1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

Dr. Asbury Coke Graves, eye, ear, nose and throat specialist of Pittsburg, Kansas, has a unique reputation for professional skill and ability throughout Crawford county and the entire southeastern part of the state. He has given the best years of his life to the medical profession, beginning his preparation when a boy, and his subsequent career has been highly praiseworthy both because of his individual attainment and his great usefulness in the alleviation of human suffering and in advancing the standard of medical practice. Above all things else, Dr. Graves has never been content with mediocrity, however well he might have prospered from a material standpoint. After securing a high place in the regard of the people as a general practitioner, he turned his attention to a more special field of labor, and after study and thorough preparation in the best schools at home and abroad he returned to this county and gave himself devotedly to the practice in which it is his highest ambition to excel and thereby be of service to mankind. As a specialist he enjoys the co-operation and approval of the leading physicians in this section of the country, and has sustained a reputation for the highest ability among the people who require his skill.

Dr. Graves was born in Huntingdon, Carroll county, Tennessee, in 1856, a son of Wilburn H. and Fronia (Wethers) Graves. His father, a native of Tennessee and of North Carolina parents, was clerk of the county court of Carroll county for sixteen years, after which he devoted himself to the practice of law. He was a successful man, of ample means, and a prominent figure in Carroll county and a devoted member of the Methodist church. His death occurred in 1875, and his wife, who was a Virginian by birth, also passed away many years ago.

Dr. Graves received a good education to serve as a preparatory equipment for the medical profession. He was sent to the public schools in Huntingdon until fifteen years old, and then became a student in the Mems and Hughes school at Nashville, which he attended until 1873, in which year the cholera broke out in Nashville, and he then entered Mackenzie College at Mackenzie, Tennessee, where he remained three years. He then combined thoretical study with practical experience in the office of Dr. McCall, at Huntingdon, and was under that distinguished physician's preceptorship for four years. He then entered the medical department of the Nashville and Vanderbilt University at Nashville, where he was graduated with the class of 1882.

His first practice in general medicine was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but he remained there only a short time, and on April 8, 1882, located at Cherokee, Crawford county, Kansas, which county has been the scene of his endeavors ever since. He was engaged in general practice there until 1887, and then, having had unusual success, he decided to specialize along the lines for which he had the greatest liking. He went to New York and took a special course on the eye, ear, nose and throat in the Post-Graduate Medical School of that city. Returning to Cherokee he carried on a highly successful practice in those branches for some years. He was still ambitious for further attainment and decided to pursue his studies under the eminent specialists of Europe. In 1897 he went to London and took a special course at the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital. From there he went to Vienna and was a student under Dr. Fuchs in the Allgemeines Krankenhaus, or General Hospital, of that city. Thus equipped, he returned and located at Pittsburg, Kansas, where his professional ardor and skill have since found useful fields of labor.

Dr. Graves is a member of the county and state medical societies and the American Medical Association. He served one term as president of the Southeast Kansas Medical Society and is now treasurer of the Crawford County Medical Society. He is on the staff of the Pittsburg City Hospital. He enjoys politics as a recreation and diversion from his profession, and was recently elected a delegate from Crawford county to the third district Republican congressional convention. He is a man of fine qualities and universally esteemed.

Dr. Graves was married at Cherokee, October 20, 1882, to Miss Jennie Campbell, and they have two sons, Wilburn H. and Bernard Coke.