My Genealogy Hound

L. R. Stark, M. D., is one of the leaders of his profession in Little Rock, Ark., and a physician, whose practice is among the largest in the city. He was born in the “Palmetto State,” in 1841, and was a student in the military school of his native State at the time she seceded from the Union, and with a detachment of cadets was ordered to Morris Island, they being the only available troops South Carolina had at the time of secession. Dr. Stark was appointed one of the cannoneers, and was one of the men who fired on the “Star of the West,” which act was the immediate cause of the opening of hostilities between the States. As soon as the regular troops of the State had time to organize, the cadets were sent back to school and Dr. Stark graduated from the same in 1862. Immediately after this event he joined Ferguson’s battery as lieutenant of light artillery, but resigned this position shortly after the battle of Mission Ridge, and re-entered the service as adjutant of the Tenth South Carolina Infantry, remaining such until the close of the war. He was wounded once at the battle of Franklin, Tenn. After his return from the war, he took up the study of medicine, and for some time studied under a preceptor, R. F. Michel, M. D., in Montgomery, Ala.; then he entered the Charity Hospital of New Orleans, and after graduating from the New Orleans School of Medicine, located in Morehouse Parish, La., and practiced his profession there until his removal to Little Rock, in 1878. He is filling the chair of gynecology in the medical department of the Arkansas Industrial University, and is a member of the State Medical Society, and also of the Little Rock Medical Society. He is also a Master Mason. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Cannon, a native of Arkansas, has borne him four children, one of whom, named Mary, survives. The Doctor is a son of Thomas T. and Caroline (Raoul) Stark, the former being a physician and a graduate of South Carolina College. The grandfather was born in that State, and was an attorney-at-law. The maternal grandfather, Jean Louis Raoul de Champmanoir, was born and educated in France. After graduating in medicine in Paris, he was forced to leave his country, on account of his devotion to the Bourbon cause. The maternal grandmother was also of French extraction, being a Huguenot.