My Genealogy Hound

J. A. Prieto, M. D., a resident and practitioner of Obion County, Tenn., was born April 16, 1820, in Cienfuego, Cuba, his father being an attorney of that place forty odd years before his death. Our subject graduated from the literary department of a college at Havana, Cuba, at the age of seventeen and entered the medical university of the same place in the fall of the same year, and graduated January 12, 1842, with the highest honors the university conferred. He was immediately appointed to practice in the navy by the governor of Cuba, and held the position four years, practicing in the meantime in Asia, Africa, Russia, on the Red Sea, South America, California, Mexico, Porto Rico, and many of the islands of the Atlantic, successfully treating the diseases small-pox, measles, erysipelas, typhoid malaria, Panama fever, cholera Asiatico, yellow fever, etc. He returned to Cuba in 1847, where he practiced until 1852. He then joined Gen. Laupes’ expedition, and was captured by the government officers March 4, 1854, but made his escape March 15, 1854, and embarked for the United States, landing at New York City April 1, 1854. He went to Boston, Mass., but soon went to New Orleans and practiced there in the hospital during the yellow fever epidemic of 1855. In 1856 he was appointed by the President of the United States to practice in the United States Army, as assistant surgeon, serving in that capacity about ten years on the plains. During the late war he practiced in the hospital at Memphis, and after the close of the war came to Obion County and practiced in the county four and a half years. In December, 1869, he went to Mississippi, where he remained eight years. His wife died of yellow fever while there and he, shortly after, visited his old home at Cienfuego, Cuba, and afterward traveled over the whole of Europe. He returned to Obion County, in 1881, where he has since practiced. He is a member of the board of health at Nashville, and practiced during the small-pox epidemic of 1885. His first wife was Mary Shearon, of Obion County. She died November 30, 1878, leaving one child, Jose. After his return from his European travels he, October 5, 1881, wedded Mollie Rivers. He is worth about $7,000, all of which he has made since 1881. He is a Democrat and a member of the Christian Church, and is a very skillful and able practitioner.