Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 959 - 962

DR. ELMORE Y. MUNSELL has established a reputation throughout the country as a specialist and an eminent authority on eye, ear and throat diseases, in the treatment of which he has been remarkably successful. After his disablement during the war he was obliged to give up general practice, and confined his attention to the study of these organs, having a natural taste in that special line. In May, 1883, the Doctor came to Wichita, and opened the Eye and Ear Surgical Institute, and the many cures that he has since performed have secured him a large practice and extended his fame far beyond local limits.

            Dr. Munsell comes of an ancient and distinguished English family, the roots of whose genealogical tree are firmly imbedded in the soil of France. The founder of the family in England was Sir Phillip de Maunsell, a Norman baron and a companion of William the Conqueror, whom he accompanied to that country, and who bestowed on him the Manor of Oxwiche, in Glamorganshire. His grandson, Sir John Maunsell, was constituted Lord Chief Justice of England in the time of Henry III. His eldest son, Sir Thomas, Knight, Baronet, fell in the Barons' War at Northampton, and was succeeded by his son Henry, who was the ancestor of the now extinct Lords Maunsell and Baronets of Magran. This family omitted the "u" in their name in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and in 1711 dropped the second letter "l." A branch of this family migrated from the neighborhood of Frome, in England, and settled in Ireland early in the reign of Charles I, and is now known as Monsel of Tenoe. The name is spelled in various ways. It is rather uncertain as to what members of the family first made their appearance in America, and as to the time of their arrival, but there is a tradition among the present members that two or three brothers came from England between 1600 and 1700 and settled somewhere in Connecticut or Rhode Island, Thomas Munsell, from whom our subject is a lineal descendant, being one of them. He was born in 1650, and it is thought that he came from England in 1680, and settled in New London, Conn., as his name first occurs on the records of that old New England town in 1681, and in 1683 he lived at Great Neck, at that place. His children's names were written both Monsel and Muncil. He died at New London in the year 1712. They were the parents of four children: Jacob, born at New London about 1690; Elisha, born in the same town in 1700; Mercy and Deliverance. Jacob Munsell, their first born child, was married in 1713, at about the age of twenty-three, to Sarah Calkins.

            Elisha Munsell, fourth child and third son of Jacob and Phoebe (Loomis) Munsell, was born in Windsor County, Conn., in September, 1723, and was married at Windsor, Dec. 27, 1750, to Kezia Taylor, of Windsor, who was born Oct, 23, 1726, and died April 8, 1784. He was from Enfield, Conn., and died Nov. 22, 1803, aged eighty years. He was the father of nine children; his son Joel served in the Revolutionary War, under Gen. Gates, and died of smallpox. Henry Munsell, a supposed son of Elisha Munsell, was born about 1730 or 1740, in Norwich, Conn., and was married about the year 1760, to Sarah Hyde. They made their home in Norwich, and there three children born to them. Levi, the second child and second son of said Henry and Sarah Munsell, was born Jan. 26, 1764. He became a soldier in the Colonial army in 1780, and remained in the service until the close of the Revolution. In 1783 he took a trip to South America, and remained in that country a year. He then enlisted in the United States army for three years, serving in the Western country under Gen. Harmer, and in the season of 1785-86 wintered at the mouth of the Big Beaver, on the Ohio River. He then became a pioneer merchant at Cincinnati, in the days before it was a city. He was married Dec. 14, 1789, at the age of twenty-five, to Lucretia Oliver, daughter of Col. Alexander Oliver, of Hampshire County, Mass., who emigrated from there to Ohio with the first settlers, in 1788. Of their union eleven children were born, three of whom are living-Mary E., Levi W. and William A. O. Their son Leander became very wealthy, and took a conspicuous part in political affairs in his native State, Ohio, and at one time represented Miami County in the Legislature. Mary E. was born in 1814, and married, for her first husband, Dr. S. H. Chase, a physician and a Methodist minister; he was a chaplain in the army during the late war, died in the South in 1864, and his body was brought home. She married a second time, in 1866, at the age of forty-one, Asa Mahan, President of the Adrian (Mich.) College; they reside in London, England. Levi W. is a Methodist minister. William A. O. Munsell, the father of our subject, was the ninth child and fourth son of Levi and Lucretia Munsell, and was born Sept. 16, 1812, in Ohio. He married, at the age of twenty-one, Deborah Gray, their wedding taking place in Fletcher, Ohio, June 18, 1834. To them were born four children-Sarah L., Elmore Y., Levi S. and Mary E. Mrs. Munsell was the daughter of Rev. David and Sarah (McSherry) Gray, of Piqua, Ohio. Her father was a minister of the Methodist denomination. Mrs. Munsell was a woman of firm character, a helpful wife, a wise mother and a true friend, and her early death, in 1848, was a cause of sadness to many who had known and revered her. Mr. Munsell married for his second wife Miss Elizabeth Kester, of Coldwater, Ohio. To them were born four children-Mathew, Silas H., Clarinda S. and Jacob, all of whom are living and married. The faithful companion and devoted mother departed this life in 1863. Mr. Munsell's third marriage was to Mrs. Harriet Frank, the widow of Jacob Frank, of Coldwater, Ohio; she is a most, estimable and a highly respected woman. The following is the record of Mr. Munsell's children by his first two marriages: Sarah married Stephen Frank, a farmer near Cameron, Mo.; they have seven children. Levi graduated at Sterling Medical College in 1869, and has since been in the active practice of his profession, and is now House Surgeon of the Eye and Ear Surgical Institute, Wichita. He married, in 1864, Miss Jane Young, of Coldwater, Ohio, and to them have been born five children-Phillip Dayton, William O., Pearl Etta, Netta R. and Grace. Mary E. married Enoch Plummer, a farmer of Red Oak, Mo.; they have had three children-William, Frank, and a daughter in Ohio; the wife and mother departed this life in 1872 in Kidder, Mo. Mathew Munsell is a manufacturer of agricultural implements in Nebraska; he was educated at Adrian College, Mich., and married Miss Rainer. Silas lives in Kansas; Clarinda married Dodson Stafford, a farmer near Cameron, Mo.; Jacob lives in Kansas; he married Miss Mattie Reed, of Kidder, Mo.

            Mr. Munsell, the father, was ordained a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1848. He is a well-educated man, of sterling common sense, whose opinions on any subject with which he is familiar are highly valued, and these, with his good business ability, have made him very prosperous through life, and an influential citizen in whatever locality he has lived. He was Justice of the Peace in Coldwater, Ohio, for fifteen years, where he was also Postmaster, and kept a general store; he was also Provost Marshal during the war. He is now retired from active life, and is living on his farm in Cameron, Mo.

            Dr. Elmore Y. Munsell, of this biography, was born in Coldwater, Mercer Co., Ohio, in 1839. He received the benefit of a good academical education, and commenced the study and practice of medicine at Versailles, Ohio, and read medical works in the office of Dr. J. C. Williamson, who was a very skillful surgeon. When Abraham Lincoln made his first call for men to enlist for three years, our subject promptly threw aside his studies and entered the 5th Ohio Independent Battery of Light Artillery, under the command of Capt. Andrew Hickenloper, who was afterward Lieutenant Governor of Ohio.

            Dr. Munsell was promoted to the position of Sergeant, and took part in all of the battles and skirmishes that his regiment was engaged in. In the two-days fight at Shiloh he was in Gen. Prentice's division; he was slightly wounded, and from exposure lost his health, and was subsequently discharged on account of disability. On his return to his home from the seat of war, he was unable to do anything for a year. After that he resumed the practice of his profession at Versailles, Ohio, and then became a student at the Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1869, and has since still further perfected himself in the knowledge of his profession by attendance at lectures in the same college, and in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati.

            The Doctor practiced at Norborne, Mo., for three years, and there married Miss Addie Farrington, daughter of Col. Josiah Farrington, of Norborne, formerly of Vermont; she was born Dec. 2, 1852. The maiden name of her mother was Aara Adna Goodwin, a native of Canada. Col. Farrington served through the Civil War, and was Colonel of the 14th Ohio Infantry, taking part in all the battles in which his regiment engaged. Dr. and Mrs. Munsell are the parents of three children: LaDessa, born at Norborne, Mo., Jan. 13, 1873; Blanche E., born at Rockport, Mo., March 25, 1880; Farrington, born at Atchison, Kan., in August, 1882. Dr. Munsell's first marriage was to Miss Emily Hoover, of Versailles, Ohio, a daughter of Samuel and Mary Hoover, of German descent. Four children were born of their union: William A. O. Munsell, born at Coldwater, Ohio, March 2, 1866, an architect in Wichita; and Allie, born June 21, 1867, in North Star, Darke Co., Ohio, lives at home with her parents; one of the children died in Ohio, and one in Missouri.

            Since coming to Wichita Dr. Munsell has made several successful speculations in real estate, and now owns about $30,000 realty, and has erected two houses. His handsome residence at No. 1,200 South Emporia avenue is one of the pleasantest homes among the many cozy dwellings that ornament that part of the city. In religious views our subject is conservative; socially, he is a member of the G. A. R. and the Masonic fraternity.

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