George W. Lee, M. D. For fully twenty years Doctor Lee had practiced his profession as a physician and surgeon in Woodson County. The greater part of this time he spent at Toronto, but is now looking after his widely extended patronage from home at Yates Center. He is a highly qualified professional man and of equally high standing in social and civic affairs in Yates Center.
Dr. Lee was born at Markham in Morgan County, Illinois, December 4, 1867. His paternal grandfather, George Lee, was born in 1814 in Yorkshire, England, and on coming to America settled near Jacksonville, Illinois, and took up farming. He died at Garrinville, Illinois, in 1879. The maiden name of his wife was Miss Audis.
Doctor Lee’s parents were born and reared and spent all their lives on a farm at Markham, Illinois. His father, Thomas Lee, was born in 1838 and died in 1908, and his mother, Martha Hall, was born in 1837 and died in 1904. Thomas Lee was a farmer, a republican in politics, and very active in the Methodist Protestant Church of his community, serving as trustee for a number of years. He and his wife had the following children: Mary, wife of Thomas Eades, a hay dealer at Toronto, Kansas; Sarah and Ida, both of whom died in infancy; Minnie, who died at Markham, Illinois, and married Samuel Coultas; Dr. George W.; Mattie, wife of J. Fox, a farmer at Chapin, Illinois; Clara, deceased, married Henry Alderson, a farmer at Chapin, Illinois; Eva, wife of Louis Alderson, living retired at Chapin, Illinois; and Nellie, who died in infancy.
Doctor Lee spent his boyhood on the old farm at Markham, Illinois. He had good home training and the advantages of the rural schools, but most of his higher education he gained by his own efforts. He attended the course in the business college at Jacksonville, Illinois, and spent one year reading medicine in the office of T. M. Cullimore at Jacksonville. Then entering the Marion-Simms Medical College at St. Louis, he graduated Doctor of Medicine in 1892. He is an active member of the Alumni Association of that institution. In 1894 he completed the course of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, and received the adeundem degree of Doctor of Medicine.
After one year of practice at Meredosia, Illinois, Doctor Lee removed to Toronto, Kansas, where for seventeen years he remained in active practice. In February, 1913, he removed his home and offices to Yates Center. His offices are in the Stephenson and Hale Building on State Street. For the past seven years Doctor Lee had served as health officer.
He is a republican, a Presbyterian, a member of Benevolent Lodge, No. 52, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Meredosia, Illinois, of Wichita Consistory, No. 2, of the Scottish Rite, and belongs to Yates Center Lodges of Knights of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Professionally he is a member in good standing of the Woodson County and State Medical societies and the American Medical Association.
Doctor Lee was married at Toronto, Kansas, in 1897, to Miss Minnie Kaltenbach. Her parents William and Alice (Kain) Kaltenbach reside at Toronto, where he is in the real estate business. Doctor and Mrs. Lee have three children: Thomas, a senior in the high school at Yates Center; George, also a senior in high school; and Eva, who is in the freshman class of the high school.