My Genealogy Hound

Augustus L. Breysacher, M. D., Little Rock, Ark. Dr. Breysacher is well known and universally respected throughout the State, not only as a successful and skillful physician and surgeon, but as a genial, whole-souled gentleman. He was born February 2, 1831, and is the son of George and Elizabeth (Keller) Breysacher. His father was born in Strasburg, Germany, graduated at Heidelburg University of that country, and later emigrated to America, locating in Ohio, where he practiced medicine for a number of years. Sometime in the 30’s he moved to Missouri, located in St. Louis County, near the city of St. Louis, and there practiced medicine until he was very old. He spent the latter part of his days among his friends in Ohio. Dr. Augustus L. Breysacher passed his boyhood in St. Louis County, Mo., and supplemented his common-school education with a literary and classical course in St. Xavier’s College, Cincinnati, Ohio. He passed a rigid examination in the Missouri Medical College, St. Louis, and graduated from that institution in 1859. Receiving an immediate appointment as acting assistant surgeon in the United States army, he was sent out to “the Far West” border, Camp Alert, Kas., and his first year’s practice was among the soldiers on the frontier. At the end of one year he returned to St. Louis, Mo., and practiced medicine nine months. At this time the agitation of Civil War claimed the attention of all thinking men, and Dr. Breysacher cast his fate with the Confederacy. During his service of nearly four years, he was not an hour absent from duty, which was always on the field, as surgeon successively of battery, staff, brigade and corps, with Hardee. These services, rendered so faithfully, gave him a breadth and professional experience seldom afforded to any man. The surrender found him still at his post at Greenville, N. C. Soon after the war he located at Pine Bluff, Ark., and there for six years he was actively engaged in the practice of medicine. Removing then to Little Rock, he located permanently, identifying himself with the medical profession, of which he is an honored member. Recognizing the deficiency in the knowledge of medical science among the practitioners in many parts of the State, and the fact that no satisfactory advancement could be expected for years to come, unless the facilities for attaining such knowledge were placed close at hand, the Doctor became a strong advocate for having located in Little Rock a medical school. In this he was sustained by other leading physicians, and the result of the agitation was that he and seven others formed a joint-stock company, purchased a building, and opened the Medical Department of Arkansas Industrial University. This institution has grown beyond the hopes of its most sanguine advocates, until graduates from it practice not only in the city of Little Rock and over the State, but in neighboring States as well, and the fame of the institution is established. Dr. Breysacher has been professor of obstetrics ever since it was founded. He was married in 1867 to Miss Carrie D. Pynchon, of Huntsville, Ala., daughter of Edward E. Pynchon, a native of Massachusetts, and descendent of John Pynchon, “the worshipful major,” who founded the city of Springfield, A. D. 1635-40. Dr. Breysacher has three children: Harriett P., A. L., Jr., and Mabel. The Doctor is a member of the Arkansas State Medical Society, of which he has been treasurer since its organization, of the American Medical Association, and of the Pulaski County Medical Society. He was a delegate to the International Medical Congress at Philadelphia in 1876, and is a member of the Episcopal Church.