My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM F. MIRANDA, M. D., of Medway, Clark County, is, as his name denotes, of Spanish descent, and traces his ancestry to Gen. Miranda, one of the followers of Cortez in Mexico. For several generations the Mirandas lived in the South, and it is not strange that our subject possesses a polished manner and pleasing address, the race from which he sprung being noted for grace in physical movement and our Southern States producing high types of courtesy. He is a faithful student, diligent in the duties of his profession, which he thoroughly understands, and in which he has proved very successful. He has an extensive practice, the territory to which he is called including the contiguous portions of Clark, Miami, Montgomery and Greene Counties.

To such an extent is everyone influenced by the habits and occupations of his ancestors that it is not amiss to devote a brief space to the progenitors of Dr. Miranda, before outlining his own life history. Jonathan Miranda, a native of Virginia, was a non-commissioned officer in the War of 1812. He was an early settler in Bracken County, Ky., and followed the occupations of farming and hunting. In 1827 he came to Clark County, Ohio, with his family, driving through from his former home and locating in Pike Township. He purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, pursued a successful career in life and became quite well-to-do. On the Northampton and Donaldsonville Pike he started an inn called the Black Horse Tavern. The farm and the schoolhouse upon it still bear the same name. On this farm Isaac Miranda was reared to manhood, he having been born in Bracken County, Ky., in 1817, and having been ten years old when the family removed from the Blue Grass State.

The education of Isaac Miranda was obtained in the primitive log schoolhouse, and at the age of seventeen years he began to labor as a pedagogue, following the profession for seven years, at the same time studying medicine. He continued to acquire knowledge of therapeutics until he became a practicing physician, in 1842 locating in Allisonville, Marion County, Ind. He remained in that place three years, building up a large practice and proving successful in his chosen avocation. Not content, however, with his standing, he went to Philadelphia in 1850, entering Jefferson Medical College and receiving a diploma from that institution in 1851. He then located at New Carlisle, Ohio, and began a professional career there, which grew in extent and gave him the leading position among the medical men of the community. Having become financially independent, and feeling that he was entitled to greater ease, he practically retired some five years since, doing nothing but office work for old patrons.

Isaac Miranda owns a farm two miles from New Carlisle, together with other real estate, and is a shareholder in the Bank of New Carlisle. For several years he held the office of Township Clerk and also served on the School Board. Politically, he is a Democrat, and religiously, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, holding the office of Trustee. Being one of the oldest practicing physicians in the county, his memory extends to the time when the common method of travel was on horseback, and when in Indiana he often swam rivers in order to reach his patients.

The maternal grandfather of our subject was Abraham Garver, a native of Maryland, who came to Ohio in a very early day. He owned four hundred acres of land in Bethel Township, Clark County, and was a very successful agriculturist. His daughter, Elizabeth, was also born in Maryland, and became the wife of Dr. Isaac Miranda, to whom she has borne seven children. The name of our subject stands midway on the family roll; Benjamin, the first-born, died when eight years old; Sarah E., in infancy; Martha J., in 1878, at the age of twenty-eight years, being the wife of William H. Evans; Mrs. Mary E. Whaley lives in Warren, Trumbull County; Mrs. Anna K. Miles lives in New Carlisle; Carrie A. is still with her parents in that place. The mother has now reached the age of sixty-seven years.

The eyes of our subject opened to the light in New Carlisle, January 22, 1851, and his boyhood was passed under favorable circumstances of home surroundings and school privileges. He acquired a good education in the common and high schools, and when eighteen years old began the drug business, continuing in it at intervals for about six years. In 1872 he engaged as a clerk in the wholesale and retail drug house of W. A. and I. N. Patterson, at Indianapolis, Ind. About two years later he bought a pharmacy in the same city, which he carried on until 1875, when he sold out and returned to his former home. He then began the study of medicine under his father’s guidance, and in the fall entered the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, continuing his studies in that institution until February, 1877, when he was graduated.

The young Doctor returned to the parental roof and practiced with his father a year, after which he opened an office at Westville, Champaign County. A year later he returned again to New Carlisle, where he remained until July, 1880, when he located at Medway, where he worked up a good practice, which he abandoned in the fall of 1885 to become a citizen of Kansas. He had been attracted by the promise of a newer and wider field of labor, and locating at Attica, Harper County, he built up an extensive practice and gained an excellent reputation as a successful practitioner. Pay was slow, however, in the new country and in the spring of 1888 Mr. Miranda resumed his position in Ohio, buying the same property which he had formerly occupied and taking up his practice where he had left it. Since that time he has remained at Medway, which, it is probable, will be his permanent home.

At the home of the bride, in Iowa County, Iowa, May 2, 1875, Dr. Miranda was united in marriage with Miss Josephine Pine. That charming lady was born in Huntington County, Pa., but acquired her education at Polo, Ill., her father having removed to the Prairie State. After completing her studies, she engaged in teaching, a profession for which her culture, tact and amiable, yet firm, disposition fitted her. She has borne her husband four children, and they have been called upon to part with three, the only survivor being a son, Max. Waller died at the age of three years; Bessie, at the age of six; and Winona, at the age of four. In 1871, William Pine, father of Mrs. Miranda, removed from Ogle County, Ill., to Keswick, Iowa, where he engaged in farming and has become well known in that line of work. He had formerly been employed at the trade of a blacksmith.

The culture and judgment of Dr. Miranda are utilized by his fellow-men, who have called upon him to serve as School Director, an office which he is now filling creditably. He is Past Grand of the Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at New Carlisle, and belongs to the Clark County Medical Society. His judgment regarding matters political agrees with the principles advanced by the Democratic platform, and he gives his vote to the candidates of that party.