Dr. Park is a son of John and Elizabeth (Waggoner) Park, and was born January 8th, 1825, at Milton, Pennsylvania. When he was about six years of age his parents moved to Tiffin, Ohio. He was educated at Tiffin and at the Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio. In the spring of 1855 he graduated from Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. He was appointed resident physician at the alms house of the city of Baltimore, Md., but soon after returned to Tiffin, Ohio. In August, 1862, he was commissioned as surgeon of the 49th Ohio Regiment, Col. W. H. Gibson. He was mustered out at Victoria, Texas, in Nov. 1865. He was at the battle of Shiloh, Stone River, Liberty Gap and Chickanaauga. He was captured and taken to Atlanta, and afterwards confined at Libby Prison and at Andersonville. Afterward he was at the battle of Nashville and went with the army to San Antonio, Texas. In May, 1866, he came to Greene county, Missouri, and settled upon Leeper prairie, near Bois D’Arc, and was one of the first to settle upon that celebrated prairie after the war. He followed his profession and at one time owned about seven hundred acres of land. He came to Springfield in September, 1881. He is now of the firm of T. E. Crank & Co., druggists, of North Springfield, and at Golden City. He was married Nov. 9th, 1858 to Miss Clara Rupert, of Bloomsburg, Penn. They have had six children, one son and five daughters. His wife is a member of Calvary Presbyterian church. The doctor’s father died at Tiffin, Ohio, in August, 1868, aged eighty, and his mother died July 12th, 1881, aged eighty-four. In 1850 Dr. Park went to California and returned in 1853. He was mining and merchandising while there.
