Edgar W. Boardman, M. D. Medicine is constantly making tremendous strides forward, with scientific progress shown on every side, and discoveries and inventions are practically changing methods of practice and broadening the viewpoint of both physician and patient. To practice according to the enlightened ideas of the present century requires not only a most careful training but a certain, sure aggressiveness, and no physician of Parsons has this and other admirable qualities in greater degree than has Dr. Edgar W. Boardman, a practicing physician and surgeon of this city since 1888.
Doctor Boardman was born at Fort Dodge, Iowa, January 10, 1864, and is a son of Dr. H. E. and Susan C. (Locke) Boardman. The Boardmans originated in England, from which country two brothers came to America at an early day in the history of the American Colonies, one locating in Connectient and the other in Vermont. The old Boardman Hill, at Rutland, Vermont, was a family possession for upwards of 200 years, and it is from this branch that Doctor Boardman is descended. His grandfather was Elijah Boardman, born in 1792, at West Rutland, a farmer by occupation who spent his entire life there and died in 1875.
Dr. H. E. Boardman was born in 1835, at West Rutland, Vermont, and was given the advantages of an excellent educational training. He graduated from Middlebury (Vermont) College with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts, then took a course at Andover Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and finally pursued his medical studies at Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, where he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. As a young man he went to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, subsequently to Monroe, in the same state, and in 1865 to Fort Dodge, Iowa, from whence he later removed to Larned, Kansas, and there continued in the practice of his profession until his death, in 1888. He was one of the most scholarly men of his day and community, an honor to his calling and a citizen who won the confidence and respect of his fellow-men. He was a republican in politics, and a member of the Congregational Church. Doctor Boardman married Susan C. Locke, who was born in 1836, at Bollows Falls, Vermont, and who still survives and makes her home with her son, Edgar W. To this union there were born two sons: Dr. Edgar W., of this review; and Horace P., born in 1869, who resides at Reno, Nevada, and holds the chair of civil engineering in the State University of Nevada.
Edgar W. Boardman attended the public schools of Monroe, Wisconsin, where he was graduated from the high school in 1881, and, having inherited his father’s inclination for the medical profession, took up his studies at Hahuemann Medical College, Chicago. He was duly graduated therefrom with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, in the class of 1885, and since that time has taken post-graduate courses in the same institution, at the New York Polyclinic, and, in 1915, at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. On receiving his degree, in 1885, Doctor Boardman engaged in practice at Larned, but three years later, at the time of his father’s death, came to Parsons, where he has since carried on a general medical and surgical practice and has built up a large and representative clientele. He holds to high ideals in his professional work, and is in every way worthy of the respect which he has so clearly won. A man of broad and comprehensive reading, he is eager to grasp new ideas, but does not put them into general use until he has convinced himself as to their efficiency and merit. Doctor Boardman maintains offices in the Exchange State Bank Building, and owns his own residence at No. 1711 Belmont Street, in addition to which he has other real estate. He is a republican of the stand-pat variety. In the line of his profession, he holds membership in the Labette County Medical Society, the Kansas State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the Southeastern Medical Society, and shows his interest in civic affairs by his active participation in the movements of the Parsons Commercial Club. He is prominent fraternally, and belongs to Lodge No. 527, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Parsons Lodge No. 117, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Fort Scott Consistory No. 42, thirty-second degree of Masonry; Mirzah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Parsons Camp, Modern Woodmen of America; the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Royal Arcanum, the Knights and Ladies of Security and the Boyal Neighbors.
Doctor Boardman was married in 1890, at Parsons, to Mrs. Lillie V. (Holbrook) Long, daughter of the late Dwight L. Holbrook, a manufacturer of school furniture, and widow of the late William Long, a dentist of Parsons. Doctor and Mrs. Boardman hare no children.