Alexander D. Six, M.D.
ALEXANDER D. SIX, M.D., one of the successful surgeons and physicians of Versailles, was born in Morgan county, now Scott, in 1828. His father, David Six, was born in Tennessee, in 1799, and his father, John Six, was a native of the Shenandoah valley, Virginia, and his grandfather, the great-great-grandfather of the Doctor, was banished from Germany on account of his tendency toward mutiny, and settled in this country, where he founded the family of Six on American soil. The offence for which he was exiled from his native land was a small one, it being the infringement of the game laws with regard to hunting rabbits. His grandson, John, took a very active part in the Revolutionary war, and though a youth was one of the prison guards at Yorktown. His wife was Mary Duvall, of Pennsylvania, and they were married in the State where he was following his trade of carpenter and joiner. After marriage they removed to Tennessee, where their seven sons were born. This gentleman was a typical frontiersman and hunter, and was a pioneer of Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois. The father of our subject, David, and his brother, John, were the pioneers of that family to Illinois, coming in the spring of 1823, landing near Springfield in June, making the journey with pack horses and bringing their families with them, David having two children, while his brother had but one. In a year or two they came to the western part of Morgan county, and their parents and brothers followed to Illinois a couple of years afterward, making the journey with covered wagons. The entire party was very poor, having nothing but their outfits and their willing hands, ready to engage in whatever offered itself. John Six had a family as follows: Abraham Six, died in Scott county, aged sixty-seven, leaving three sons and two daughters; Daniel, died in the same county, about the same age, leaving eight or nine children to mourn his death; John, the next, and his family are all buried, he dying in 1857, aged sixty-seven; Jacob, moved to Arkansas and died at an advanced age, leaving a large family; David, father of subject; Isaac, farmer of Scott county, where he died about the same age as his other brothers; William died at the same age; Mary, wife of James Taylor, of Scott county, a farmer, and they had a medium family; Elizabeth, wife of William Parker, died in Arkansas, leaving a large family; Catherine is still living with her daughter, in Missouri, aged ninety years, and is in fair health of mind and body; she had five children; Nancy, wife of Simon Taylor, died when about seventy, leaving twelve or thirteen children. These children were all farmers, or the wives of farmers, and they all crossed the plains to Illinois. The father and mother of the subject lived on a farm of 140 acres, near Mount Sterling, where the father died, aged fifty-nine years, leaving eleven living children and one deceased daughter of five years. The name of the children were: Nancy, wife of a Mr. Green, of California, has a large family; Martha, died in Missouri, aged forty-eight, leaving the nine children she had born to her husband, George Scott; Daniel, a farmer of Mount Sterling, has a family of two daughters and the same number of sons; Abraham, a farmer two miles east of Mount Sterling, has seven children; Alexander D., subject; Mary, died, aged forty-eight, in California, near Los Angeles, being the wife of Irving Carter, by whom she had six children; Isabella died when five years old; William died near Mount Sterling on the homestead, aged fifty-four, leaving a wife and two daughters; Elizabeth, now Mrs. William Bowen, of Knox county, Missouri, has six daughters; Cynthia, widow of W. A. Sieles, lives on her farm in Missouri with her seven children; Oliver P. and James K. are both bachelors on the home farm. This family is among the earliest of the settlers, and the Six prairie in Mount Sterling is named after them.The Doctor was reared to farm life and received his primary education in the log schoolhouses, with the puncheon floors and slab seats, without backs. The school that he attended, principally, was held in Mount Sterling. He left the subscription school at eighteen and went for a year to the Mount Sterling Academy when he was twenty-two. After this he taught school for four years, reading medicine all this time. He finished his medical course in Rush Medical College, Chicago, graduating in the class of 1859, beginning his practice at Mount Pleasant. He went to Colorado in 1860 and two years later made an exploring trip through Idaho and Montana. He spent two years in Colorado and four years in Montana, and was one of the nineteen who discovered the gold mines in the last named State, at Big Hole, not long before the discovery of the Bannock mines. He was interested in these and other mines during the four years he spent in this State, but returned home, across the plains, by stage, a journey of 2,200 miles, an easier journey than the trip out, which was made with ox teams.
The Doctor bought his present farm of 400 acres about 1873, of J. P. Hambaugh for $9,000, with no buildings but the old log cabin. He built his farm house in 1875 and his barns in 1880 and 1889, one being 36 by 40 and the other 36 by 48. His farm is a grain and stock one, he raising wheat, corn and hay, feeding his stock at home. At times he has as many as forty-two head of horses, which he raises from colts. He has built a warehouse on his own land, at Perry Spring Station, where they ship a great deal of grain and stock.
This gentleman was married, in Lee township, to Elizabeth Osborn, still living. They have three living children, but have buried one daughter, Jessie, aged nine years. She was a lovely child and her untimely death cast a gloom over the entire household. The living children are: Charles, aged twenty-four; Fred H., twenty-two; and Mattie, the pet of the household, aged eight. The sons are both regular farmers, and are now conducting the stock farm. Both have received a good business education, and are still single, residing at home. The little daughter is a sweet child and fills, to some extent, the aching void left by her departed sister.
The Doctor still practices, but only pursued his profession exclusively for about two years. He was of a great deal of use in the mines, where his professional skill was often called into play, at one time being blown up from a premature discharge of a blast of powder; the Doctor was injured, and it was some time before he recovered, having narrowly escaped death. This gentleman is a member of no secret society or creed, and believes in Democracy, but is hardly within party lines. He and his family are highly respected.
Biographical Review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois, Biographical Review Publishing Co., Chicago, 1892, pages 214-216.
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