Peter Davis Hughes

PETER DAVIS HUGHES, A. M., M. D. - Engaged in one of the most exacting occupations to which a man may devote his time and energy, Peter Davis Hughes, M. D., of Kansas City, Kansas, has not only gained marked prestige as one of the foremost physicians and surgeons of Wyandotte county, but is widely known as a public-spirited and progressive citizen. He was born, February 13, 1855, in Newport, England, and as a lad of seven years was brought by his parents, John R. and Elizabeth (Davis) Hughes, to the United States, where he was brought up and educated.

Besides his public school education, Peter Davis Hughes also received a good military training, from 1874 until 1877 serving as a private in Company B, Seventeenth Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guards. His inclinations turning him towards the study of medicine, he was graduated, at Fort Wayne, from the Fort Wayne College of Medicine in 1884, with the degree of M. D. In 1903 he was granted the degree of A. M. by Taylor University at Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dr. Hughes began the practice of his profession at Brooklyn, New York, from there coming, in 1884, to Kansas City, Kansas. He has been a constant student since, keeping in close touch with all of the more modern methods used in his profession, taking courses in polyclinics in New York City in 1884 and 1887, and in northern Indiana in 1897. Since locating in Kansas City the Doctor has held many positions of importance and responsibility. From 1894 until 1905 he was professor of surgery at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Kansas City, Kansas; since 1892 he has been senior surgeon, and chief of the medical staff of the Bethany Hospital, which he succeeded in having established in Kansas City, Kansas, after four years of effort. In 1906 the Doctor was given the chair of clinical surgery at the University of Kansas, and has held it until the present time. In 1890 and 1891 he was Inspector Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Agricultural Department.

In 1905 and 1906 Dr. Hughes was president of the Northeastern Kansas Medical Society, of which he is an active member; he also belongs to the American Medical Association, and to the Kansas State Medical Society. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons being a York Rite Mason. He is also a member of the Kansas City, Kansas, Mercantile Club. Politically the Doctor supports the principles of the Republican party and religiously he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church,

Dr. Hughes married, May 10, 1885, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, Katharine Stemen, and they have one daughter, Rheua, who was born at Kansas City, Kansas.