Willifred Page

WILLIFRED PAGE, M. D., who graduated from the Kansas Medical College at Topeka, April 17, 1907, has had a broad and ample experience in all phases of his profession, and since locating at McCracken in 1913 has built up a splendid practice. While a student of medicine he had the advantage of professional work in the Santa Fe Hospital for five months, and after graduation he was second assistant surgeon in the National Soldiers Home in Kansas, remaining there two and a half years. Subsequently he practiced a year and a half at Holton, and while there served as county health officer in 1910. His next location was at Hoisington, Kansas, where he remained a year and a half, and then in 1913 removed to McCracken.

Doctor Page is a son of a former physician who occupied an eminent place in the profession in Kansas. This was Dr. James Newton Page, who was born near Catawba, Ohio. His parents had come from Kentucky to Ohio, and besides Dr. James Newton there were the following children: Joseph; Jonathan, who died at Catawba, Ohio; Isaac E., who died at Pratt, Kansas; Jacob, who died in Iowa; Fannie, who married Isaac E. Hale and died in Ohio.

James Newton Page while a young man taught school, paid his expenses through medical college, and was graduated from the Eclectic School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana. However, he always practiced as an allopath. He practiced in Red Oak, Essex and Dayton, Iowa, in 1878 removed to Illinois and in 1887 came to Kansas, locating in one of the boom towns in the western part of the state at Wallace. After the subsidence of the artificial prosperity enjoyed by Western Kansas he left Wallace and established himself in practice in Ellis, where he followed his profession until his death in 1897, at the age of fifty-seven.

The position he occupied among Kansas physicians is well indicated by the fact that at one time he was president of the Kansas State Medical Society. He was also division surgeon of the Union Pacific Railway, and was a leader in medical work in Ellis County. A writer of ability, he contributed much information among the profession through his papers which appeared in medical journals. As a youth Dr. James Newton Page twice tried to get into the Union army, but was rejected on account of physical disability. He was always a staunch republican, was a Methodist, and was affiliated with the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, and the Odd Fellows. For a number of years besides his practice he also conducted a drug store at Ellis, Kansas.

James Newton Page married Matilda J. Smith, who was born near Catawba, Ohio, of Irish stock. The Page family is of Welsh ancestry, and an early connection was with the McDonald family. The first American of the McDonald ancestry was a son of an earl, but having married a poor and untitled girl he came to America to make his fortune, coming during colonial times. Mrs. James N. Page is still living. Her children were: Mrs. M. K. Little, of Topeka; Mrs. John W. Wilson, of Topeka; George D., who died at Wallace, Kansas; Florence E., wife of J. C. Wood, of Pueblo, Colorado; Dr. Willifred, of McCracken; and Clarkson Smith Page, who went to old Mexico in 1910, and his present fate is unknown.

Willifred Page was born in Webster County, Iowa, November 27, 1877, and when he was a year old his parents moved to Illinois. They lived for a few years in Tilton, Illinois, and after he was ten years of age his youth was spent in Western Kansas. He attended the common schools at Wallace, also received part of his education at Danville, Illinois, was in the high school at Ellis, Kansas, and for a year did preparatory work in Washburn College, at Topeka. He then entered the Kansas Medical College, from which he has his degree as Doctor of Medicine.

Doctor Page is a Master Mason, a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security, of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen and of the Kansas Fraternal Citizens. His family are Methodists. At Hoisington, Kansas, June 11, 1912, Doctor Page married Miss Angie Amy Nimocks. Mrs. Page was born in Great Bend, Kansas, April 5, 1888, a daughter of W. A. and Martha J. (Robinson) Nimocks. Three children have been born to Doctor and Mrs. Page; Maynard Wilson, John Willifred and Alberta Jane.

Doctor Page offered his service to the nation the same day the United States declared war on Germany and soon entered the training camp at Fort Riley, and was commissioned a first lieutenant in June, 1917. He was assigned to the field hospital of the Thirty-Second Division and ordered to Waco, Texas, and early in 1918 went to Europe where he is serving on the western front.