Abram A. Raub, M. D. One of the oldest and best known physicians and citizens of Kansas is Dr. Abram A. Raub of Topeka, who came to this state in 1879. Doctor Raub is a veteran of the Civil war. During part of his service he was assistant surgeon in the army, and has been practicing medicine for fully half a century.
Doctor Raub was forty years of age when he came to Kansas, having been born in 1839 at Blairstown, New Jersey. His father was Philip Raub, also a native of Blairstown. The grandfather emigrated from the Rhine provinces of Germany and settled at Blairstown, he and his son Philip both dying on the old place near that city. Together they had occupied the homestead for nearly 100 years. Philip Raub married Miss Sabra Angel of Warren County, New Jersey. To their marriage were born two sons and three daughters, named Emma, Jacob, Catherine, John and Abram, all now deceased except Doctor Raub. The daughter Emma married George W. Stout. Mr. Stout, who was also a native of New Jersey, was a prominent attorney at Easton, Pennsylvania, and a very successful business man. He left an estate valued at $200,000, and at one time he told Doctor Raub that he started life with only 50 cents. Mr. and Mrs. Stout’s son George was a youth of more than usual brilliancy, was graduated first in his class and a gold medalist from the University of Pennsylvania, and his death twenty days after his graduation was a calamity to his parents and a loss to the world. Doctor Raub’s older brother Jacob became a prosperous farmer of Warren County, New Jersey. His sister Catherine married Aaron Vaught, of Bradford County, Pennsylvania. John Raub, who is a graduate of Lafayette College at Eastern Pennsylvania and a graduate of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, in 1861 went to Fortress Monroe with the Ninth New Jersey Volunteer Infantry with the understanding that he should be appointed assistant regimental surgeon, but was disappointed and then returned home.
Doctor Raub acquired his early education in the public schools of Blairstown, and began his professional studies in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. Before graduating he enlisted in the First Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry at Lincoln’s first call for ninety days men. He was stricken with the typhoid fever, and then returned home, finishing his medical education, and in 1863 received appointment as assistant United States surgeon. He passed the examination and was given the appointment by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Doctor Raub served from April 26, 1863, to April 27, 1864, his resignation being prompted on account of ill health. Doctor Raub is a very competent and interesting witness on some phases of the early period of the Civil war which received perhaps less attention than they deserve in the usual writings on the war. This opportunity as a witness came during the ninety days service. The North had rushed precipitately against the Southern armies without either proper training or without adequate equipment. Whole regiments, says Doctor Raub, were absolutely without arms, without food, the officers were inexperienced, and the men were marching over the hot dry country without canteens, without blankets, and the only clothing they had was what they wore away from their homes.
On May 2, 1864, a few days after he resigned his commission in the army, Doctor Raub married Miss Ernestine McClure. Her father was city engineer of Memphis, Tennessee. Soon after his marriage Doctor Raub moved to Warren County, Ohio, and began the practice of medicine in the Town of Franklin. The situation was not altogether to his liking, and he then returned to Pennsylvania and practiced at Laceyville, in Wyoming County until 1879. In that year he brought his family out to Cawker City, Mitchell County, Kansas. Mitchell County was then practically on the frontier, and his coming brought to that community a physician of unusual experience and ability. For ten years he remained in active practice there. In 1889 he was appointed through United States Senator Plumb, the Government physician to the Pottawatami Indians with office on the reservation, though his family in the meantime resided in Topeka.
Doctor Raub has had his home in Topeka for many years and has become well known as a citizen not only there but over the state. For eight years he served as chairman of the board of pension examiners of Shawnee County, and for one year served by appointment as county physician. For four years Doctor Raub was the chief surgeon of the Kansas State Soldiers Home at Dodge City.
The family of Doctor and Mrs. Raub contained three sons and two daughters. Their names and birth are: Edgar Lee, born in 1867; Ellen Woodward, 1869; Kenneth, 1872; Trail Green, 1874; and Ernestine, 1876. The daughter Ernestine is now deceased. Edgar until recently was an editor at Montgomery City, Texas. Kenneth has recently been elected county clerk of Shawnee County, and enters that office with a promise of great efficiency, since for twelve years he was employed in the offices of the Santa Fe Railway, nearly all the time under Mr. W. W. Strickland. The son Trial is a boilermaker by trade and for twelve years has been in the Missouri Pacific Railway shops at Sedalia, Missouri. Ellen is the wife of Mr. L. G. Tuttle, an old employe of the Rock Island Railroad Company, at present being chief rate clerk, and when the company’s headquarters were moved to Chicago he went with them.