Ira Puderbaugh, M. D. The second physician in practice at Ozawkis was Dr. Aaron Puderbaugh, and in that same locality his son Dr. Ira Puderbaugh had handled the bulk of the professional work for the past fifteen years.
Ozawkie is the native town of Dr. Ira Puderbaugh, where he was born March 5, 1878. His ancestors were Germans who immigrated to Pennsylvania in very early times. His grandfather was born in Pennsylvania in 1810, afterwards moved to Western Ohio, from there to Indiana, and finally came to Kansas, where be lived retired until his death at Ozawkie in 1883.
Dr. Aaron Puderbaugh, who is now living at Kansas City, Missouri, with his daughter Mrs. May Sullivan, was born in August, 1836, in Darke County, Ohio. When he was a child his parents moved to the vicinity of Wabash, Illinois, and he grow up and married there. In early life he took up the trade of buggy and wagon maker, and this was his occupation when he came to Kansas in 1862 and located at Ozawkie as a pioneer. He followed his trade in that then small country community until 1878. Though forty-two years old, he was still able to achieve success in a new line, and in 1879 entered the Kansas City Medical College, where he graduated M. D. in 1882. After that he practiced in Ozawkie for about twenty years, and retired in 1901, turning over his professional responsibilities to his son. He lived at Ozawkie until 1913, when he removed to Kansas City, Missouri. Dr. Aaron Puderhbaugh is a republican, and had long been a helpful member of the German Baptist Church, being a local preacher in that denomination and an elder in his church. He was twice married. By his first wife he had eight children: Al, the oldest, is a farmer in Western Kansas; Emma lives at Kansas City, Missouri, the widow of David McKelvey, who for twenty-five years conducted a livery, fced stable and back service at Leavenworth, Kansas; Rachel, deceased, was the wife of George Leonard, a dairyman at Leavenworth; Lizzie married J. R. Johnson, and they reside on a farm in the State of Washington; Viola died at the age of sixteen; the sixth child, also a daugbter, died in infancy; Thaddens is a farmer in Washington; May is the wife of John Sullivan, of Kansas City, Missouri, where he is manager of the Security Stove Works.
Dr. Ira Puderbaugh is the only child of his father’s second marriage. His mother’s maiden name was Faunie Brown, and her first husband, Mr. Keim, was a pioneer homesteader near Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and was killed there by the Indians. Mrs. Aaron Puderbaugh died at Ozawkie, Kansas, in 1913.
Dr. Ira. Puderbaugh was educated in the public schools of Ozawkie, and at the age of nineteen entered the Kansas City Medical College, where he was graduated in 1901 with the degree M. D. Since then he had been in active practice at Ozawkie, and is also proprietor of the only drug store in the town. Besides his residence he owned a farm of eighty acres three miles northeast of Ozawkie, and considerable town property in that village.
Doctor Puderbaugh had served as county health officer of Jefferson County, is United States Pension Examiner, is a member of the Jefferson County and State Medical sociaties, had served on the school board, and in politics is a republican. He is a member of Ozawkie Lodge No. 594, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Ozawkie Camp No. 1487, Modern Woodmen of America, and also carries insuranee in the National American Insurance Company of Kansas City.
Doctor Puderbaugh. married at Ozawkie in 1897 Miss Jennie Low, daughter of James H. and Eliza (Bennett) Low, who live at Ozawkie, where her father is a retired farmer and is sective in the real estate business. Doctor and Mrs. Puderbaugh have three children: Freda, born May 14, 1898, now a student in the high school; Leila, born October 5, 1900, also in high school; and Homer, born April 18, 1903, in high school.