Dr. Quitman U. Newell, gynecologist and obstetrician, has followed the tendency of the age. toward specialization and in this branch of the profession has developed wide capability and power, bringing him to a prominent position in the ranks of the medical fraternity in St. Louis. He was born in Whistler, Mobile county, Alabama, June 14, 1886, and is a son of William H. and Minerva A. (Thompson) Newell. The father, a native of Louisiana, belonged to one of the old families of New York of Scotch-Irish descent. He became a pattern-maker by trade and had long followed that pursuit. His people removed from the Empire state to Alabama during the period of the Civil war and William H. Newell continued a resident of the south until his death, which occurred June 13, 1919, when he was sixty-nine years of age.
His wife, a native of Mississippi, was of English lineage. She is living at the age of sixty-nine years, making her home in Whistler, Alabama.
Dr. Newell, who was the seventh in order of birth in a family of four sons and five daughters, obtained a public school education in his native city and afterward entered Barton Academy at Mobile, while later he began preparation for his professional career as a student in the medical department of the University of Alabama, from which he was graduated on May 9, 1911. He afterward served as interne in the Southern Infirmary at Mobile for a number of months. He then came to St. Louis as house officer in 1911-12, while from 1912 until 1914 he was resident obstetrician and gynecologist in the Washington University Hospital. At present he is obstetrician to the St. Louis Maternity Hospital, clinical assistant to the Barnes Hospital, surgeon to out-patients of the Washington University Dispensary, and assistant in clinical obstetrics in the Washington University Medical School and since 1915 has been surgeon for the Mobile & Ohio Railroad at St. Louis. He is a regular contributor to the most prominent medical journals of the country and his articles at all times awaken widespread interest, by reason of their clear elucidation of fact and principle. He has constantly developed surgical skill and efficiency and is now occupying a place of eminence in his chosen profession. He belongs to the St. Louis, Missouri State and American Medical Associations and to the Southern Medical Society and the Society of Southern Railway Surgeons.
Dr. Newell also had military experience along the line of his profession. On the 23d of March, 1918, he was commissioned a lieutenant of the Medical Corps and was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, for a time, while subsequently he was transferred to the Rockefeller Institute and was then surgeon of the Evacuation Hospital, No. 18. He went overseas in September, 1918, and in February, 1919, was promoted to the rank of captain, receiving his discharge May 24, 1919. He participated in four of the most sanguinary and hard fought battles of the war, the Champagne, Marne, Aisne and Meuse-Argonne offensives and thus became acquainted with every phase of modern warfare.
On the 30th of June, 1920, Dr. Newell was married in Whistler, Alabama, to Miss Katie Lou Kelley, a native of that city, and a daughter of Samuel W. and Ella (Dickens) Kelley, the former now deceased. Dr. Newell endorses the democratic party by the exercise of his right of franchise at the polls. Fraternally he is a Mason, belonging to Bowen Lodge, No. 240, A. F. & A. M., of Whistler, Alabama, also to the Consistory at St. Louis and to Moolah Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise connected with Venus Chapter of the Eastern Star and belongs to the American Legion. As a club man he has membership in the St. Louis Auto and University Clubs and his religious faith is manifest in his membership in the Third Baptist church. When leisure permits he enjoys a hunting and fishing trip, thus finding recreation and diversion from arduous professional duties. From the age of sixteen years he has been self-supporting. His early life was spent on a farm and as his father had a large family dependent upon him, he could not assist Dr. Newell in securing his professional education and hence he worked his way through college. He studied shorthand and stenography and from his earnings paid his tuition. When he came to St. Louis he was an utter stranger, but he possessed perseverance, selfreliance and ability and these have constituted the key that has unlocked for him the portals of success. Today as a result of his highly developed power he is one of the leading surgical practitioners of St. Louis. Moreover, he is a man of fine physique and charming personality and of sterling character who has won a host of warm friends among professional representatives and among the general public as well.