Edward Everett Hazlett
EDWARD EVERETT HAZLETT, M. D. From 1880 until his death on June 17, 1915, Doctor Hazlett practiced medicine and surgery at Abilene, Kansas. That was a period of thirty-five years. He was one of the pioneers in his profession at Abilene, and began practice there when the city to some extent still retained the prestige and the somewhat unenviable prominence it derived as a center of the great cattle industry.
Without disparaging the merits and attainments of his contemporaries, it can be stated that Doctor Hazlett was always the leader of his profession in that city, not only in point of time and in the extent of his practice, but in personal character and individual ability. He came to Abilene after a splendid training and experience which had given him almost unlimited opportunities to perfect himself in the complicated science of which he was always a student and close observer.
Doctor Hazlett was born January 10, 1852, at Cincinnati, Ohio, son of Robert and Sarah A. (Leader) Hazlett, and he was sixty-three years of age when he was taken away in death. After being educated in the public schools of Zanesville, Ohio, he graduated from the College of Pharmacy and was also a graduate of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia. He further enjoyed a special course in New York City in the ear, eye, nose and throat diseases under the eminent Professor Knapp. Besides all this training he had the advantages of practical experience during his association with the Philadelphia Hospital.
In 1880 Doctor Hazlett came to Abilene. He had all the practice he could attend to in a few years, and more and more as the years went on he gave his influence and energies to those movements which were for the benefit of the entire local profession and for the good of the community. He was one of the prime factors in the organization of the Golden Bell Medical Association. The first hospital at Abilene was owned and operated by Doctor Hazlett. He enjoyed the esteem and admiration of his contemporaries in practice in Kansas, and was frequently a prominent figure in the meetings of the American Medical Association.
Doctor Hazlett was one of the leading members of the Episcopal Church at Abilene, and for many years was junior warden; he was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and was three times eminent commander of the Knights Templar.
On June 16, 1885, at Glens Falls, New York, Doctor Hazlett married Miss Alice Elizabeth Mott, member of an old and prominent family and daughter of Judge Isaac and Mary A. (Cox) Mott. Mrs. Hazlett was born at Glens Falls, New York, October 23, 1857, and since her husband's death has continued to live in her old home at Abilene. She is the mother of two children. Helen is a graduate of Bethany College at Topeka, Kansas. Edward Everett, Jr., who was born at Abilene February 22, 1892, was graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the class of 1915, and is now a young officer in the United States navy.
A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written & compiled by William E. Connelley, 1918, transcribed by Zachary Babb, student from USD 508, Baxter Springs Middle School, Baxter Springs, Kansas, September 7, 1999.