Dr. William Reuben Tennison

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of Dr. William Reuben Tennison. Born March 18, 1855, in a log cabin out in rural east Cherokee County.

Now you might look at that log cabin and think, well, that's a humble beginning for a man who was about to spend the better part of a century keeping Cherokee County on its feet. And you'd be right. Young William Reuben Tennison left that county, made his way to St.

Louis, and earned himself a degree from St. Louis Medical School in 1878. Then he came back home.

Not to some fine city office, not to hang a shingle somewhere glamorous. He came back and set up shop right in the home of his father, Mathew Tennison. Started where he started.

That tells you something about the man before he's even seen his first patient. And then he worked. For the next fifty-eight years, he provided health care for the people of Cherokee County.

Fifty-eight years. He treated patients who could pay, and he treated indigent patients who could not, and the marker makes a point of saying that second group was treated without payment. No asterisk, no ledger to settle later.

Just care. He continued treating patients until shortly before his death on November 12, 1936. That log cabin in east Cherokee County produced a man who gave fifty-eight years of his life to the people around him, and asked nothing from those who had nothing to give.

That's not a tall tale. That's just the plain, extraordinary truth.

What the marker says

(March 18, 1855 -- November 12, 1936) Born in a log cabin in rural east Cherokee County, William Reuben Tennison earned a degree from St. Louis Medical School in 1878. He returned home to open an office in the home of his father, Mathew Tennison. For the next fifty-eight years he provided health care for the people of Cherokee County, often treating indigent patients without payment. He continued to treat patients until shortly before his death.