Silas W. Nossaman

SILAS W. NOSSAMAN, M. D. For the past fifteen years Doctor Nossaman has been carrying the heavy burdens of an extensive country practice as a physician and surgeon at Cunningham. He is one of the prominent medical men of Kingman County, and has spent the greater part of his life in Kansas.

He is of old American stock. His great-grandfather was a Virginian, was reared and married in his native state, and in early pioneer days came north and west to Indiana, locating on a farm in Marion County, not far from the City of Indianapolis. He lived there the rest of his life. Louis Nossaman, grandfather of Doctor Nossaman, was born in Indiana in 1826. He was also a farmer and, possessing the same pioneer spirit which had caused his father to migrate westward, he went from Indiana to Iowa and in 1858 settled in Northeastern Missouri, where he developed a farm. On September 6, 1862, he enlisted in the Union army and was a member of a noted cavalry detachment known as Merrill's Horse. He served three years, was in the army with General Thomas, and at one time was commissioned to carry a dispatch to General Sherman at Atlanta. Louis Nossaman spent his last years in Kansas and died at Wellington in Sumner County in June, 1911. He was a democrat in politics and a very active member of the Baptist Church. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Springer, who was born in Marion County, Indiana, in 1826. After the death of her husband she lived with her son Oscar at the south line of Kansas, not far from Willard, Oklahoma. She died at her son's home in June, 1914, and was laid to rest in the Willard Cemetery in Oklahoma. Six children comprised the family of the grandparents: Alonzo, deceased; W. P. Nossaman; Oscar, a retired farmer living at Buffalo, Oklahoma; Louis D., a farmer two miles west of Kingman; Francis M., who for the past ten years has carried a mail route and lives at Driftwood, Oklahoma; and David Adrian, cashier of the bank at Isabelle in Barber County, Kansas.

W. P. Nossaman, father of Doctor Nossaman, was born in Marion County, Iowa, seven miles from Knoxville, September 6, 1852. When he was six years of age he went with his parents to Harrison County, Missouri, where he grew up and married. All his active career has been spent as a farmer. He came to Kansas in time to share in the pioneer hardships of the farmers of this state, arriving in McPherson County November 3, 1879. He was a farmer in that locality for several years, but in 1882 homesteaded a quarter section of land six miles south and one mile west of Cunningham in Kingman County. He moved his family to the new home in the following year, and has been greatly prospered in his efforts as a farmer and practical business man. He sold his old homestead in 1905 and has since lived retired at Cunningham. He also owned 160 acres adjoining the Town of Cunningham but has sold that, and his holdings now comprise an eighty acre farm in Pratt County, just at the Kingman County line, and another of 320 acres in Pratt County a mile north and a mile east of Isabelle. W. P. Nossaman is a republican, has filled various township offices and is now in his third successive term as mayor of Cunningham. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a charter member and past noble grand of Cunningham Lodge No. 431, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has the honors due to more than twenty-five years of membership with this order. W. P. Nossaman married Nancy Rice, who was born in Harrison County, Missouri, August 21, 1855. She died at the age of sixty-one August 30, 1916. Her death occurred at Cincinnati, Iowa, whither she had gone to attend the funeral of her brother James Rice. Dr. S. W. Nossaman was the oldest of the family of eight children. The second in age is Dr. A. H. Nossaman, who graduated Bachelor of Science from Salina Normal University and took his medical degree from the University Medical College of Kansas City, Missouri, and is now practicing medicine and surgery at Whitewater, Kansas. Katherine, the third child, married Allen Washburn, a farmer two miles east of Cunningham. Earl A. lives at Wichita, Kansas, where for the past six years he has been secretary of the Monarch Portland Cement Company. Maude M., who died June 26, 1917, was the wife of George B. Gosch, who lives in Wichita and is traveling representative of the Monarch Portland Cement Company. Walter L. is a graduate of Fairmont College of Wichita with the A. B. degree and took his law degree from Harvard University Law School and is now practicing his profession at Seattle, Washington. Ober D. is connected with the Morton-Simmons Hardware Company at Wichita. Veva Laverna, unmarried and living with her father, is a teacher in the public schools at Cunningham.

Silas W. Nossaman was born at the home of his parents in Harrison County, Missouri, September 24, 1873, and was six years of age when the family came to Kansas. He was educated in the public schools of McPherson and Kingman counties, and in 1898 graduated Bachelor of Science from the Salina Normal University, taking the full four years' course. Among his early experiences were a period of teaching for several years. He took his medical studies in the University Medical College of Kansas City, Missouri, where he was graduated M. D. in 1902. In 1905 Doctor Nossaman attended the Chicago Post-Graduate School of Medicine. He has been in active practice at Cunningham since 1902 and for a number of years has been busy night and day looking after his general medical and surgical practice. His offices are in the Nossaman Building on Main Street.

Doctor Nossaman has prospered in a business way, and is owner of 640 acres of land two miles south and two miles east of Belmont, Kansas. He also has an attractive home, which he extensively remodeled in 1908, situated on Henderson Street in Cunningham. Doctor Nossaman is a member of the Kingman County and State Medical societies and the American Medical Association. His politics are expressed as a democratic voter.

On September 10, 1901, at Cunningham, he married Miss Jessie M. Doty, daughter of C. E. and Phoebe J. (Brown) Doty. Her parents live at Cunningham, her father having been a pioneer farmer in this section.

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VOLUME 1 & 2
BIOGRAPHIES — VOLUMES 3, 4, & 5
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