Charles C. Funk

CHARLES C. FUNK, M. D. For nearly twenty years Dr. Charles C. Funk has found all his time and energies engrossed in his chosen profession and with increasing scope of usefulness and service. He is a progressive man and is one of the doctors of Kansas who leads their respective communities in the matter of public health work. He is a competent surgeon and is proprietor of a hospital of his own construction at Smith Center. Recently he was given a commission in the Medical Corps of the United States Army and was subject to call when the armistice was signed.

Although Doctor Funk has spent most of his life in Kansas, he was born at Warsaw, Indiana, May 3, 1874. His ancestors several generations ago came to the United States from Switzerland. His grandfather, Henry Funk, was born in Ohio in 1809, and was an early settler at Warsaw, Indiana. He served as a soldier in the Mexican war and received a government land grant for his services. For many years he followed the business of wagon manufacturing at Warsaw and died near that city in 1875. He was a whig in politics, and he married into the Corwin family.

Erastus H. Funk, father of Doctor Funk, was born at Urbana, Ohio, in 1846, and at the age of twenty years went to Warsaw, Indiana. A carpenter by trade, on coming to Kansas in 1879 he followed that occupation at Waterville, and has been a resident of Kansas almost continuously since. He now lives retired with his son Doctor Funk. He is a republican, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of America.

Erastus H. Funk married Mary A. Wertenberger, who was born at Urbana, Ohio, in 1854, and died at Culbertson, Nebraska, in 1913. They had a family of twelve children, noted briefly as follows: James B., a farmer at Hanover, Kansas; H. D., a painter and paper hanger at Norton, Kansas; Dr. C. C., of Smith Center; F. R. Funk, who is a graduate of the Ensworth Medical College of St. Joseph, Missouri, and is a lieutenant in the United States Army in France; Katy, wife of H. W. Brown, of Chicago, an auditor for Swift & Company; Bessie, wife of Al Haines, superintendent for the Borden Creamery Company at Hampshire, Illinois; Dr. H. E. Funk, a graduate of the Ensworth Medical College of St. Joseph and a resident of Culbertson, Nebraska; Ralph, a barber at Tulsa, Oklahoma; Harold, who is with the Three Hundred and Forty-Second Machine Gun Battalion on the firing line in France; Lelia, wife of A. L. Galvin, a Colorado rancher; Lester, twin brother of Lelia, a barber at Franklin, Kansas; and Claude, ranchman in New Mexico.

Dr. Charles C. Funk was educated in the public schools of Washington County, Kansas, where his father located when the son was five years of age. He took his medical course in the Central Medical College of St. Louis, from which he received his M. D. degree in 1900. He had already practiced at Jennings, Kansas, and altogether he did six and a half years of professional service there. In the fall of 1905 he removed to Smith Center, and has built up a large general medical and surgical practice, specializing in surgery and public health work. He is county health officer. In 1913 he established his hospital, which has accommodations for twenty patients. His private offices are in the State Bank Building on Main Street.

Doctor Funk is a member of the Smith County and Kansas State Medical societies and the American Medical Association. He is affiliated with Western Star Lodge No. 174, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Smith Center Camp, Modern Woodmen of America, Smith Center Lodge, Ancient Order of United Workmen, Knights and Ladies of Security, and is a republican in politics.

In 1901, at Oberlin, Kansas, Doctor Funk married Miss Nellie Foster, daughter of Frank and Emily Foster. Her father, now deceased, was a farmer, and his widow lives at Long Island, Kansas. Doctor and Mrs. Funk have two daughters: Genevieve, born October 1, 1904; and Roma, born March 18, 1908.