Biographical Details
Date of Birth: September 26, 1820
Birth Location: Princeton, IN, USA
Graduation Year(s): 1842
Degree(s) Earned: Bachelors
Date of Death: August 18, 1887
Death Location: Topeka, KS, USA
David Wasson Stormont
Life Experience
David Wasson Stormont was born in Princeton, Indiana. He graduated from IU in 1842. He studied at Indiana’s Princeton Seminary, where he also taught for one year. He began his study of medicine at the medical college in Cincinnati, Ohio, but received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He began practicing medicine in Grand View, Illinois.
In 1862, Stormont moved to Kansas, where he became one of that state’s leading physicians. He worked tirelessly for improved public health and sanitary conditions. He was a member and supporter of the Presbyterian church and one of the founders of the Topeka City Library. He also owned the Stormont Building on Sixth Street, founded the Stormont Medical Library, and was a stockholder in the Topeka Bank, the Central Bank, the Topeka Investment Company, and Topeka’s streetcar and water companies. He was appointed one of the first members of the Kansas State Board of Health, was a member of the American Medical Association for the last twenty-five years of his life, and served as secretary and president of the Kansas Medical Society.
Stormont died of exhaustion following three separate attacks in rapid succession of neuralgia of the stomach and bowels. This was an ailment he had suffered off and on for forty years.
Marriage and Family
In 1848, Stormont married Jane Smith. She was the daughter of Mexican War Colonel Tom Smith. Their union produced no children. They were married for thirty-nine years.
Interesting Anecdote
Stormont’s eulogist wrote about him that “no man can look over [his] busy life and point to a single spot that is touched with dishonor....Topeka owes more to [him] than she is aware of; he was one of those quiet and unpretentious men who went about doing good without making a noise about it.”
References
- Wylie
- Findagrave.com
- files.usgwarchives.net/in/gibson/schools
- Topeka Daily Capital 08/19/1887
- Gil R. Stormont (1914) History of Gibson County Indiana (Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Co.)