Young, James Myron (b. 1875)
YOUNG, PRINTZ, DAWSON
Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 7/30/2013 at 15:32:22
Since 1903 Dr. James Myron Young has been one of the remarkably successful physicians of Center Junction. A native of this town, he was born August 29, 1875, his parents being James and Amanda (Printz) Young. The father is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, the Young family having been founded in America about the middle of the eighteenth century by William and Mary (White) Young, natives of Scotland. This couple came to this country from the north of Ireland, where they were wealthy landowners and his ancestors were said to have been baronets. In their religious faith they were Presbyterians and as they were living in the midst of a Catholic community they came to the new world in order to escape the persecutions to which members of their faith were subjected. Mr. and Mrs. David Young, the grandparents of our subject, were married in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and in 1843, after selling their farm, started upon their journey to Iowa. They traveled down the Ohio river to Cairo, Illinois, thence up the Mississippi to Bellevue, Jackson county, Iowa, where they disembarked. On Brush creek Mr. Young found a site suitable for the erection of a mill and there built a log house with puncheon floors and clapboard roof held in place by weight poles, no nails being used in the construction of the cabin. The mill which he also built had but one iron wheel, the others being made of wood, the wooden cogs for which were boiled in lard for three or four days. Upon the site chosen when he came to Iowa, he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, the former continuing in the operation of the mill until his death.
As James Young, the father of our subject, was but two years of age when he came to Iowa, almost his entire life has been passed within its boundaries. He was reared to manhood under the parental roof, assisting in the work of the mill until 1867, when he married and engaged in agricultural pursuits, to which he has since devoted his life, having become with the passage of years one of the successful farmers of Scotch Grove township. Seven children were born to him and his wife, namely: Eliza M., the wife of Rev. A. B. Fickle, of Shellsburg, Benton county, Iowa; E. Ray, of Madison township, mention of whom is made elsewhere in this work; James M., the subject of this sketch; David L., an attorney of Boise City, Idaho; John Arthur, a Methodist Episcopal minister of Ridgeway, Iowa, William Harvey, who is attending Grinnell College; and T. Ross who is yet at home. A consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, the father has served on its official board for several years and at the same time has been most active in Sunday-school work. Politically he gives his support to the prohibition party and for two years served his community as justice of the peace. Characterized as his career has been by high ideals and noble principles, his life has been a constant example and inspiration to those who have borne his name.
James Myron Young was reared under the parental roof, on the farm, and he continued the education derived from the common schools through attendance at the Center junction high school. After the completion of its prescribed course he spent the year of 1894-5 at Epworth Seminary in Dubuque county, Iowa. The next two years, those of 1895-6, and 1896-7, he spent in teaching, later reentering Epworth Seminary, from which he was graduated with the class of 1899, having taken the Latin and scientific courses. In that year he decided to take up the profession of medicine, in which he had always been interested and had read to some extent. He entered the State University at Iowa City, from which he received his medical degree at the close of the school year of 1903. His graduation having taken place on June 19, the following day he arrived in Center Junction with the intention of going to his home to spend a week's vacation. However, a professional call awaited him in the town and his vacation was postponed. From that time to the present Dr. Young has enjoyed a career as a medical practitioner that has been singularly successful from the start. Always having a pronounced liking for the work, he prosecuted his studies with the enthusiasm of a man who knew what was his life's work.
On the 19th of August, 1903, Dr. Young wedded Miss Alice Dawson, a daughter of Thomas Dawson, of Center junction. Three children have been born to the couple: Roy D.; Esther M., deceased; and Ralph E. Fraternally Dr. Young is connected with the Modem Woodmen of America and with the Mystic Workers of the World, while he keeps in touch with the best interests of his fellow physicians through his membership in the Jones County and State Medical Societies and in the Iowa Union Medical Association. A skilled diagnostician and painstaking in his conduct of cases, Dr. Young has won a large competence from the citizens of Center junction. A more concrete idea of his success, however, may be gained from the fact that he owns a farm in Scotch Grove township, one in Idaho and considerable property in Center junction. While this indicates his worldly prosperity it fails to do justice to the respect of those to whom he has ministered-this he considers the greatest reward of his labor.
From History of Jones County, Iowa, Past and Present, R. M. Corbitt, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910, p. 395.
Jones Biographies maintained by Bruce Lindbloom.
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