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.