Edwin W. Shearburn, M. D. A resident of Haddam, Kansas, since 1902, Doctor Shearburn is one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Washington County, and in surgery he takes rank among the ablest men of his profession in the state.
Doctor Shearburn is of English lineage. His father, George Lionel Shearburn, was born in Yorkshire County, England, in 1818, and grew up and married in his native country, where he followed the business of farming, stock raising and was also a skilled veterinarian. On coming to the United States in 1848 he located on a farm in Macoupin County, Illinois, where he continued his work as a veterinary. Later he went to Mendota in LaSalle County, Illinois, and lived there until his death in 1892. He was a republican in politics and a member of the Episcopal Church. While in England he served in the regular army and after coming to the United States he was member of an Illinois Home Guard regiment during the Civil war. He married Magretta Wilson, who was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1828 and died at Mendota, Illinois, in 1886. They had nine children, several of whom have attained succesful positions in the world. George Lionel, Jr., the oldest, is an auditor with the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, living at Chicago; Thomas D. is practicing the profession of veterinary at Walnut, Illinois; Benjamin Wilson is a farmer in Nodaway, Adams County, Iowa; Elizabeth died unmarried at Mendota, Illinois, in 1907; William H. is a farmer at Corning, Adams County, Iowa; Mary married James Armstrong, a retired farmer living at Ohio, Illinois. Arthur P. is a graduate of the Chicago Homeopathic College, did post-graduate work at Vienna, Austria, and holds an ad eundern degree from Hahnemann University. He is now practicing medicine and surgery at Walnut, Illinois. The eighth in the family is Dr. Edwin Webster Shearburn. Phoebe A. died at Mendota, Illinois, at the age of twenty-eight.
Edwin Webster Shearburn received his early education in the public schools of Mendota, Illinois, graduating from the East Side High School of that city in 1883. After that he applied himself to several ocenpations to earn a living and finally definitely determined upon the profession of medicine as his choice. For one year he attended the Chicago National Medical University, spent two years in Dunham Medical College of Chicago, and in 1902 graduated from the Chicago Homeopathic College. He received an ad eundem degree in 1906 from Hahnemann University. In 1915 Doctor Shearburn took post-graduate studies in Rush Medical College of Chicago, and in 1898, while still an under graduate, he had six months of clinical experience in the Cook County Hospital at Chicago.
Doctor Shearburn practiced at Chicago and Mendota until he removed to Haddam, Kansas, in 1902. While he had a general practice, he is most widely known as a specialist in surgery and female diseases. He was the first surgeon in this part of Kansas to per form a successful Caesarian operation and saved the life of his patient. This operation was performed December 12, 1910.
Doctor Shearburn, whose offices are on Main Street in Haddam, is a member in high standing of the County and State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association. He owned a good home on Main Street, having remodeled it into a modern residence in 1909. He is a republican in politics and is affiliated with Dirigo Lodgo of Masons at Haddam and Haddam Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America. Doctor Shearburn owned stock in several oil companies and had been as successful in the management of his business affairs as in the handling of his professional work. In 1905, at Greenleaf, Kansas, he married Miss Vesta Longley, daughter of Captain S. S. Longley, of a prominent family in this part of Kansas. They have one son, Edwin Webster, Jr., born March 14, 1913.