Hugh Penvler, M. D.
Reputed one of the most skilful physicians of Jefferson county,
Hugh Penvler, M. D., of Ina, pays close attention to his professional
duties, and by means of his acknowledged skill and high personal
character has built up a fine practice. A son of the late Dr. H. J.
Penvler, he was born July 10, 1864, in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Dr.
H. J. Penvler was born in East Tennessee, in 1837, and died at Mount
Vernon, Illinois, April 23, 1899, aged sixty-two years. An ambitious
student and a lover of books he was given excellent educational advantages
when young, and after his graduation from the old Emory & Henry College,
where he completed the classical course, he entered the Missouri Medical
College, in Saint Louis, from which he was graduated with the degree of
M. D. He subsequently held the chair of physiology in the Missouri Medical
College for a number of years, during which time he was honored with a
degree from the University of Nashville, in Nashville, Tennessee. At the
outbreak of the Civil war, he offered his services to his country, enlisting
in the Federal army, and for a time was army surgeon at Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas. In 1862, he located at Mount Vernon, Illinois, and was there actively
engaged in the practice of medicine until his death. He married Ellen Hawkins,
a daughter of Samuel Hawkins, who migrated from Indiana to Jefferson county,
Illinois, in pioneer days, and they reared two children, namely: Hugh, the
subject of this sketch; and Mrs. Nora Hartzell, of Mount Vernon, The mother
still occupies the old homestead in Mount Vernon. Receiving his preliminary
training in the public schools of Mount Vernon, Hugh Penvler subsequently
attended the Southern Illinois Normal University in Carbondale, and in 1883
began the study of medicine in Saint Louis, at the Missouri Medical College.
Going to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1884, he was graduated from the medical
department of the University of Nashville in the spring of 1885, and during
the following nine years he was associated with his father in the practice
of medicine at Mount Vernon. Removing to Spring Garden in 1894, Dr. Penvler
was there prosperously engaged in the practice of his profession for ten
years. Coming to Ina in 1904, he has here built up a lucrative patronage,
being numbered among the leading physicians of the county. He is well
known in professional circles, and is a member of the Southern Illinois
Medical Society. Dr. Penvler married, in July, 1894, Maggie McCullough,
a daughter of James and Susan A. McCullough, and their attractive home
is always open to their many friends and acquaintances. Fraternally the
Doctor has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since
attaining his majority, and he is also a member of the Modern Woodmen of
America and of the Court of Honor. He formerly had title to ninety-two
acres of good farming land, but he sold it recently and is not now a
landholder to any extent, his town property being his only real estate
holdings.
Source: History of Southern Illinois George Washington Smith,
M. A. VOLUME I - III ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1912
Page 1495
Submitted by Robert W. Loman
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