DR. ASBURY COKE GRAVES

DR. ASBURY COKE GRAVES

from

"Historical and Biographical Record of Crawford Co. Kansas" (1905)

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Dr. Asbury Coke Graves, eye, ear, nose and throat specialist of Pittsburg,

Kansas, has a unique reputation for professional skills and ability throughout

Crawford county and the entire southeastern part of the state. He has given

the best years of his life to the medical profession, beginning his

preparation when a boy, and his subsequent career has been highly praiseworthy

both because of his individual attainment and his great usefulness in the

alleviation of human suffering and in advancing the standard of medical

practice. Above all things else, Dr. Graves has never been content with

mediocrity, however well he might have prospered from a material standpoint.

After securing a high place in the regard of the people as a general

practitioner, he turned his attention to a more special field of labor, and

after study and thorough preparation in the best schools at home and abroad he

returned to this county and gave himself devotedly to the practice in which it

is his highest ambition to excel and thereby be of service to mankind. As a

specialist he enjoys the co-operation and approval of the leading physicians

in this section of the country, and has sustained a reputation for the highest

ability among the people who require his skill. 

Dr. Graves was born in Huntingdon, Carroll County, Tennessee, in 1856, a son

of Wilburn H. and Fronia (Weathers) Graves. His father, a native of Tennessee

and of North Carolina parents, was clerk of the county court of Carroll county

for sixteen years, after which he devoted himself to the practice of law. He

was a successful man, of ample means, and a prominent figure in Carroll county

and a devoted member of the Methodist church. his death occurred in 1875, and

his wife, who was a Virginian by birth, also passed away many years ago.

Dr. Graves received a good education to serve as a preparatory equipment for

the medical profession. He was sent to the public schools in Huntingdon until

fifteen years old, and then became a student in the Mems and Hughes school at

Nashville, which he attended until 1873, in which year the cholera broke out

in Nashville and he then entered Mackenzie College at Mackenzie, Tennessee,

where he remained three years. He then combined theoretical study with

practical experience in the office of Dr. McCall, at Huntingdon, and was under

that distinguished physician's preceptorship for four years. He then entered

the medical department of the Nashville and Vanderbilt University at

Nashville, where he was graduated with the class of 1882. His first practice

in general medicine was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but he remained there only

a short time, and on April 8, 1882, located at Cherokee, Crawford county,

Kansas, which county has been the scene of his endeavors ever since. He was

engaged in general practice there until 1887, and then, having had unusual

success, he decided to specialize along the lines for which he had the

greatest liking. He went to New York and took a special course on the eye,

ear, nose and throat in the Post-Graduate Medical School of that city.

Returning to Cherokee he carried on a highly successful practice in those

branches for some years. He was still ambitious for further attainment and

decided to pursue his studies under the eminent specialist of Europe. In

1897, he went to London and took a special course at the Royal Ophthalmic

Hospital. From there he went to Vienna and was a student under Dr. Fuchs in

the Allgemeines Krankenhaus, or General Hospital, of that city. Thus

equipped, he returned and located at Pittsburg, Kansas, where his professional

ardor and skill have since found useful fields of labor.

Dr. Graves is a member of the county and state medical societies and the

American Medical Association. He served one term as president of the

Southeast Kansas Medical Society and is now treasurer of the Crawford County

Medical Society. He is on the staff of the Pittsburg City Hospital. He

enjoys politics as a recreation and diversion from his profession, and was

recently elected a delegate from Crawford county to the third district

Republican congressional convention. He is a man of fine quality and

universally esteemed.

Dr. Graves was married at Cherokee, October 20, 1882, to Miss Jennie Campbell,

and they have two sons, Wilburn H. and Bernard Coke.