary qualifications in a marked degree and by energy and application to his professional duties is building up an enviable reputation and drawing to himself a large and remunerative patronage.

Dr. Charles O. Fothergill is a native of the county in which he now lives, having been born at West Union, Iowa, on the 8th day of March, 1864. He is the son of Rev. Enoch and Lydia (Wade) Fothergill, the former of English and the latter of Welsh ancestry. Rev. Enoch Fothergill was born in Marion county, Ohio, October 13, 1823, and in his early days became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, but a few years later he changed his membership to the United Brethren church, with which he afterwards remained affiliated. He moved from Ohio to Lagrange county, Indiana, where he married in 1843 and in 1847 located in Dubuque county, Iowa. He remained there until about 1858, when he came to West Union, Fayette county. He was devoted to his church and gave to it all of his attention that could be spared from his daily labor, being one of the best known church men in the county. His death occurred November 14, 1894. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Lydia Wade, was born in Virginia, and by her union with Enoch Fothergill she became the mother of eight children, four of whom are living, Charles O., Samuel, Joseph, and Mrs. Anna L. Hotchkiss, the others having died in infancy.

Charles O. Fothergill received his elementary education in the public schools at West Union, supplementing this by attendance at a school at Beatrice, Nebraska. Having decided to make the practice of medicine his life work, the subject then matriculated in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, where he was graduated in 1890. He then entered upon the practice of his profession in Kansas, but a year and a half later he went to Culbertson, Nebraska, where he remained four years, and at each of these places he served in official capacity as coroner. In 1894 Doctor Fothergill came to Elgin, Iowa, and has since remained here in the active practice, in which he has met with splendid success. He keeps in close touch with the latest advances made in the healing art, an evidence of this being that since entering upon the practice he returned to college for post-graduate work, from a desire to perfect himself in his profession. He enjoys a large and constantly increasing practice, being now numbered among the leading physicians of this part of the county.

On January 15, 1885, Doctor Fothergill was united in marriage with Elizabeth H. Chase, of Motor, Kansas, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Chase. She was born in Canada and her family are all Quakers in religious belief. To Doctor and Mrs. Fothergill have been born two children, namely: Claud E., born October 9, 1886, is employed in a bank at Monticello, Iowa, and Carl F., born February 26, 1893, died in August, 1898.

Doctor Fothergill has had but little to do with matters political since locating in Elgin, his practice demanding practically all his time, and also from the fact that he invariably considers the candidate's fitness for the office rather than his party affiliation. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Modern Woodmen of America, belonging to the former organization in Kansas and the latter at Elgin, this county. In his private life the Doctor is a man of strict integrity and true purpose, and, though he is not a member of any church, his moral ideals are high. He gives his support to every movement for the advancement of the community along all lines and is considered one of the leading citizens of Elgin."