Ensminger - Samuel Leonard
Dr. SAMUEL ENSMINGER
Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal 26 Sept 1921 p1
Dr. Samuel L. Ensminger died at ? o'clock last night at his home 411 W. Main Street after as illness of three and a half years, following a stroke of apoplexy. The doctor was 77 years of age and was one of the best known physicians in the city for all his life had been spent here. Dr. Ensminger was identified with a number of medical organizations among them the national, state and and county associations, the American Association of Railway Surgeons, of which he had been quite active, and others of a like character. He was a member of the K of P lodge and also had for many years been a member of Center, now the Wabash Avenue Presbyteiran Church. He was one of the charter members of McPherson Post, GAR. In 1876 he was united in marriage to Miss louise Austin of Rensselaer, Ind who with the son, Dr. Leonard Ensminger of Indianapolis, survives him. He also leaves a sister, Frances Hatfield of Chicago and one grandson in Indianapolis. Funeral services will be held Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock at the Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church. Rev. Chester Wharton, former pastor of the Wabash Avenue Church will have charge of the services and it is probable that Rev. Mathew L. Haines formerly pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis will deliver an euology. Friends who wish to view the remains may call at the home prior to the time for the funeral service. It was the request of Dr . E. that there be no flowers sent. Samuel Leonard Ensminger was born on a farm 3 miles south of the city October 2, 1844 and was the son of Joseph and Jane Fulton Canine Ensminger. When the civil war broke out Dr. Ensminger, then a boy of only 16, enlisted in the three years service and went in camp near Lafayette. Owing to the boy's extreme youth; however, his father went after him and by bringing pressure to bear was able to secure his release from the army and brought him back to Crawfordsville. Early in the following year he again enlisted in the 3 years' service and joined Co. I of the 11th Indiana Volunteers, General Lew Wallace's command. He served in the Vicksburg campaign and upon the expiration of his three years' service reenlisted as a veteran. Being transferred to Virginia in 1864 he went thorugh the shenandoah Valley under Sheridan and at the batlte of Cedar Creek was dangerously wounded, his injuries being reported as fatal. For several weeks he laid in an improvised hospital at Winchester, VA and as soon as able to do so he joined his regiment. At te battle of Cedar Creek another man who waswounded was J.H. Coffman, a Confederate soldier, who afterward came to this city and conducted a newspaper which eventually became the Argus-News and later the Review. Mr. Coffman and Dr. Ensminger were neighbors and on the anniversary of the battle, Oct 19, 1864, the two men used to take dinner together and talk over the incidents of the battle in which each was wounded. Dr. Ensminger was promoted by stages from a private to 1st Lt. and for many years had been a member of the Loyal Legion. Follwoing the war he was a member of the famous Montgomery County Guards. The deceased entered Wabash College and remained through his junior year when he left college to obtain funds for taking up the study of medicine which he had decided to make his life work. In order to do this he took up surveying and during this time he worked for the old Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western RR now the P & E Division of the Big Four. He began the study of medicine in 1870 and completed the course two years later, graduating from the Miami Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio. After his graduation, Dr. Ensminger carried on his medical work with McClelland & Cowan, a pioneer firm of physicians who had an office for many years n the site of the Lee Bakery, East of the Crawford House. For 15 years he was associated with Dr. EH Cowan of this city in the medical partnership. In medicine Dr. Ensminger met with great success. he was widowly known as a surgeon of exceptional ability and he had for many years been the official surgeon at this place for all the railroads entering this city, including the traction line. As an instance of the hardships the physicians of the earlier days had to endure and as an example of Dr. Ensminger's devotion to duty, there is an interesting story of how he drove to the country on a professional call one night during a heavy spring freshet. There were fewer bridges then than now and he found it necessary to ford a stream that had become a raging torrent. So swollen had the stream become, in fact, that while trying to cross the current carried the horse and buggy down the stream. The doctor managed to cut the horse loose for the buggy, however and althuogh he had lost his medicine case, he made the call. The horse was discovered the next day in a pasture down the river. - kbz
Source: The Indianapolis Star 26 Sep 1921
Crawfordsville, Ind., Sept. 25 -- Dr. Samuel C. (sic) Ensminger, 77 years old, died here tonight from illness believed to have been induced by over work in Indianapolis while caring for the practice of his son, Dr. Leonard A. Ensminger, while he was in the service of the government during the war. Dr. Ensminger was born in Montgomery county and attended Wabash college. He enlisted in the Union army when 16 years of age, but was discharged when his parents objected because of his age. The next year he enlisted again and served throughout the war in the 11th Indiana Infantry under Gen. Lew Wallace. He was wounded at Cedar Creek. He was a member of the Loyal Legion. Dr. Ensminger is survived by his widow, his son, Leonard A. Ensminger, the Columbia Club, Indianapolis, and a daughter of Chicago.
[NOTE: According to everything else I've seen, his middle name was Leonard. I believe the "C" in the obit was a misreading of bad handwriting. - Karen Zach]
Ensminger, Samuel L. Schools attended: Miami Medical College, Cincinnati Miami Year Medical Grad or Attendance: 1874 Membership in Medical Orgz.: Indiana State Medical Society-admitted 1875, 1880 Obit location: Obit. J. Ind. State Med. Assn. v.14;364 1921 County: Montgomery (Linden / Crawfordsville) Med. Reg./Exam.: 7.16.97 Sources: P1886 / Physicians Directory of Kentucky and Indiana 1893 / Indiana State Board of Health 1882, 1884, 1890 Record# 10510 in database 19th Indiana Century Physicians
