Harrison B. Savage

HARRISON B. SAVAGE, M. D., one of the oldest as well as most eminent physicians and surgeons of Galena, was born at Germantown, Mason County, Kentucky, and is a son of Dr. Charles Smith and Elizabeth Savage.

Dr. Charles Smith Savage was born at Germantown, Kentucky, December 8, 1829, and is a son of Rev. James and Sally (Currans) Savage, natives of Virginia, who were pioneers into Kentucky, driving over the mountains in primitive style, and locating at Germantown. There Rev. James Savage found a wide field for evangelistic work and that he was a true type of the faithful, earnest pioneer Methodist preacher, may be judged by the fact that he was able, during his years of circuit riding, to found three Methodist churches which still flourish and perpetuate his memory. His family consisted of five sons and five daughters, all of whom reached maturity. The three survivors of this vigorous family are: Dr. Charles S., now living retired at Galena; Mrs. Margaret C. Pollock, a widow, residing in Kentucky; and Mrs. Sally Barton, of Howard County, Missouri.

Dr. Charles S. Savage secured his fine literary education at Augusta College, at Augusta, Kentucky, where he was graduated in 1848. His medical training was received at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, where he was graduated with the class of 1851, receiving his diploma from Dr. Austin Flint, a distinguished physician and author of medical text-books, clinical reports and valuable medical papers, who 30 years later also signed the diploma of his son, Dr. Harrison B. Savage. On January 1, 1855, Dr. Charles S. Savage opened an office for practice, at Germantown, Kentucky, where he continued until 1900, when he came to Galena, Kansas, and became associated with his son, under the firm name of Savage & Savage. After this long practice in healing the ills and injuries of his fellow creatures, he has now laid aside these cares, knowing full well that his mantle has fallen upon shoulders well able to bear its weight.

Kentucky people love their homes and believe in their institutions, and young Dr. Savage acquired the greater part of his literary and; medical education in the justly noted University of Kentucky, where he was graduated with the class of 1880, and subsequently took the course of lectures, during 1881 and 1882, at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In order to thoroughly prepare himself for the great field before him, Dr. Savage entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, where he was graduated on March 15, 1886. After eight months spent in the city dispensary, he returned to Kentucky. The father welcomed his talented son to partnership, both men being closely atached [sic] not only by the tie of kindred, but also by that of professional sympathy, and they continued to practice together until 1888. Then the younger physician began to look further afield and the result was his removal to Glasgow, Missouri, where he built up a practice and continued until 1892.

Dr. Savage was particularly successful at Glasgow in a financial sense, his last year there remunerating him handsomely, but his professional instinct made him anxious to locate where he would find more and different cases to treat; and this condition he believed to be existing at Galena, where its mixed population offered better chances for scientific study. In 1892 he located at Galena, opening a well-equipped office on the corner of Fourth and Main streets, over the leading drug store of the city, and he has met with the success he so eminently deserves.

In 1902 Dr. Savage was married in Joplin, Missouri, to Florence Lawder, who was born in Lindsay, Canada.

Politically Dr. Savage is a Democrat, but he is not active in public matters, his interests being centered in his professional work and in looking after various mining properties. He belongs to all the leading medical societies in which he is regarded with great consideration, particularly in the Cherokee County Medical Society and the Jasper County Medical Society, of Missouri. His fraternal connections include the Elks, A. O. U. W., the Knights of Pythias and the Fraternal Aid organizations.

History of Cherokee County Kansas and its representative citizens, ed. & comp. by Nathaniel Thompson Allison, 1904, transcribed by students from Baxter Springs, Kansas, 3/4/97.