Elba Elton Edwards, M. D. A physician and surgeon of splendid capabilities and with a large practice at Admire, Doctor Edwards is a native of Kansas and represents one of the early families to settle in Lyon County.
He was born in Rock Creek, in Jefferson County, Kansas, December 23, 1883. His grandfather, William Edwards, was a native of Germany, coming to this country as a young man and spent the rest of his life on a farm in Ohio. Henry Edwards, father of Doctor Edwards, was born in Ohio in 1842, was reared and married in that state, and during the last ninety days of the Ciyil war served in an Ohio regiment. In 1879 he moved to Valley Falls, in Jefferson County, Kansas, and had lived in that county ever since. After two or three years he moved to Rock Creek, and is still a resident of that community, where he is highly esteemed as one of the early farmers and stockmen. He is a democrat, had served as a member of the township board of trustees and the school board and is active in the United Brethren Church, in which he is a deacon. He married Luna Marshall, who was born in Ohio in 1864. Their children are: Villa, widow of Samuel Gish, who was a farmer, and she resided at Rock Creek; Everett M., who is in the automobile business at Rock Creek; Dr. Elba Elton; Nora, at home with her parents; and William, a grocery merchant at Rock Creek.
Doctor Edwards gained his public school education at Rock Creek, was a student for two years in Campbell College at Holton, and in 1904 entered the Kansas Medical College at Topeka, where he remained until completing his course and receiving his degree Doctor of Medicine in 1908. He had since taken post-graduate work in diseases of the eye and holds a diploma in ophthalmology.
His first six months after graduation were spent in Kensington, Kansas, but since November, 1908, he had had his home at Admire, where he looks after a general medical and surgical practice and also specializes in diseases of the eye. Doctor Edwards had his office in the City Drug Store, which he owned, and he also owned his residence in the southwestern part of the town.
Politically he is an independent democrat. He belongs to the Lyon County and Kansas State Medical societies and the American Medical Association, and is affiliated with Lodge No. 386, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Admire.
At Lawrence, Kansas, in 1908, the year he graduated in medicine, Doctor Edwards married Miss Addie Jaynes, a daughter of H. J. and Clara Jaynes, retired farming people at Meridian, Kansas. Dr. and Mrs. Edwards have one child, Donald Jaynes, born March 13, 1911.