CHARLES HIRAM BOULSON.

CHARLES HIRAM BOULSON.&Stamped indellibly upon the memories of the citizenship of Allen county is the life of one who filled an honorable place in one of the great professions, whose great sympathy for humanity effervesced from every pore and whose power for good was limited only by the area of his experience and the boundaries of his opportunities. A pioneer in the practice of homeopathy in Allen county he saw his favorite school grow in the favor of the populace and his practice exlend to the uttermost parts of the municipality. Both as a man and a physician Dr. Boulson was loved for his integrity and for the great warm heart which throbbed in unison with that of the common people. His genial and kindly nature and his Christian character won him the universal respect and confidence of his fellow county people.

Charles H. Boulson came into Allen county in 1877. He established himself in Iola where he was ever afterward one of the leading citizens. In the vigor of manhood he launched into practice and pursued it with energy and enthusiasm, day and night, for a quarter of a century and only loosened his hold upon his country work when the infirmities of age seemed leaning upon him. In early and middle life to call meant to secure his services. The matter of a fee was an after consideration so long that when he died he was a great creditor. In this practice he did himself an injury. With a correct accounting of all his earnings and a business-like and systematic collection of the same he could have passed his last years in ease and independence. But his desire to relieve suffering wherever and whenever found was too strong to be overcome by mercenary motives, purely, and he died "in the harness," so to speak.

Dr. Boulson was born in Hanover, Germany, November 16, 1832. He was a son of a blacksmith, Hiram Boulson, who brought his family to the

United States in 1846 and passed some ten years of his life in New Jersey. He emigrated from there just before the war and became a pioneer of Anderson county, Kansas. During the Civil war he was employed by the Federal Government as a horse-shoer and as such he died before the war closed. He is buried in Anderson county. Hiram Boulson was twice married, his first wife being the Doctor's mother. Of the five children of this union Edward Boulson, of Omaha, Nebraska, Henry Boulson, of Woodson county, Kansas, and Mrs. Mary Starkey, of Oklahoma, survive. Five children by a second marriage survive, viz: Dr. Isaac Boulson, of Oklahoma, Elmer W. Boulson, of Allen county, Kansas, Elijah and Harry Boulson, farmers of Anderson county, Kansas, and Mrs. Libbie Rogers, of that county.

Dr. Boulson was educated in childhood in the German schools of Hanover and his youth was spent in school in New Jersey. He chose medicine as a profession in early life and pursued his studies to that end in Pennsylvania. He attended an Homeopathic College in Philadelphia and was there prepared for entrance upon the serious duties of his profession. He went to Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, to engage in practice, reaching there in his twenty-second year. While a resident of New Castle he made the acquaintance of Miss Sallie White whom he married August 9, 1855. Mrs. Boulson was a daughter of James and Ellen (Graves) White, old residents of Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, and the parents of ten children.

Dr. Boulson practiced in New Castle and in Birmingham, Pennsylvania, each about six years and was induced to join his brother-in-law, Dr. White, in a sanitarium venture in LaSalle county, Illinois. Matters so shaped themselves later on that Dr. Boulson turned his interest in the resort over to his partner and made his final move westward.

Iola was a struggling little prairie town when Dr. and Mrs. Boulson cast their fortunes with it. The undeveloped condition of the country, alone, sufficed to warrant the doctor in deciding to remain here. The settlements along the streams thirty years ago were tolerably numerous but those on the prairies were scarcely visible to one another. The story of his experiences in his early practice here would be a repetition of the experience of pioneer physicians of all ages and places. He drew rein at the door of all and out of it all came his unblemished and untarnished reputation.

Dr. Boulson fraternized with many of the popular societies. He was prominent as an Odd Fellow, which society cared for him so tenderly during his last illness, of the Ancient Order of United Workmen he was a faithful and valuable brother, and of the Select Knights and Select Friends. He believed in Republicanism and supported its principles through all the history of that party. He became a member of the Methodist church in early life and was a deep student of the spiritual as well as the material life. Through all his illness he never once flinched from his great responsibility. He suffered intensely for weeks and his only complaint was that he could not pass over sooner. When the end came on Sunday even-

ing, October 7, 1900, he passed away peacefully and quietly in the assurance of that rest promised the people of God.

Dr. and Mrs. Boulson reared only one child, a son, the late James Boulson M. D. The latter died May 27, 1885, leaving a son, Kenneth Boulson, who resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota. An adopted son, Clyde Boulson, is a promising young man of Iola, and a companion and counsellor of his widowed mother.

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