Clifford C. Nesselrode, M. D. In 1906 there came to Kansas City, a young graduate in medicine who entered St. Margaret’s Hospital as an interne. Very modest was this young man as to his acquirements but not much time elapsed before his medical knowledge and his surgical skill were noted and approved, and at the present time no practitioner enjoys more public confidence or personal esteem than does Dr. Clifford C. Nesselrode. In addition to attending to a large and constantly increasing private practice, he is on the staffs of St. Margaret and Bethany hospitals and on the surgical staff of the University of Kansas School of Medicine at Rosedale. Doctor Nesselrode was born February 25, 1880, near Conway Springs, in Sumner County, Kansas. His parents were James Harvey and Anna (Moulton) Nesselrode.
The progenitor of the Nesselrode family, the great-grandfather of Doctor Nesselrode, came to America from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania. There Samuel Nesselrode was born and there married a member of the old German family of Fisher, who proved an admirable wife. They, in course of time, moved to Ohio and in that state their son, James Harvey was born and in 1866 accompanied his parents to Kansas. Samuel Nesselrode purchased 160 acres of land in Johnson County, near Spring Hill, and that property had never since been out of the family.
To Johnson County about this time came an attractive young lady, Miss Anna Moulton, a native of Wisconsin, to visit her brother. Instead of returning to her native state she was married to James Harvey Nesselrode. In 1878, with their first child, Gertrude, who is now the wife of J. M. Holcomb, a farmer in Johnson County near her parents, together with Mrs. Nesselrode’s brother and wife, they journeyed in a covered wagon to Sumner County. They took up adjoining claims near Conway Springs, broke up the land, proved up and built frame houses. In 1883 however, Mr. Nesselrode sold his land and returned to Johnson County and there bought his father’s old farm and continues there still engaged in farming and dairying. He is recognized as a man of sterling character. In politics he is a republican from principle, never accepting any public office except on the school board.
Clifford C. Nesselrode attended the district schools in Johnson County until prepared to be a teacher himself. Early deciding upon a professional life, he felt it no hardship to provide his own college expenses. But Nature soon asserted her preference for medicine and surgery and in 1902 he entered the Kansas City Medical College and continued a student in the Kansas University, alternating study and teaching. In 1905 the above school was made the medical department of the University of Kansas and Doctor Nesselrode was engaged as a student-teacher in laboratory work and continued until he was graduated in 1906. In this year he became an interne in St. Margaret’s Hospital and in the following year entered Dr. George McGray’s office, since when he had maintained his own office and had been connected with the institutions above mentioned. His practice absorbs all his time, being connected with many professional bodies and called on for many services such as fall to the humanity of the physician even if not classed directly with charities. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and belongs to the Kansas State Medical Society, of which he was vice president one year and for three years was chairman of the committee on health and public education; of the American Medical Association; was the representative from Kansas to the Clinical Congress of the Surgeons of North America; and is a member of the Southwest Medical Association, of which he was vice president for one year. Doctor Nesselrode is a specialist in surgery and in 1910 took a special course in surgery in the Harvard Post Graduate School.
On January 1, 1908, Doctor Nesselrode was married to Miss Ella Allen, of Lenexa, Johnson County, Kansas. Her father, George Allen, is a prominent farmer in that county. Doctor and Mrs. Nesselrode have a three-year-old daughter, Mary Jane. Doctor Nesselrode is a stockholder in several banks. He is president of the Mercantile Club and one of its directors, is an active member of the Rotary Club, is a Mason, and retains membership in his old college fraternity, the Phi Beta Pi.