William Parker Best

 Adding some biographies of Fairfleld people from the past, mainly because it needs to be on this blog someplace. This one is about William P. Best, who was a somewhat influential physician back in the day when a shot of whiskey was the only way to keep a patient from screaming.

Doctor Best was ... well, he was the Best doctor around.

Here's the pilfered information: 

One of the able medical practitioners of Dublin, Wayne County, William P. Best, is a native of Fairfield, born August 3, 1864.

(He) is the eldest of the three sons of Frank P. and Mary V. (Ogden) Best, the others being Frank M. and Henry T. Best.

For several years Best's father, Frank P. Best, owned and operated a gristmill in Fairfield  and for a number of terms he served as township trustee. He was a patriotic citizen, as were all his near relatives, and his brother, Milton, a Union soldier, was killed while fighting at Chickamauga.

Dr. Best and his two brothers received excellent educational advantages in the schools of Fairfield, and all have since taken degrees, the latter two being Doctors of Philosophy.

William P. Best was 17 when he took charge of a school, and his winters for several years were passed in teaching. During this period, he commenced the study of medicine, and in the fall of 1886 he matriculated in the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati. 

In 1888 he established himself in practice at Mount Carmel, Indiana, and in the spring of 1893 he moved to Indianapolis. A few months later he came to Dublin, where he opened an office. He was admitted to membership in the Indiana State Eclectic Medical Association the same year.

The marriage of Dr. Best and Miss Harriet Dennett was solemnized at the home of her parents, John and Lucretia Dennett, of Brookville, June 23, 1887.

Best died in 1938 and is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery, Brookville.

• Lewis Publishing Company. Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana (Volume 2) . Kindle Edition.