Biography - Howell Mangum
HOWELL Y. MANGUM, M. D. As an estimable gentleman, as well as a successful physician. Dr. H. Y. Mangum is well known. He is honest and conscientious in his dealings with his patients, upright in all his business transactions, and, courteous in his intercourse with other members of the profession, he commands the respect of all those with whom he is at all intimately associated, and has much more than a merely local renown. He is the son of Henry L. Mangum, whose birth occurred in North Carolina in the year 1814, and although possessed of sound common sense, his literary education was very limited. He was taken with the Western fever and settled on an unimproved farm in Johnson County, Ill., on which land he spent the remainder of his life in the arduous, yet to him congenial, occupation of farming. He was married in 1832 to Miss Elizabeth, a daughter of Robert Barnett, of Tennessee, and the fruits of their union was a family of twelve children: William A.; George W. and Andrew J. (twins); Howell Y., the subject of this sketch; Thomas S. and Robert F. (deceased); Basil G.; John W.; Henry F.; Wiley Hamilton, deceased; Elizabeth J.; and Martha A., deceased. The wife and mother died in 1867, and two years after this lamentable event Henry L. Mangum married again. Miss Regina Berringer, of Illinois, becoming his wife, and eventually bearing him four children: Otis O., Ollie Belle, Charles and Lillie.
Howell Y. Mangum was born on the home farm in Johnson County, Ill., December 3, 1838, and so far as his birth was concerned started on an equal footing with about ninety per cent, of the men who have become prominent in professional life in the West. He was an attendant of the common schools in the vicinity of his home during his youth, which were held in the old-time log schoolhouses, in which he acquired a practical education notwithstanding the fact that they were often poorly conducted. While attending a term of school at College Hill in 1861 the war broke out, and August 22, 1861, he became a member of Company D, Thirty-first Illinois Infantry, the fortunes of which he followed for four years, during which time he participated in a number of severe battles, the following of which are eminently worthy of mention: Ft. Henry, Ft. Donelson, Corinth, Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills (in which he was wounded), siege of Vicksburg, and was with Sherman on his march to the sea, taking part in all the engagements. He was promoted to First Lieutenant of his company and re-enlisted as a veteran volunteer in January, 1864, terminating his military career with the Grand Review at Washington, D. C. He was mustered out at Louisville, Ky., and received his discharge at Springfield, Ill., in July, 1865. He then returned to his home with his health much shattered by the exposure and hardships he had endured while in the army, and in order to obtain a competency first turned his attention to the sawmilling business, but after five years spent successfully in the business he lost his mill by fire. He then decided on a medical career, and to this end began his studies in 1869, and in 1875 he began the active practice of this noble calling, which he has continued up to the present time, and from this source, as well as from his farm and mercantile business, he has accumulated considerable wealth. Being very public-spirited, he is justly regarded as one of the leading citizens of the county, and in the community in which he resides he has numerous warm personal friends.
On the 24th of April, 1864, our subject was married to Miss Elmira J., a daughter of Samuel Jobe, of Iowa, and to their union a family of eight children was given: Thomas A. and Otis O., deceased; Susan J., wife of Thomas Sheldon; Elizabeth E., William Robert, Samuel A.; Leora Myrtle, deceased; and Lulu E. Dr. Mangum is a member of the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons and the Grand Army of the Republic, and politically is a Republican of strict principles. He is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, while his worthy wife is a Methodist.
Extracted 16 Dec 2016 by Norma Hass from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, pages 612-613.
