Cleave’s
Biographical Cyclopædia of
Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons
By Egbert Cleave
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
ILLER,
CHARLES W., M. D., of Onargo, Ills., was born in Lee, Oneida county,
N. Y., February 20th, 1842.He comes from an old
stock, his grandfather having removed from Massachusetts to Fort
Stanwix, N. Y. (now Rome), in 1794 When still an infant, his parents
removed from Lee to Rockford, Ills., where he lived with them, working
on their farm till the age of twenty-one.His education was
commenced at the common district school, but completed at the High
School at Rockford. His first step in life was to become a
school-teacher, which occupation, however, he soon abandoned for the
study of medicine, entering for this purpose the office of Dr. M. D.
Ogden, homœopathic physician at Rockford, in the spring of 1864 ;
but shortly afterwards enlisted in the United States Army, as
baud-master to a regiment. Having a considerable amount of leisure time,
he was able to profit by the many opportunities afforded him of studying
medicine and surgery until he was discharged in November, 1864. In the
winter of the same and following year, he entered the Hahnemann Medical
College at Chicago, Ills., going through a full course of lectures and
studies. He entered into a partnership, in 1865, with Dr. R. B. Clark,
at Racine, Wis. ; but the association, however, did not last much
more then half a year, as he felt it desirable to obtain his degree
before continuing the practice of his profession. He, therefore, again
entered the Medical College at Chicago, and happily obtained his
diploma, in the spring of the next year.On leaving college, he
felt that he had acquired sufficient knowledge of medicine to authorize
his commencing practice, and accordingly settled in Onargo, Ills., for
that purpose, remaining there for a few months only, when he made a
trial of Malton, in the same State. This latter place, however, not
answering his expectations, he resolved finally to establish himself
permanently in Onargo, whither he returned in the autumn of the same
year, and where he still resides, having by his industry, skill, and
successful treatment of disease been able to secure a large and
profitable practice, gain the confidence of the most influential
citizens, and establish the reputation, admitted in every quarter and
freely endorsed by the most prominent members of the medical faculty, of
being by far the best qualified physician in the city.From this it appears
that Dr. Miller, in spite of a somewhat checquered life, and the many
changes which circumstances have compelled him to make, has succeeded in
obtaining an amount of knowledge hardly to be expected tinder the
circumstances. This is probably owing to his strong and rapid perceptive
powers, retentive memory, and good judgment, which have permitted him to
master an abstruse and delicate science in the same time required by a
slow plodder to gain a knowledge of its rudiments.Source
: Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and
Surgeons By Egbert Cleave