William B Mullins

MULLINS, DEPHART, BALLINGER, ELPERN, HITCHCOCK, SUMMERALL

Posted By: Deb Barker (email)
Date: 12/12/2006 at 19:12:20

Nebraska, The Land and the People, Vol. 2

William B. Mullins, father of Dr. Charles L., was born in Kentucky, where he enjoyed educational advantages and subsequently was a teacher and a business man. He was a soldier in the Union army during the war between the states. At Blakesburg Iowa, he married Miss Anna M. Kephart, whose brother, Henry Kephart, went with the original wagon train on the Oregon trail to the Willamette Valley. The parents of Doctor Mullins moved to Winchester, Clark County, Missouri, where his father engaged in farming for a time, but later the family returned to Wapello County, Iowa. The father died at the age of seventy years, but the mother was of still sturdier constitution and survived into her eighty-fourth year. Of their family of three sons and three daughters Charles L. was the fourth in order of birth, the others being: William H., who lives in Missouri; Mary, who is the wife of C. W. Ballinger, of Oskaloosa, Iowa; R. B., who in 1883 was a cattleman in Wyoming, but is now engaged in the practice of dentistry at Fremont, Nebraska; and Sallie and Luzena.
Charles Love Mullins had some early schooling in Iowa, and later in Nebraska, where, when thirteen years old, he went to work on farms during the summer seasons, his school attendance for several years being confined to the winter months. He was ambitious as well as studious, and after securing employment in a drug store at Louisville, Nebraska, determined to take a course in pharmacy, and [p.453] was enabled to do it through his own thrift and self denial, managing to make his meager salary cover the expense. Just at this time the owner of the store was engaged in political affairs and needed an assistant, and the young clerk, with his pharmacy diploma, arranged to practice on a commission basis for a time, and by reason of these commissions was able to pay his way through medical college, completing his course and being graduated in 1891 from the old Omaha Medical College, now the medical department of the University of Nebraska.
Doctor Mullins commenced his medical practice at Gretna, near Omaha, removing eighteen months later to the village of Eagle in Cass County, in February, 1894, to Ansley in Custer County, and to Broken Bow in November, 1895, having been a resident of Nebraska since 1882. A general practitioner, Doctor Mullins has kept abreast of the times in medical science and pursued many special lines of study and research through post-graduate courses in the Chicago Polyclinic, the Chicago Post Graduate College, the Cook County (Illinois) Hospital, with Mayo Brothers at Rochester and in other recognized medical centers. During the first eighteen months after coming to Broken Bow Doctor Mullins was associated as a partner with Dr. R. C. Talbot, but since then has been alone in practice and has had a wide experience and has served ably and honorably in many important public positions.
When the Spanish-American war was declared he entered into military service in the First Nebraska Infantry as a captain in the United States Medical Corps, and served one year in the Philippine Islands, his next term of military service being in the capacity of examining surgeon for Custer County, on the draft board, during the World war. In early practice he served as pension examiner and as coroner of Custer County made up the first coroner's docket. He has repeatedly served as president of the Custer County Medical Society, in 1918 was president of the Nebraska State Medical Association, is a member of the American Medical Association and of other scientific bodies. For many years he has been an active force in Democratic politics in the state, serving long as chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee and as a member of the Democratic State Central Committee.
Doctor Mullins has two sons and one daughter; Tom P., Charles L., and Mary A., the youngest, who is the wife of Gerald Elpern, of Los Angeles, California. The elder son, Dr. Tom P. Mullins, who was born in Janusry, 1891, is a dental surgeon at Merna, Nebraska. The second son, Capt. Charles L. Mullins, who was born in September, 1892, is an instructor at West Point, appointed to West Point Military Academy by United States Senator Hitchcock, and a graduate in 1917. He served on the staff of Major General Morton, later on the staff of Major General Summerall, received promotion and special work in the United States Infantry School at Columbus, Georgia, and at present is attached to the Military Academy.
Doctor Mullins is a thirty-second degree Mason, and he belongs also to the order of Knights of Pythias. All his life a busy man, his interests are still numerous and absorbing, but he occasionally finds time for a fishing trip, this being his favorite method of relaxation.