My Genealogy Hound

Dr. Matthew J. Young was born on September 10, 1854, in Hamilton County, Ill., near the town of McLeansboro. His father, Matthew M. Young, a native of Tennessee, was a lawyer, and said by those acquainted with him to have been not only a profound scholar in legal lores, but also of brilliant attainments in the sciences and polite arts. He claimed kindred to the celebrated Dr. Edward Young, author of “Night Thoughts,” and was a descendant of those English who settled in the northern part of Ireland. The family originally immigrated to South Carolina, and from thence to Tennessee. In 1850, actuated by the spirit of adventure, he came to Missouri, where he met and wedded Miss Olive, daughter of Braxton J. Inge, then residing at St. Clair. From thence he moved to Illinois, where his eldest son, the subject of this memoir, was born, and from there to Alabama, where he began the practice of law. During the rebellion his sympathies were with the South, and during the first year of the Confederacy he acted as treasurer, subsequently holding different positions of trust and honor. On the fall of the Confederate Government, he again went to Missouri, where he remained until his death, which occurred in 1876. Dr. Young received the rudiments of his education at the Bolivar Academy, in Madisonville, Tenn., and continued his studies, after the removal of his parents to Missouri, at the Steelville Academy, located in Crawford County. From this place he went to St. Louis, and became a pupil of Prof. James T. Clark, a gentleman qualified in every respect for the instruction of youth. Returning to the home of his parents, he began the study of medicine, and graduated from the Missouri Medical College in March, 1876. Leaving his alma mater, he began, when not quite twenty-two years old, the practice of his profession at Richland, Mo. On December 13, 1876, he was united in marriage to Miss Ann E. Barnes, youngest daughter of Capt. James H. Barnes, a Virginian, and one of the pioneers of Franklin County. In January, 1877, accompanied by his bride, he left Missouri and located in Collin County, Tex., and, although enjoying a fair reputation and practice there, he became dissatisfied with the mixed element and unstable condition of society in Texas, occasioned by the extent and class of immigration, and the following year he located at Bingen, Ark., where he remained three years, enjoying a reputable practice, but his health becoming impaired by malarial influences, he decided to seek a more salubrious situation. Returning to his boyhood home, in Missouri, he located at his present home, where, for the past six years, he has enjoyed a fair share of public confidence and patronage. The Doctor is a Democrat, but liberal and conservative, and claims to be devoid of sectarian and political prejudices; he is an optimist in all things, and considers his profession the most exalted calling a man can pursue; that while by its practice he obtains a livelihood it should be considered as a great morality rather than a business. For a number of years he has been a member of the Masonic order, and recently has identified himself with the order of United Workman, assuming, on the institution of the order in his town, the functions of medical examiner and recorder.