Alabama Pioneers Honored

BIOGRAPHY: Dr. David Leonidas Wilkinson born October 8, 1872

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Dr. David Leonidas Wilkinson (b. 1872)
Dr. David Leonidas Wilkinson

DAVID LEONIDAS WILKINSON, M. D.

BIOGRAPHY and GENEALOGY

(1872-1962)

Autauga, Butler and Wilcox County, Alabama

 

Dr. David Leonidas Wilkinson was physician to the Alabama Girls’ Industrial school He was a native of Gastonburg, Wilcox county, Alabama, and was born Oct. 8, 1872, the son of Dr. John Edward Wilkinson and Mary Eugenia Gaston. His father was one of the leading physicians of the State, practicing at Prattville, Alabama. He was born at Autaugaville, Ala., July 31, 1847, and was the son of Joseph Brady Wilkinson and Elizabeth Ann (Nicholson) Wilkinson. He was senior councilor of the State Medical Association, a Freemason, Knight of Pythias and Knight of Honor. The Wilkinsons are of English descent.

Our subject’s great-grandfather, General John Wilkinson, was a native of Maryland, coming to Maryville, Tennessee in the latter part of the eighteenth century. He was a prominent lawyer and surveyor, in the latter capacity having run the State line between North Carolina and Tennessee. He was attorney general of his State. He married Margaret Brown of Rockbridge county, Virginia.

Our subject’s mother was a daughter of David F. Gaston and Mary (Fluker) Gaston, the town of Gastonburg, Wilcox County, Alabama was named in his honor. He was a prominent planter, and represented Wilcox county in the legislature. He was the son of John Gaston and Mary Kilpatrick. John was the son of Hugh Gaston and Martha McClure, and Hugh was the son of John Gaston. This exhausts information as to names, but it is known that members of the family came to this country in the Mayflower.

Elizabeth Nicholson, our subject’s paternal grandmother, was the daughter of James Nicholson and Mary (Stone) Nicholson. James was the son of Harrison Nicholson and Lucinda Long. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and now lies buried at Tuskegee.

Dr. David L. Wilkinson was educated at the Southern university, his college honors being junior debate, orator and Kappa Alpha, graduating with the degree of bachelor of arts in 1892. In 1894 he graduated with first honors from the medical department of Tulane university in New Orleans, and took post-graduate work in two different courses at the New York Polyclinic. He began practice in Autauga county, where he was county health officer, but soon removed to Bolling, where he had charge of the physician’s work in the convict camps for three years. In 1897 he was appointed physician to the Alabama Girls’ Industrial school.

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Doctor Wilkinson was one of the best known young physicians in the State. He took an active and helpful interest in the different medical associations, and served a second term as president of his county association in 1904. He was a member of the American Medical association, and twice attended its sessions as a delegate.

He was well known through the medical press, having contributed a number of valuable treatises to the different journals. These also circulated in pamphlet form. Some of the best known are “Rabies and Hydrophobia in Alabama,” “Need of More Stringent Midwifery Laws,” “The Effects of the Modern Educational System Upon the Growth and Development of the Child,” “Result of the Examination of Over Two Thousand Young College Women.”

Doctor Wilkinson married, June 1, 1897, Mary S. Flowers, daughter of Francis A. Flowers and Carolyn T. (Woods) Flowers of Bolling, Butler County, Ala. Her father was a son of William Hampton Flowers, and he of Drewry, who was ordained a minister of the Methodist church by Bishop Asbury in 1816, and who was born in South Carolina in 1790.

To the marriage of Doctor and Mrs. Wilkinson by 1904 were born Carolyn Flowers Wilkinson, born June 16, 1898, died May 21, 1899; Eugenia Gaston Wilkinson, Oct. 14, 1900, and Francis Asbury Wilkinson, Sept. 6, 1902.

Doctor Wilkinson was a director in the Merchants and Planters’ bank. He was much interested in securing better laws for the protection of the public health. He was a member of the Methodist church, of which he was a steward and trustee, and was at one time superintendent of the Sunday school. He was a Democrat, a Mason and a Knight of Pythias.

 

SOURCES

1.Notable Men of Alabama: Personal and Genealogical, Volume 1 edited by Joel Campbell DuBose

2.Find A. Grave.com

 

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One comment

  1. I enjoyed reading this article. Studying family history has been a joy in my retirement.
    Rosalind Mitchell