The medical profession is one of the learned callings that requires of a
man unswerving devotion, conscientious performance of duty and untiring
pursuit of further knowledge. Dr. John W. Vick is a physician whose
record is marked not only by skilled experiences, but by faithfulness to
ambition, for although a score of years intervened between the beginning
of his medical studies and the fruition of his efforts, he did not allow
himself to be discouraged, but persevered, and for nearly twenty-eight
years has been engaged in active practice. He has lived in Williamson
county since 1852, in which year his father, the venerable Samuel S.
Vick, of Marion, came hither from Logan county, Kentucky, where he had
married Martha J. Newton, February 6, 1848.
Samuel S. Vick was
born in Davidson county, Tennessee, June 23, 1827. His father was Josiah
Vick, who followed his son to Illinois and died in Williamson county
about 1868. He was born in one of the . Carolinas, of Scotch and Irish
lineage, was a planter, and was descended from Colonial stock. Branches
of the family scattered throughout the South, and historic Vicksburg,
Mississippi, is named in honor of one of them. Josiah Vick married a
Miss Fuqua, into which family Governor Beckham of Kentucky married, and
this family is also one of the old and aristocratic French families of
the South. Both Josiah and his wife passed away about the same date, and
their children were Samuel S.; Robert, who died in Kentucky, leaving a
family; Josiah, who moved to Texas and reared a family before his death;
Mrs. Lydia Grayson, who died in Williamson county; Wesley, who also
passed away here, never having married; George, who still resides in
this county; Monroe, who died at Anna, Illinois; Nathaniel, who lives in
Massac county; and Susan, who died at DuQuoin, Illinois, the wife of
Frank Roy.
Samuel S. Vick married Martha J. Newton, daughter of
John Newton, her people being farmers of the Corncracker state. Their
children were as follows: Dr. John W., born March 6, 1849, the day
following the inauguration of President Zachary Taylor; Rebecca, who
married William Edwards, of Marion, Illinois; Joe, a druggist of Herrin,
who married a Miss Eubanks; Paralee, the wife of Willis J. Aikman, vice
president of the Marion State and Savings Bank and one of the foremost
men of the pioneer families of the county; Alice, who married John M.
Cline, leading drug merchant of Marion, and also a member of one of
Williamson county's pioneer families; and Dora, who married Dr. Evans
and resides in Marion.
John W. Vick obtained his literary
education in the schools of Marion and began the study of medicine while
serving as a drug clerk in that city. He served an apprenticeship there
with Dr. A. N. Lodge and when ready for college entered the Missouri
Medical College, now a part of the Washington University, of St. Louis.
After a time he decided to engage in practice, secured a license from
the proper board in Illinois, and located in Marion, then in
Carterville, and did not return to complete a medical course in school
for nearly twenty years. He then attended Vanderbilt University at
Nashville and graduated there in 1894. He came to Carterville in 1882,
in time to plant the first shade trees set out on the townsite, and to
take an interest in all that pertained to the making of a new
substantial town. He was president of the school board for twenty years,
of the board of health for a like period and is one of the early members
of the Williamson County Medical Society and its president for several
years. He is a member of the Illinois State and Southern Illinois
Medical Associations, and has served as president of the Carterville
Building and Loan Association since its organization. Dr. Vick is a
Democrat in politics, but he has never entered the public field,
although his father has been prominently known in positions of honor and
trust. Samuel S. Vick was active in Williamson county’s political field
during the years precedent and subsequent to the Civil war. He was an
overseer of slaves in Kentucky, as were several of his brothers, and he
is said to have left the South because "a negro was considered of more
value or consequence than a white man." He was brought up a Democrat and
remained with that party in the face of its embarrassments of the period
of the war. He was first chosen constable of his precinct of Williamson
county and was subsequently appointed deputy sheriff and then city
police judge of Marion. In 1868 he was appointed master in chancery and
was next elected justice of the peace. In 1865 he took the third census
of the county.
Dr. John W. Vick was married in Jackson county,
Illinois, May 8, 1872, to Miss Mary A. Snider, daughter of the
successful farmer and stockman, Ephraim Snider, who was a Southern man.
Mr. Snider married a daughter of David Herrin, of Herrin's Prairie,
which family is mentioned on another page of this volume. Dr. and Mrs.
Vick have had the following children: Callie L., the wife of Monroe
Colp, of Carterville, Illinois; Samuel Snider, who is engaged in the
drug business in Carterville, married Grace Davis and has a daughter,
Mary Elizabeth; Miss Kate H., a teacher in the Carterville schools; and
John W., now a student in pharmacy in the Northwestern University,
Chicago.
Extracted from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 2, page 1015.