Dr. Charles E. Hyndman, of St. Louis, brings to his profession the thorough training of study at home and abroad and has rendered most important professional service to his fellowmen in private practice and in overseas work during the World war. He was born in Sparta, Randolph county, Illinois, June 29, 1881, a son of Charles C. and Julia (Carrigan) Hyndman, the former a native of Illinois and a representative of one of its pioneer families that removed to the middle west from Pennsylvania. Charles C. Hyndman became a manufacturer of wagons and successfully conducted business. He was also a Civil war veteran and passed away in 1883 when but thirty-six years of age. His wife was a native of New York and died in 1888 at the age of forty years. They were the parents of five children, two sons and three daughters.
Dr. Hyndman, who was fourth in order of birth, was educated in the public and high schools of Sparta, Illinois, and spent two years as a student in Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois. He subsequently attended the Washington University as a medical student and won his professional degree in 1906. Following his graduation, he was the honor man in a competitive examination for interneship at St. Louis City Hospital, and in 1907 became interne in St. Luke’s Hospital, occupying both positions for about a year. He next entered upon private practice, specializing in surgery. He spent one year abroad, studying in Berlin, London, Paris and Vienna. He has remained throughout his professional career a close student, keeping in touch with modern scientific investigation and research and by reason thereof his ability is pronounced. His practice has included six years as assistant in surgery in the Mullanphy Hospital of St. Louis, from 1908 to 1914 inclusive, and during the same period he was assistant in surgery in Washington University. In fact he is still a member of the surgical staff of the University and his work in this connection has been of a very important character. From 1908 until 1914 inclusive he was likewise assistant in surgery in the St. Louis Skin and Cancer Hospital and from 1910 until 1914 was assistant in surgery in the St. Louis Children’s Hospital. In the latter year he became visiting surgeon to the St. Louis City Hospital and so continues to the present time. He is well known as a representative of leading professional organizations, belonging to the St. Louis, Missouri State and American Medical Associations, is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the Surgeons’ Club of St. Louis, of which he was president in 1916, and a member of the St. Louis Medical Society, of which he is now the second vice president.
On the 2d of August, 1916, in St. Louis, Dr. Hyndman was married to Miss Ruth Gilliam, a native of this city and a daughter of Walter and Kate E. (Follet) Gilliam. The father, now deceased, belonged to one of the old families of Virginia. Dr. and Mrs. Hyndman have one child, Elihu McGuire, born in St. Louis, August 6, 1917.
The opportunities which Dr. Hyndman has enjoyed have been largely those which he has made for himself. Left an orphan at an early age he and the other children of his father’s family were reared by an uncle, Elihu B. McGuire, to whom they owe much, a debt which Dr. Hyndman has acknowledged in the naming of his only son. At all times stimulated by a laudable ambition and wisely directing his efforts into channels that have brought results Dr. Hyndman has for a number of years been recognized as one of the leading surgeons of St. Louis. With America’s entrance into the World war he stood ready to render any possible aid, although past military age, and in July, 1918, entered upon active service as first lieutenant in the Medical Corps. He was sent to New York and was there connected with the Neuro-Surgical School. Later he was at Camp Greene, Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was sent to join Evacuation Hospital, No. 30, and acted in the capacity of brain surgeon at that point. On the 22d of October he was sent overseas, arriving in England, November 8, 1918, and was then transferred to France, where he arrived on the day of the signing of the armistice. He was sent to a station known as Mars Center near Nevierre, France, and there relieved Base Hospital, No. 35, continuing in active service in France until February, 1919, when he was sent to the army of occupation at Mayen, near Coblenz, Germany. He continued at the latter post until relieved on special order and sent home on the 1st of March, 1919, receiving an honorable discharge on the 23d of April following, with the rank of first lieutenant.
Dr. Hyndman enjoys various forms of recreation-hunting, tennis, dancing, motoring, swimming, maintaining a sufficient interest in these to promote an even balance in physical and mental conditions and many of his leisure hours outside of professional duties are spent in literary pursuits and scientific study and research. He belongs to the Phi Delta Theta, a literary fraternity, and the Nu Sigma Nu, a medical fraternity. He is also a member of the University Club and is popular in that organization. In politics he is a Wilson democrat and his decision upon any vital question is never an equivocal one as he stands loyally for any cause which he espouses.