Dr. James O. Ristine

RISTINE, BURTON, GRAY

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 5/5/2010 at 21:11:27

History of Jackson County, Iowa, James W. Ellis, 1910.

JAMES OSCAR RISTINE, M. D.

Dr. James Oscar Ristine, a physician and surgeon of Maquoketa, whose conscientious performance of every professional duty and strict conformity to a high standard of professional ethics have brought him the unqualified regard of the medical fraternity as well as the general public, was born in Crawfordsville, Montgomery county, Indiana, July 1, 1865, his parents being Jacob G. and Frances A. (Gray) Ristine, natives of Ohio and of Montgomery county, Indiana, respectively. In his boyhood days the father accompanied his parents to Marion, Linn county, Iowa, at which time the state was still under territorial government. On reaching early manhood he went to Indiana where he was married and later enlisted for service in the Union army, with which he continued throughout the entire period of the Civil war, doing duty with Company G, Seventy-second regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He took part in many hotly contested engagements and was wounded at the battle of Lookout Mountain. At the close of the war he located in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he resided until 1879, when he came west to Iowa, settling in Jones county. He purchased a farm in Rome township, on which he resided until the later '80s, when he removed to Tama county, where he has since made his home. At the present time he is located in Buckingham and is living retired, enjoying in well earned rest the fruits of his former labor. Dr. Ristine spent his youthful days in his parents' home, and his early education was afforded by the public schools. He afterward attended the State University at Iowa City, and there won the professional degree on the completion of the medical course. In the meantime, at the age of eighteen years, he had engaged in teaching in Tama county and for ten or twelve years was closely and successfully identified with educational work. He imparted readily and clearly to others the knowledge that he had acquired, and under his guidance the school of which he had control made steady progress. While principal of the Chelsea schools he gave his attention during those hours which are usually termed leisure to the reading of medicine under the direction of Dr. C. P. Coulsen, and in the fall of 1893, m order further to qualify for active practice, he entered the medical department of the State University and was graduated with the class of 1896.
Immediately afterward Dr. Ristine located at Iron Hill, Jackson county, where he took up the active work of the profession, and during the nine years which he there passed he succeeded in building up a large and lucrative practice and gained a reputation which constituted an introduction to Maquoketa's public, when he removed to the latter city. He has here resided since 1905, and in the four years which have come and gone he has built up an enviable practice. He is skilled in surgery as well as in knowledge of remedial agencies and since his graduation has carried on an independent line of study and research which has greatly broadened his knowledge and promoted his efficiency. He is a member of the Jackson County Medical Society and the Iowa State Medical Society, as well as of the American Medical Association.
On the 16th of July, 1892, Dr. Ristine was united in marriage to Miss Lulu May Burton, of Chelsea, Iowa, and unto this union have been born three children, Myrle, Frances, and Leonard.
Dr. Ristine gives his political support to the democratic party and is serving for the third term as coroner of Jackson county. Otherwise he has never sought nor desired office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his professional duties, which are of ever increasing extent and importance