Biographies

~ Quire, Charles E., M.D. ~

The writer of biography, dealing in the personal history of men engaged in the various affairs of everyday life, occasionally finds a subject whose record commands exceptional interest and admiration and especially is this true when he has achieved more than ordinary success or made his influence felt as a leader of thought and a benefactor of his kind. Dr. Charles E. Quire, of Lynnville, is eminently of that class who earn the indisputable right to rank in the van of the army of progressive men and by reason of a long and strenuous career devoted to the good of his fellows, to the alleviation of their physical sufferings, he occupies a position of wide influence and has made a name which will long live in the hearts and affections of the people. For nearly a half century, or practically through the entire up building period of Jasper County's history, he has been practicing medicine here and his name has become a household word throughout the same.

Dr. Quire, like many of the sterling men who have made this locality what it is today, one of the leading sections of the middle West, hails from the Buckeye state, having been born in Carthage, Hamilton County, Ohio, November 25, 1842, the son of William Quire, whose birth occurred in that state in 1817. The mother, whose maiden name was Caroline B. Harris, was also a native of Hamilton County, Ohio. These parents grew up amid conditions and were married there, the father devoting his life to the trade of harness-maker and saddler. In 1858 he moved to Montgomery County, Indiana, and there purchased a farm. In 1865 he moved with his family to Linn Grove Township, Jasper County, Iowa, and here bought sixty-six acres, on which he remained until his death. He was a member of the Baptist Church and was known as a man of upright character. His family consisted of the following children: James C. is living in Grinnell, Iowa, Thomas B., and Alice. Emma, are all deceased; Charles E., of this sketch, was the oldest of the family and he belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic.

The Doctor is one of our honored veterans of the Civil War, having enlisted in Company B, Tenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in which he served nine months, mostly in hospital work; this gave him the idea of becoming a doctor, and after his term of enlistment expired he at once entered medical school, to train as a doctor and surgeon for the war, but the conflict was over before he had finished, and then he moved to Iowa.

Doctor Quire was married on February 21, 1867, to Sarah Louisa Taylor, daughter of Samuel Taylor, and this union was blessed with the following children: Frank E., a physician who was graduated from Rush Medical College in 1898; Austin Flink was graduated from the schools of Keokuk, Iowa; Fred T. lives on the home farm; Mabel teaches in the Lynnville primary school; Alveta F. is also a teacher. Of these children, Austin married Carrie Smith, of Mahaska County; Frank married Kittie Ratcliff of Jasper County; Fred married Mayme Donai.

The Doctor has practiced forty-six years in this one community and now his son, Austin F. Quire, is associated with him, they being the only doctors in Lynnville, a town of five hundred inhabitants, and they have a wide and ever growing practice, the elder doctor being regarded as one of the leading citizens of the town, whose interests he has ever had at heart and sought to promote. Page 1053.