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JOHN W. VICK, M. D. The medical profession is one of the learned callings that requires of a man unswerving devotion, conscientious performance of duty and untiring pursuit of further knowledge. Dr. John W. Vick is a physician whose record is marked not only by skilled experiences, but by faithfulness to ambition, for although a score of years intervened between the beginning of his medical studies and the fruition of his efforts, he did not allow himself to be discouraged, but persevered, and for nearly twenty-eight years has been engaged in active practice. He has lived in Williamson county since 1852, in which year his father, the venerable Samuel S. Vick, of Marion, came hither from Logan county, Kentucky, where he had married Martha J. Newton, February 6, 1848.
Samuel S. Vick was born in Davidson county, Tennessee, June 23, 1827. His father was Josiah Vick, who followed his son to Illinois and died in Williamson county about 1868. He was born in one of the Carolinas, of Scotch and Irish lineage, was a planter, and was descended from Colonial stock. Branches of the family scattered throughout the South, and historic Vicksburg, Mississippi, is named in honor of one of them. Josiah Vick married a Miss Fuqua, into which family Governor Beckham of Kentucky married, and this family is also one of the old and aristocratic French families of the South. Both Josiah and his wife passed away about the same date, and their children were Samuel S.; Robert, who died in Kentucky, leaving a family; Josiah, who moved to Texas and reared a family before his death; Mrs. Lydia Grayson, who died in Williamson county; Wesley, who also passed away here, never having married; George, who still resides in this county; Monroe, who died at Anna, Illinois; Nathaniel, who lives in Massac county; and Susan, who died at DuQuoin, Illinois, the wife of Frank Roy.
Samuel S. Vick married Martha J. Newton, daughter of John Newton, her people being farmers of the Corncracker state. Their children were as follows: Dr. John W., born March 6, 1849, the day following the inauguration of President Zachary Taylor; Rebecca, who married William Edwards, of Marion, lllinois; Joe, a druggist of Herrin, who married a Miss Eubanks; Paralee, the wife of Willis J. Aikman, vice president of the Marion State and Savings Bank and one of the foremost men of the pioneer families of the county; Alice, who married John M. Cline, leading drug merchant of Marion, and also a member of one of Williamson county's pioneer families; and Dora, who married Dr. Evans and resides in Marion.
John W. Vick obtained his literary education in the schools of Marion and began the study of medicine while serving as a drug clerk in that city. He served an apprenticeship there with Dr. A. N. Lodge and when ready for college entered the Missouri Medical College, now a part of the Washington University, of St. Louis. After a time he decided to engage in practice, secured a license from the proper board in Illinois and located in Marion, then in Carterville, and did not return to complete a medical course in school for nearly twenty years. He then attended Vanderbilt University at Nashville and graduated there in 1894. He came to Carterville in 1882, in time, to plant the first shade trees set out on the townsite, and to take an interest in all that pertained to the making of a new substantial town. He was president of the school board for twenty years, of the board of health for a like period and is one of the early members of the Williamson County Medical Society and its president for several years. He is a member of the Illinois State and Southern Illinois Medical Associations, and
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has served as president of the Carterville Building and Loan Association since its organization. Dr. Vick is a Democrat in politics, but he has never entered the public field, although his father has been prominently known in positions of honor and trust. Samuel S. Vick was active in Williamson county's political field during the years precedent and subquent to the Civil war. He was an overseer of slaves in Kentucky, as were several of his brothers, and he is said to have left the South because "a negro was considered of more value or consequence than a white man." He was brought up a Democrat and remained with that party in the face of its embarrassments of the period of the war. He was first chosen constable of his precinct of Williamson county and was subsequently appointed deputy sheriff and then city police judge of Marion. In 1868 he was appointed master in chancery and was next elected justice of the peace. In 1865 he took the third census of the county.
Dr. John W. Vick was married in Jackson county, Illinois, May 8, 1872, to Miss Mary A. Snider, daughter of the successful farmer and stockman, Ephraim Snider, who was a Southern man. Mr. Snider married a daughter of David Herrin, of Herrin's Prairie, which family is mentioned on another page of this volume. Dr. and Mrs. Vick have had the following children: Callie L., the wife of Monroe Colp, of Carterville, lllinois; Samuel Snider, who is engaged in the drug business in Carterville, married Grace Davis and has a daughter, Mary Elizabeth; Miss Kate H., a teacher in the Carterville schools; and John W., now a student in pharmacy in the Northwestern University, Chicago.