GEORGE W. OSBURN, M. D. The life of the popular, successful physician is one of incessant toil, self-denial and care, yet all true followers of the “healing art” strive to attain prominence in their profession, regardless of added burdens which will rest upon their shoulders. Such a man is George W. Osburn, who was born in Gwinnett County, Ga., November 15, 1841, a son of Ectyl and Cynthia (Nelson) Osburn (see sketch of Dr. M. H. Osburn).
George W. attended the common schools of Georgia, was brought up to the healthy and useful life of the farmer, and when the great Civil War came up was forced into the Confederate service, but shortly after managed to make his escape and refugeed to Ohio, making his home in Cincinnati from 1863 to 1864, when he went to Chicago, later to the city of New York, and then back again to Chicago, where he made his home until 1868. He was engaged in carpentering and helped to build many of the early houses of that city. In 1868 he became a resident of Berry County, Missouri, but two years later located at Thornfield, in Ozark County, and in 1871 on the farm where he now lives in Douglas County, ten miles south of Ava.
His farm consists of 690 acres, and he has now 200 acres under cultivation, although but small improvement had been made on the place at the time of his purchase. His farm is an exceptionally valuable one, and is especially well adapted to stockraising, to which much of his attention is devoted. In 1868 he began the study of medicine with his brother Dr. M. H. Osburn, and in 1871 began practicing that profession in Douglas County, and has met with a more than ordinary degree of success. He has had many very difficult cases under his control, has handled them with skill and ability, and is a very popular practitioner in the south and west part of the county and in Ozark County. He has always been a stanch Republican in politics, has held the office of coroner for several years, and is popular with his party.
He was married in July, 1872, to Miss Mary E. Gilliland, a daughter of S. L. and Mary (Grithfus) Gilliland, who were born in Tennessee, the former being a son of Alexander Gilliland, a native of South Carolina, who was prob-ably a soldier of the War of IS 2. The Gillilands are of Scotch-Irish descent and the family is an old one in this country. Mrs. Osburn’s maternal grandfather, John Grithfus, was a South Carolinian also, and at a very early day located in Greene County, Missouri, where he died in 1841. Mrs. Osburn had one sister, Sarah, who was the wife of N. S. Imes, of Greene County, but she and her husband are both dead. After the death of Mr. Gilliland, his widow married T.J. Hawkins, who is living in Stone County, Missouri, and died in 1856, after having borne Mr. Hawkins one child, George. Mrs. Osburn was reared and educated in Greene County, and has borne her husband five children: Minnie, born October 17, 1874; Clarence, born June 19, 1880; Maude, born February 21, 1882; Victor, who died at the age of five years, and another child that died in infancy. The Doctor and his wife are among the substantial people of the county, and in a business as well as professional way he has been remarkably successful.