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Elbert Augustus Ainsworth, M. D.

Elbert Augustus Ainsworth, M. D. a practicing physician of West Union, was born in Brookfield, Madison County, N. Y., July 19, 1819, and is a son of the Rev. Mr. Sorannus Corbin and Caroline M. (Hawkins) Ainsworth. He was a Baptist minister, was born in Cazenovia, Madison County, N.Y., on the 22d of January, 1811, and died February 8, 1888. The Doctor's mother was born in Meriden County, Conn., on the 12th of March, 1811, and her death occurred October 9, 1885. Both spent their last days in the Empire State.

The subject of this sketch received liberal education advantages in his youth, attended the Cortland Normal School, Homer Academy and Syracuse University from which institution he was graduated, after which he took a course in the medical department in the same university, which was formerly the old Geneva Medical College, in February, 1874, and at once began practice in Cazenovia. Soon after he made choice of a companion on life's journey, leading to the marriage altar Miss Ella M. Stanton, their union being celebrated in Syracuse, N.Y., on the 6th of April, 1876. She was born, reared and educated in Syracuse, her father Sidney Stanton, being also a native of Syracuse, where he was extensively engaged in the marble business for many years. The Doctor and his wife have become parents of two children, a son and daughter: Sidney C., born in Syracuse, January 6, 1877, and Fannie Louise, born on the 28th of March, 1879, in Cazenovia, N.Y.

The Doctor continued to practice his chosen profession in Cazenovia until June 1, 1882, when on account of ill health he severed his business relations in the East, and removed to Iowa, taking up his residence in West Union, where on June 11, 1882, he formed a co-partnership with Dr. S. E. Robinson, which continued until January 1881, where he has been in practice continuously since. He is a member of West Union Lodge, No. 121.  K. of P., in which he held the office of Chancellor several terms, and of which he was the first Past Chancellor. In politics the Doctor is a supporter of the Republican principles, and his wife is a member of the Episcopal Church. They are widely known in this community, and have many warm friends in its best social circles.

The Ainsworth family of which our subject is a member, was founded in America in early Colonial times by three brothers of English birth, who crossed the Atlantic to this county. The brother who settled in Connecticut, is the ancestor from whom the Ainsworths of Madison County, N.Y. are descended. The paternal great-grandfather of our subject was a soldier of the War of the Revolution, and died a prisoner on board an English man-of-war.  His son Abiel Ainsworth, the grandfather of the Doctor, was born in Connecticut, and removed with his parents in his youth to New Woodstock, Madison County, N.Y., where he married Artemissa Stowell, and reared a family, from whom the New York Ainsworths and their descendants trace their genealogy. The mother of the Doctor was of English and Scottish descent. Her father was born in Connecticut, of English ancestry, there married a lady of Scottish descent, and removed to Greenwich Station, Ohio  in early life.

The Doctor is well up in his profession, and though he has not engaged in practice in this county as long as many of his competitors, he has succeeded in building up a very satisfactory practice among the best people of the community, and richly deserves their liberal patronage.