"COUNTIES OF MORGAN, MONROE & BROWN, INDIANA. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL."
CHARLES BLANCHARD, EDITOR. CHICAGO: F. A. BATTEY & CO. PUBLISHERS. 1884.
F. A. BATTEY. F. W. TEPPLE
BROWN TOWNSHIP AND MOORESVILLE, MORGAN COUNTY, INDIANA
PAGE 229
PHILIP MCNAB, M.D., a native of Morgan County, Ind., only son of Henry and
Casandra (Evans) McNab, natives of Kentucky, and of Scotch and Welsh
extraction respectively, was born July 12, 1833. Philip was reared upon a
farm and educated at the Northwestern Christian University at Indianapolis.
In the summer of 1859, he entered the office of Dr. Ford at Wabash, Ind.,
and began the study of medicine, and the following fall and winter took a
full course of lectures at Ann Arbor (Mich.) University. Returning to
Wabash for the summer, he attended the succeeding fall and winter at Ann
Arbor, from whence he graduated in chemistry in the spring of 1861, and in
May of this year (1861), he opened an office at La Gro, Ind., and practiced
medicine for the next two years. In March, 1863, he entered Long Island
Hospital College, Brooklyn, and in June, 1863, graduated therefrom with the
degree of Doctor of Medicine, and after another short stay at La Gro removed
to Indianapolis, where in the beginning of 1864, he formed a partnership
with Dr. R. T. Brown, Professor of Natural Sciences in the Northwestern
Christian University, and for four years following pursued his profession of
physician and surgeon. In the fall of 1868, he came into Morgan County, and
the following year opened an office in West Newton, in Marion County, where
he remained about three years. In November, 1872, he removed to
Mooresville, Ind., where he immediately took rank among the leading men of
his profession. On July 29, 1861, he was married at Bethel, Me., to Mary,
daughter of Aaron and Rubie Mason, of that State, and by this union he has
had born to him two children--Solon Mason, now a student at Butler
University, and Howard Barlow, a resident of Arizona Territory. Dr. McNab
is respected for the knowledge he has gained in his profession, in the
practice of which he has enjoyed more than ordinary experience. Some years
since, he was associated with Dr. L. D. Waterman, of Indianapolis, as expert
in the chemical analysis of the stomach of a Mrs. Dr. Beason, who, it was
alleged, had been murdered by her husband at Kokomo, Ind., and was one of
the most celebrated cases of the day. Later on, in 1873, he was employed in
the same capacity in the case of Basil Bailey, another notorious case, at
Frankfort, Ind., and was the author of the exhaustive synopsis of the
analysis published in the Mooresville "Enterprise", June 19, 1873. Upon the
analysis in the case first named, he was highly complimented by the
celebrated Prof. Blainey, of Chicago, who fully indorsed it in every
particular. The subject of this sketch is a man of versatile ability. His
lectures on "Medical Sciences" before the society of physicians and
surgeons, upon Physiology before the high school, and upon temperance before
the people, are noted for their purity of diction and originality of thought
and eloquence of delivery. At this writing (November 1883), Dr. McNab is
Secretary of the Mooresville Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons; member of
both County and State Medical Societies, an active Republican in politics,
an ardent "Prohibitionist," a consistent member of the Christian Church, and
in the enjoyment of a lucrative practice in the community where he is best
known, and therefore most highly esteemed.
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