DR. JOHN BOLINGER. In pursuing the very important and noble calling of medicine, Dr. John Bolinger has met with a degree of success that is flattering in the extreme. He has not only shown that he is well posted in his profession, but that he can practically apply his knowledge. As a natural consequence his services have been greatly in demand, and he is kept busy most of the time. The great-grandfather on the father’s side was of German origin and was one of the first settlers of Madison County, Arkansas His son, Frederick Bolinger, grandfather of our subject, came from Tennessee to Madison County, Arkansas, with his father and followed farming and blacksmithing until some time during the war, when he was taken ill with smallpox and died. His children were named as follows: Jackson, Dr. H. H. (deceased), Bathena, Lucinda, Emily, Rachel, Mary (deceased), a daughter deceased, and Isaac H. H. The last named was born in Ray County, Tennessee, but when a young man came with his parents to Madison County, Arkansas, and there met and married Miss Elizabeth A. Sumner, a native of Madison County, Arkansas, born in 1836. During the war he went to Missouri, preparatory to moving his family to that State, was captured by bushwhackers and shot by them in 1864. He was a farmer and stockman and also a school teacher. His wife is still living and makes her home in Springdale, Arkansas Her father, John C. Sumner, was born in Vermont, but after growing up went to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he married. Later he removed to Arkansas Territory, and soon after located in what is now Madison County, where his death occurred in 1866. He was a Union man, but took no part in the war. He was a prominent man in Madison County, held many positions of trust and honor, and at an early day represented that county in the Legislature. Mrs. Bolinger married three times and reared three families.
Our subject was the second in order of birth of four sons: DeWitt C., of Waco, Tex., is a prominent attorney (he is a brilliant lawyer, was educated at the University at Fayetteville, Arkansas, and was for one term city attorney of Waco, Tex.); Harrison A., of Oklahoma City, is also an attorney, but at present is superintendent of schools in that county (he was educated in Madison and Franklin Counties); Walter A., the fourth child, is a successful merchant in the State of Washington. Dr. John Bolinger was born in St. Paul, Madison County, Arkansas, in 1858. His early life was passed on a farm where he assisted in whatever there was to be done, and his schooling was received in the public schools and later the high school of Huntsville, Arkansas When seventeen years of age he commenced reading medicine with Dr. A. M. Knight, of Huntsville, and in 1882 graduated from the Missouri Medical College, of St. Louis. In 1892 he took a post-graduate course from the same institution. Previous to graduating he practiced a short time in Madison County, but since then he has been at Lead Hill, where he has a very extensive practice, being classed as one of the leading physicians of the county. Dr. Bolinger is a prominent member of the Arkansas Medical Association and of the Boone County Medical Society. For some time he has also been in the drug business. On May 4, 1882, Dr. Bolinger was married to Miss Allie Moody, a native of Madison County, Arkansas, and the daughter of John W. and Mary E. Moody. Mr. Moody was a Confederate soldier and was killed at Huntsville, Arkansas Mrs. Moody died at Lead Hill.
To the Doctor and wife were born four children: Nettie, May, Walter A. and Maude. Dr. Bolinger was a member of the Board of United States Pension Examiners under the Harrison administration. He is a member of Polar Star Lodge, A. F. & A. M., No. 224, at Lead Hill, and is a Republican in politics, casting his first presidential vote for J. G. Blaine, in 1884. His mother’s second husband was Wiley Prater, by whom she had one son, Alfred, who is now foreman of a planing mill at Fort Smith. Her third and present husband is A. L. Thompson, by whom she had three children: Milton, died in infancy; Cora and James Floyd.