John L. Moorhead, an able and successful physician of Neodesha, Kan., comes of sturdy Irish ancestry and was born to the professions. Dr. Moorhead's birthplace was Knox county, Missouri, and the date of his birth was March 16, 1870. His father, Rev. John Moorhead, was born in Ireland and came to the United States at the age of three years with his parents, who settled in Ohio. Entering the Methodist ministry Reverend Moorhead gave fifty years of active service as a preacher of the Gospel and in the kindly ministrations of his calling, twenty-five years of that period having been spent in Missouri, where he was a presiding elder twelve years. He had been engaged in ministrial duties in Ohio prior to his removal to Missouri, and after coming to Kansas continued in the service of his church, preaching at various points but maintaining his residence at Baldwin, where he now resides retired. He is well known, not only as a minister but also as a newspaper man and successful business man. For fifteen years he published the "Baldwin Ledger" and had done editorial work in Missouri for a number of years. A strong Republican in his political views, he has always taken a keen interest in the work of his party. He served as chaplain of the lower house of the Kansas state legislature one term and was chaplain in the state penitentiary during the incumbency of Governor Morrill. By successful management he has accumulated a competency and now, in the fullness of years, is resting from a long career of useful activity. Reverend Moorhead married Elizabeth Hayward and of their four children Dr. John L. Moorhead is the third in order of birth. The grandfather, William Moorhead, a native of Ireland, after locating in Ohio became an importer of fine horses and in connection with that industry made nine trips across the Atlantic. He died in Ohio about 1876.

Dr. Moorhead was educated at Baldwin, in the Baker University, and took up the study of medicine in the Kansas Medical College, where he graduated in 1896. Following his graduation he entered the Indian service at Fort Sill, Okla., for one summer, and from there went to Topeka as a physician at the State Hospital for the Insane. In July, 1897, he located at Neodesha and has since been engaged there in the active practice of his profession. For the first six months he was associated with Dr. T. Blakslee, but after that he practiced alone until his present partnership with Dr. Frank T. Allen was formed, in 1902. Dr. Moorhead keeps fully abreast with the progressive thought of his profession and is a member of the Wilson County Medical Society, the Kansas State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. He is division surgeon for the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company and is local surgeon for the Missouri Pacific.

In October, 1901, was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Moorhead and Miss Georgia, daughter of Dr. Frank T. Allen of Neodesha. Of this union one son has been born, Frank L., now (1911) three years old. Dr. and Mrs. Moorhead are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and he prominently affiliates with the Masonic order as a Knight Templar, Scottish Rite Mason, and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He has "passed all the chairs" of the Blue Lodge and Chapter, and is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In political affairs Dr. Moorhead, a stanch Republican, has been an active worker in his party's interests and has been a delegate to the different Republican conventions a number of times. He has been a member of the Neodesha school board two years, and all that tends toward the upbuilding of his city and state receives his warm interest and support. In various ways he has proved to be a man of public spirit and a citizen of sterling worth.