DR. GEORGE W. FLOYD. The noble profession of medicine affords to the student in that science a never-ending source of investigation and experiment. It is perhaps one of the most trying on brain and body of any in the field of science, for it absorbs the attention of him who practices it conscientiously, both day and night, and brings into play the most versatile powers of his being. Among the prominent physicians and surgeons of Western Grove, Arkansas, stands the name of Dr. George W. Floyd, whose kindly nature instinctively turned to that broad field of human suffering for his life work. Dr. Floyd was born in Ray County, Tennessee, in 1850.
He is a son of James J. and Louisa Jane (Richards) Floyd, the former a native of Virginia, and the latter of North Carolina. The parents were married in Tennessee, and there the father spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1884. He was a farmer all his days, and served in the Federal Army during the Civil War as commissary sergeant. Mrs. Floyd is still living. Grandfather Floyd came from Virginia to Tennessee in an early day, and died in the latter State. Curtis Richards, the maternal grandfather, died in Meigs County, Tennessee. Of the nine children born to his parents, our subject was second in order of birth. The others were named as follows: Sarah, died about 1860, when quite young; Curtis D., a farmer of Boone County, Arkansas; Joseph Charles; James L.; John H.; Michigan; Louisa Jane, wife of S. M. Heard, and Hester, the last six all residing in Tennessee.
Like most country boys our subject’s time in youth was divided between assisting on the farm and in attending to the common schools where he received a fair English education. Early in life Dr. Floyd began to lay the foundation for a medical career, a profession whose noiseless, yet ofttimes marvelous triumphs are unknown to the multitude. In 1872 and ’73 he attended the Medical Department of Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, and in the latter year began practicing in Bell Town, Tennessee, where he remained nine years. Soon after he came to Arkansas and located at Western Grove, where he has an excellent practice in Marion, Searcy, Boone and Newton Counties. The Doctor is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Bluff Springs Lodge No. Io3, at Western Grove, and is a member and treasurer of Belleport Chapter No. 61, R. A. M., and of St. Aldemar Commandery, K. T., No. 10, at Harrison. He is also a member of Western Grove Eastern Star Chapter No. 25.