William L. McNaughten, M. D., had been long and favorably known as a capable physician and surgeon in Chautauqua County, and now controls a large practice at Sedan. In his younger days he met and overcame obstacles and had to work for every step of his advancement while gaining his education and preparing himself for his profession.
When nineteen years of age his education in the common schools was completed, and he then began working on a farm and learning the carpenter’s trade. As a carpenter he worked in Missouri and in 1883 moved to Kansas, locating in Montgomery County. For nine years he was one of the force of carpenters employed by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company. He had long felt that his real sphere was in the profession of medicine, but having a family to care for there were some weighty reasons why he should continue working at his mechanical trade. All the leisure time he had he applied to the study of medicine and he followed that with a course in the Kansas City College of Physicians and Surgeons and in 1897 entered the Columbian Medical College for one year. As an undergraduate he practiced for a year in Cedar County, Missouri, and in 1901 was given his degree M. D. In the meantime Doctor McNaughten had located in Chautauqua County in 1898 and was in practice at Elgin for eleven years. In 1909 he removed to Sedan and now looks after a very general practice both in medicine and surgery. His offices are over the White Front drug store on Main Street. He is the present county health officer and coroner of Chautauqua County.
Doctor McNaughten’s ancestors came from Scotland to the United States in colonial times. His grandfather Alexander McNaughten was born in 1789, was one of the early settlers in Henry County, Illinois, where he followed farming and died in that county in 1863.
It was in Henry County, Illinois, that Doctor McNaughten was born May 19, 1861. His father, William N. McNaughten, was born in Knox County, Illinois, in 1832, was reared in that locality and was married near Moline in Rock Island County. By trade he was a miller. He followed that occupation and reared his family in Henry County, Illinois, subsequently moving to Stuart in Guthrle County, Iowa, where he helped to build the first flour mill. From there he went to Dallas County, Iowa, and later to Davenport, where he died in 1906. He was a republican in politics, a member of the Baptist Church, and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He married Miss Martha Harris, who was born in Ohio in 1842 and died at Davenport, Iowa, in 1896. A record of their children is briefly as follows: Helen, who died at the age of three years; Isabelle, wife of Robert Atwater, a real estate and insurance man living at Superior, Nebraska; Dr. William L.; Carrie, wife of Patrick Nagle, engineer of the city waterworks plant at Davenport, Iowa; Lottie, who died at the age of seven years; Arthur B., a baker by trade, living at Salt Lake City, Utah.
Doctor McNaughten received his early education while living with his parents in Henry County, Illinois. He had not only gained an enviable place in his profession, but had prospered in a business way and had also exercised his influence to the good of the various communities where he had made his home. He owned his residence on Montgomery Street in Chautauqua and also had some business property in Elgin. Politically he is a republican, had served on the school board at Elgin and is a worker for anything that will benefit his community. He is treasurer and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Baptist Church at Sedan, is a member of the Chautauqua County and State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association, and is affiliated with Vesper Lodge No. 136 Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons; Sedan Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star, Sedan Lodge No. 141 Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Camp No. 40 of the Woodmen of the World at Sedan, the lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen at Elgin, the Woodmen Circle at Sedan.
On September 9, 1883, at Winterset, Iowa, Doctor McNaughten married Miss Lucina Young, daughter of G. W. and Mollie (Custer) Young. Her father is a farmer and both her parents now reside in Cedar County, Missouri. After their marriage Doctor and Mrs. McNaughten started out to establish a home and do all they could for the rearing and training of their children to lives of usefulness and honor, and the outcome of these efforts is a matter of pride to them both. Five children were born to them: Roy and Kittie, both of whom died in infancy; Jesse N., who is a furniture merchant at Sedan, Kansas; Nona, who died at the age of eighteen months; and Ivan, who lives with his parents but is a student of music in New York City.