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T. LEE AGNEW, A. B., M. D. One of the leading members of the Southern Illinois medical profession, who has held many positions of trust and has discharged the duties that have been delegated to him in a manner calculated to win and maintain the confidence and esteem of his entire community, is T. Lee Agnew, A. B., M. D., president of the Union County Medical Society, whose field of practice since 1900 has been the city of Anna. Dr. Agnew was born at Makanda, Jackson county, Illinois, in 1871, and is a son of Dr, Frank M. and Harriet E. (Elmore) Agnew. Dr. Agnew's father, who is the oldest practicing physician in Jackson county, was born in Ohio, in 1840, and his mother in Tennessee in 1846, and both are now living in the town of Makanda, whence they came as young people.
T. Lee Agnew attended the public schools of Jackson county, after leaving which he attended Ewing College for three years in Franklin county. In 1888 he went to Jackson, Tennessee, and entered the Southwestern Baptist University, from which he was graduated in 1892 with the degree of A. B., having been a member of the Alpha Theta Chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity. While at Ewing College he was phytogian, and at Jackson was a member of the Appolonian Literary Society, winning the gold medal for oratory. Although greatly interested in his studies, Dr. Agnew did not neglect his physical needs, and was one of the best shortstops and pitchers that the Jackson baseball team ever had. In 1892 he entered Marion Sims College of Medicine, at St. Louis, which is now connected with the St. Louis University, and he was graduated therefrom in 1895 with the degree of M. D., having taken a special course in internal medicines. During the next five years he was
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engaged in practice with his father at Makanda, and he then came to Anna, which he has since made his home, and where he has built up an extensive practice. Dr. Agnew is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and the Modern Woodmen, of which he is medical examiner, as he is also of the Aetna Life Insurance Company, the Bankers Life Assurance Company of Des Moines, Iowa; the Northwestern Life Assurance Company, the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Travelers Life Insurance Company and the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. He is president of the Union County Medical Society, of which he was secretary for four years and one of the reorganizers after it had been dissolved, and is connected with the state and national bodies. As a member of the board of health, Dr. Agnew successfully handled several smallpox epidemics, and his labors here in every way have been conducive to the public welfare. His politics are those of the Democratic party, but he has not found time from his professional duties to enter the public field as an active participant, although he is deeply interested in all that pertains to the progress and development of his section.
January 18, 1899, Dr. Agnew was married to Miss Edna E. Ellington, who was born in Jackson, Tennessee, at which place he met her as a schoolmate. They are consistent members of the First Baptist Church, in which he has been a deacon for some years, and he was for a long period associated with Sunday school work, acting as teacher, secretary and superintendent. A man of scholarly tastes and able to throw light on almost any subject connected with his profession, yet drawing from a fund of rich experience and ripened knowledge, Dr. Agnew is also a man of rare sympathy, great kindness of heart and magnetic personality. Possessing a fine presence, a cheerful manner and an invigorating voice, he is destined for great things in the happy future that stretches before him, as a reward for his years of faithful, painstaking preparation for the noblest work in which a man can engage.