George Dallas Boon

GEORGE DALLAS BOON, M. D., who has been actively engaged in practice at Chetopa since 1870, is one of the most successful and best known physicians of that section of the county. He is a valued member of the community, and his hundreds of patients are numbered as his friends as well. He was born April 15, 1845, in Holmes county, Ohio, near Fredericksburg, and is a son of Thomas and Lydia (Beerbower) Boon.

Thomas Boon was a farmer by occupation. He married Lydia Beerbower, by whom he had four children, as follows: J. C., who was a member of the 3d Reg., Iowa Vol. Cav., during the Civil War, was killed in the service; Sarah E. (McCallam) resides at Walden, Colorado, where her husband is the editor of a paper; George Dallas; and William C., who died in 1893, and who was a physician, practicing at Chetopa for some years prior to his death.

George D. Boon, at an early age, removed with the family to Birmingham, Van Buren county, Iowa, where he was reared and primarily educated until he reached his eighteenth year. When the Civil War broke out, his father removed to Illinois, and in 1874 came to Chetopa, Kansas, where he died in 1883, at the age of sixty-five years. Mrs. Boon, who came of a Pennsylvania-Dutch family, died four months later at Chetopa, at the age of sixty-three years. Although George D. was too young and too light for service in the army, - weighing at the time but 115 pounds, he determined to enlist, and to run away from home if necessary. As he was leaving home to put his plans into execution, his brother returned on a furlough and persuaded him to wait and accompany him to the scene of action a little later, in the meantime securing parental consent. He enlisted in the 4th Independent Battery, Iowa Light Artillery, and served two years, mainly in the Army of the Gulf, where he was attached, at different times, to the 16th, 19th, and 13th Army Corps. He spent six months in the suburbs of New Orleans, and thirteen months in the swamps, to protect the garrison at New Orleans. He was mustered out at Davenport, Iowa, July 14, 1865, and returned to Illinois, where he attended school at Monmouth for one year. He later attended the commercial college located in that city, and graduated in 1867. He then took a course of lectures in the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was graduated with the degree of M. D., in 1870. On April 14, of that year, he came west to Chetopa, Kansas, entered upon practice, and made a success of it from the start. He readily acquired a remunerative patronage, and has since retained and added to it. He has a thorough understanding of his profession, is a constant student, keeps in touch with all that is modern in medical science, and has met with great success in his treatment of the most intricate cases. He has an excellent suite of rooms over Mr. Bush's drug store, which he has occupied since 1895. Associated with him in practice is his son, W. M. Boon. Dr. Boon was obliged to borrow the money necessary to bring him to Chetopa, and at the present time he owns valuable city property and two fine farms, in addition to which he has given each of his children a superior education.

Dr. Boon was united in marriage at America City, Nemaha county, Kansas, with Martha J. Danley, a daughter of John and Jane (Brownlee) Danley, of Monmouth, Illinois. Mrs. Boon's parents were natives of Washington county, Pennsylvania, the former of Scotch-Irish descent and the latter descended from the Scotch Earl of Torfot. This worthy couple reared a family of eight children, as follows: John W., who died in infancy; Margaret, who died, aged seventeen years; Levinia, who married Harry C. Whistler, now living in Kansas; Elizabeth, who married Nathaniel Atchinson, of Chicago, Illinois; Hugh B. and Nancy B., deceased; James; and Martha J. Mrs. Boon's parents moved to Fulton county, Illinois, in 1849, and later to Monmouth, Illinois. The father died in 1892, aged eighty-seven years. The mother died in 1859, aged forty-seven years. After she was sixteen years of age Mrs. Boon received her education in the public schools and in Monmouth College. She later taught school in the vicinity of Monmouth, Illinois, and still later near Topeka, Kansas. After spending one year in the East, she was married in 1872. She joined the United Presbyterian church at the age of eighteen years. She is a member of the W. R. C., and has held nearly all the chairs in that body. She is also a member of the Fraternal Aid, of which she is past president. Her brother, Hugh B., died in the Paducah, Kentucky, Regimental Hospital. He was a member of Company D, 132d Reg., Ill. Vol. Inf.

The union of Dr. Boon and Martha J. Danley resulted in seven children: W. M., a graduate of Jefferson Medical College; George T., of Chetopa, who graduated at the Chicago Dental College, and married Matie C. Bedell, a daughter of E. W. Bedell; Harry Webster, a graduate of the Chicago Dental College, practicing at Durant, Indian Territory; Mattie Marche, who is taking instruction in instrumental and vocal music, elocution and art in a ladies' seminary at Liberty, Missouri; John Blaine; Vivian Elizabeth; and Loyal Danley. Dr. Boon is a Republican and was in the council one year and on the board of education. For ten years he was medical examiner on the pension board, from which office he finally resigned, being succeeded by his son, W. M. Boon. Fraternally, he is a member of the Southeastern Kansas Medical Society; G. A. R., Chetopa Post, of which he has always been surgeon; and the A. 0. U. W. at Chetopa. In religious views he was raised in the United Presbyterian church but is liberal.