Joseph Brayshaw, M. D. The success of the capable and competent surgeon has attended the career of Dr. Joseph Brayshaw, who for the past fifteen years has been successfully engaged in practice at Homer.
Doctor Brayshaw was born in Perry County, Illinois, January 15, 1868, son of Helvetius Pyle and Elizabeth (Brayshaw) Brayshaw. His father, who was of mingled English and Greek descent, was born in Perry County, Illinois, while the mother was a native of England. The father was a farmer and spent the last twenty years of his life in Missouri, where he died January 1, 1895. Besides farming he was a skilled landscape gardener and a nurseryman. The widowed mother is still living at the old home in Missouri. Her six children are: James Edward, in Missouri; Sarah Ellen, wife of J. S. Langston, in Missouri; Anna D., widow of H. F. Welsh, in Missouri; Doctor Brayshaw; Lucinda, at home; and Charles William, who was killed by a stroke of lightning in 1916.
Doctor Brayshaw spent the latter part of his youth in Missouri and besides the common schools attended the Baptist College at Pierce City, Missouri. He graduated in 1888, at the age of twenty, and following this for three years he worked on the home farm. His ambition from an early age was to become a physician, and largely through his own earnings he paid his way through the University of Michigan, where he spent four years and where he took his medical degree. In 1896 Doctor Brayshaw located at Berlin, Illinois, and was in practice there until he removed to Homer in January, 1902. He has joined the Medical Officers Reserve Corps and has received his commission as first lieutenant.
While a resident of Berlin, Doctor Brayshaw served as mayor. He is a Republican in politics and is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World, the Masonic Order and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He married Mary R. King on June 1, 1898. Mrs. Brayshaw is a native of Kansas. They have one child, Helen Matilda.