Baker A. Countryman

BAKER A. COUNTRYMAN, M. D. This very successful physician and druggist of Utica, Kansas, has spent all his life since early infancy in the western part of this state. His family were pioneers in Trego County, where his father, Daniel Countryman, proved up a claim near Wakeeney and farmed it continuously for twenty-eight years. By the purchase of other lands he became a somewhat extensive farmer and was independent financially during his later years.

Daniel Countryman had a German father and an English mother, and was a small child when he died, their other children being Rachel, Jacob, Isaac, Joseph, Peter and Margaret. Daniel Countryman was born in Ingham County, Michigan, September 30. 1841, and died at Wakeeney, Kansas, March 17, 1910. He was an honored veteran of the Civil war, having served in the Ninth and Twenty-eighth Michigan regiments. He was in the service a little more than three years. At the battle of Murfreesboro he was taken prisoner, but was exchanged after a few days. He fought the three years as a soldier in the ranks, and after the war he was loyally identified with the Grand Army of the Republic.

Daniel Countryman married Evelyn Clark. Her father, William Clark, came from England to the United States and spent the rest of his years as a farmer in Michigan. Mrs. Daniel Countryman was born July 27, 1854, and is now living at Wakeeney. The children of Daniel Countryman and wife were: Daniel Luther, a merchant at Modoc, Kansas; Eliza Matilda, wife of J. L. Snyder, of Bonners Ferry, Idaho; Dr. Baker A.; Thomas Franklin, who is a graduate of the Kansas State University and is now a lawyer at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Harriet Evelyn, wife of Eric Lindberg, of Ogallah, Kansas; and William T. S., a druggist at Hesston, Kansas.

Dr. Baker A. Countryman was born in Jackson County, Michigan, July 11, 1878, and two years later came with his parents to Trego County, Kansas. His early life was spent on a farm, his education came from the common schools of Trego County, and after his graduation from the Wakeeney High School he spent five years as a teacher in Ness County. His education was advanced by a course in the Kansas Wesleyan Business College at Salina, and in 1905 he entered the Kansas Medical College at Topeka, where he was graduated M. D. in 1909. After three years of practice at Hesston he moved to Utica, and has since built up a fine reputation as a physician and surgeon and has also carried on the leading drug business of the town.

Doctor Countryman in politics varies somewhat from the prevailing creed of the family and is a democrat. He is a Master Mason and all the family are members of the Methodist Church. On July 24, 1913, at Topeka, he married Miss Nora Bond. Her father, William J. Bond, for thirteen years was head carpenter of the Topeka Hospital for the Insane and for twenty-three years has been custodian for the Masonic records of Kansas, and thus is one of its best known men in the capital city. He is a native of Massachusetts and has lived in Kansas since the early '80s. William J. Bond married Mary Whaley, and Mrs. Countryman is their only child. Mrs. Countryman was educated in Topeka, studied art in that city, taught painting for a time in Louisville, Colorado, and her work in water colors has brought her more than a local reputation. To their marriage was born one daughter, Mary Lenora Countryman, born October 8, 1914.

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