William M. Boone, M. D., who located at Highland, Doniphan County, a well-equipped physician and surgeon in 1892, had steadily practiced in that community for over a quarter of a century and is now the oldest member in point of continuous service of the local profession.
Doctor Boone belongs to the family of Kentucky Boones and four or five generations back his ancestry was the same as that of the famous frontiersman and hunter, Daniel Boone. The Boone family origlnated in Southern England, and it will be recalled that Daniel Boone was a native of Pennsylvania but subsequently went to the Carolinas.
Doctor Boone’s grandfather was Hiram C. Boone, who was born in 1788 and stood in the relationship of first cousin to Daniel Boone. He became a pruminent man in Meade County, Kentucky, where he died in 1863. He had fought in some of the Indian was and was major of the State Militia. By occupation he was a planter and had numerous slaves to work, his fields and gather his crops, as well as look attar the duties of the household. His second wife was Sallie Staples, and she died in Meade County, Kentucky, at the age of seventy-five. A record of their children is: Clemmie, who married Doctor Bay, who served as a surgeon in the Union army, and both are now deceased; Sallie H., who married A. H. Slaughter; Samuel H., who became a Union soldier, was wounded in battle by a minie ball and incapacitated for further duty, and ten years later he died at Denver, Colorado; James Monroe, mentioned below; Junius B., deceased; Victoria, who married Mr. Douglass and both are now deceased; Hiram C., who is a retired farmer living in Meade County, Kentucky.
Meads County, Kentucky, was the birthplace of Dr. William M. Boone. His birthday was March 5, 1860. His father, James Monros Boone, was born in Kentucky May 11, 1832, and died at Hillsboro, Texas, in December, 1915. He was reared in Meade County, was married in Breckinridge County, and besides farming he had interests in the boating business in Kentucky. During a period of hard times following the panic of 1873 he had to sacrifice his Kentucky farm, and he then sought a new field. On February 14, 1878, he arrived at Dallas, Texas, which was then an extremely new town and had been connected with the outside world by railroads only a few years. In 1880 he removed to a farm near Hillsborn, Texas, and though past middle life at the time he eventually redeemed his fortune in that state. He was a democrat and a very active member of the Baptist Church, serving for many years as clerk. James M. Boone married Ellen Moorman, who was born April 12, 1837, in Breckinridge County, Kertucky, and is still living at Hillsboro, Texas, at the age of eighty. Of her children Dr. William M. Boone is the oldest. Jessie L., the second, lives at Warrensburg, Missouri, widow of E. M. Yates, who was a merchant and miller. Mrs. Yates had six children: Harriet, Lutie, Emmett, Jean, Ida May and James. Sallie H., the third child, is a resident of Hillsboro, Texas, and wife of Dr. J. W. Spaulding, a physician and surgeon; their children are Cullen, a physician at Baltimore, Maryland; Catherine, wife of Mr. Creekmore, a traveling salesman; Nellie, wife of John Goodman, a merchant; and S. Maurice. Harriet Pearl, a resident of Hillsboro, her mother living with her, is the wife of J. C. Givens, a real estate man who had served as county treasurer of that county in Texas. Charles M. Boone is a farmer near Hillsboro. Samuel M. is assistant to the sheriff and tax collector of Houston County, Texas, at Crockett. Mary Lucretia, who died in 1914, was the wife of J. O. Moore, a very successful real estate man at Corpus Christi, Texas; Mrs. Moore left three children, Ruth, Orren and Aileen. Nellie A. died at the age of fifteen. Helen is unmarried and lives with her mother at Hillsboro.
Doctor Boone acquired his early education in Meade County, Kentucky, attending high school there, and was about eighteen when the family removed to Texas. He lived at home until twenty-one, and then went to Agency, Missouri, and for three years clerked in a general store, having charge of the stock of drugs. That experience no doubt influenced him in his choice of a profession. He began the study of medicine and in 1891 was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, now the medical department of the University of Maryland. It was a well-earned degree of Doctor of Medicine, since he had not only studied faithfully but had worked and paid his way through school. Doctor Boone had neglected no opportunity to improve and increase his skill and knowledge in one of the most difficult and important of human vocations. He had siuce taken various post-graduate courses in hospitals in Kansas City, St. Joseph and in other cities. He is a member in good standing and secretary of the Doniphan County Meidcal Soiety, a member of the State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, and the Missouri Valley Medical Association, which includes the states of Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa and Kansas.
After a brief experience in practice in Hill County, Texas, Doctor Boone removed to Highland, Kansas, in 1892, and was soon established with a profitable practice both as a physician and surgeon. His attainments now rank him among the leadors in the profession in Northeastern Kansas.
While busy with his practice Doctor Boone had also acquired extensive business interests, especially in real estate. His home is on Pennsylvania and South streets, where he built a modern residence in 1904. He owned a farm of 160 acres in Pratt County, another of a similar amount in Gove County, Kansas, and had an entire section of land in Reeves County in far Western Texas. He is also owner of five acres adjoining the town site of Highland.
At different times various public positions and responsibilities have been thrust upon him. He served many years as city health officer, had been mayor of Highland, was director of the school board nine years, and for the past fifteen years had been president of the Highland College Board of Trustees. Five years ago that institution honored him with the degree Master of Science. Doctor Boone had done much to share his technical knowledge with students of medicine and with the public in general, and had delivered numerous lectures on physiology, anatomy and hygiene. He is a member and treasurer of the Christian Church of Highland, and was formerly affliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is member and past master of the oldest Masonie lodge in the state, Smithton Lodge No. 1, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Highland. He also belongs to Rosewood Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America at Highland and to Highland Council No, 192 of the Knights and Ladies of Security.
Doctor Boone was married in 1889, in Texas, to Miss Florence E. Garrett, daughter of P. J., and Nancy (Phillip) Garrett. Her father, now deceased, was for many years a farmer, also in the agency business and a merchant. Her mother now resided with Doctor and Mrs. Boone. Doctor and Mrs. Boone have a family of six children, and have taken the utmost pains to furnish them a cultivated environment at home and the best of oducational advantages. Their oldest child, Anna Louise is a highly cultured and educated young woman, a graduate of Highland College, with the degree A. B., took her degree Bachelor of Pedagogy from the State Normal School of Missouri, and also received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Rockford College in Illinois in 1913. She is now a teacher of Latin, English and physiology in the high school at Highland, Kansas. Horace Batliff, the oldest son, was graduated A. B. from the University of Kansas in 1914, had previously, in 1910, received the Bachelor of Science degree from Highland College, and in 1917 finished his medical course in the Kansas University Medical School. He is now enlisted in the navy for medical service during the war. William M., the third child, had attended the University of Kansas, taking a two years course in mechanical engineering, and in 1916 went to Tucson, Arizona, where he is now a practical electrielan with an automobile firm. Dorothy Ellen is a junior in Highland College, Florence Marjorie is a senior in the Highland High School, and James Daniel is still in the grammar school.