General Notes

[basham.ged]
1860 Census Jackson County Mo  Page 352 Family 792
1900 Census Greenwood County Kansas  E D 58 Sheet 3
1910 Census Sedgwick County Kansas  E D 126 Family 81
1920 Census Sedgwick County Kansas; E D 194, Sheet 4
Family Biography In Basham Document No 21
Information Sheet From Mark Andrew Basham
Biography In Booklet On History Of Basham House In Wichita
/Kansas In State Of Kansas File
Partial Family Group Sheet In Ila Eckstadt Files
David Walker Basham was born at Clifton Mills, Kentucky, November 6, 1
85 4, the eldest son of four children.  His early education was receiv
ed in t he public and private academies in the vicinity of his birthplac
e. When yo ung David was eight years old, his father, a major in the Kentu
cky Nation al Guard, was killed by his own troops.
The State of Kentucky was neither Confederate nor Union during the C
iv il War, and although there was not record of it, Basham was a memb
er of t he Confederate Army. He led his reconnaissance group into enemy li
nes.  Wh en they returned the next day, the password had been changed.  T
he sent ry had not been properly notified that they were to come back thro
ugh t he enemy lines, and thus the tragedy of his being shot by his own tr
oop s. David was sent to live with an uncle in Illinois and after a year w
as s ent to live with another uncle in Berryville, Arkansas.  This uncle w
as tr easurer of the State of Arkansas. Another uncle, Noah Basham, w
as a physic ian.
David's grandfather also had been a physician. Dr Basham's next mo
ve w as to Kansas City, where he enrolled in a course of medicine at the K
ans as City Medical College, now the Univ of Kansas, and was graduat
ed in 188 4.  He then spent a year in practice with an uncle at Rich Hil
l, Missour i.  He became ill and was so weak he was unable to walk.  His w
eight dropp ed to 118 pounds.  In those days, diagnostic abilities were li
mited a nd he was advised to go west to recuperate or die. He boarded t
he Missou ri Pacific train.  By the time he got to Neal, Kansas, he was ve
ry il l.  A compassionate conductor feared Dr Basham would not last l
on g, so he arranged for him to be transferred to a boarding house.
An older woman in the community, who today would probably be descr
ib ed as an L.P.N., took one look at him and said: "This boy needs kipper
ed h erring." From that point on, he regained his strength and appetite a
nd sho rtly was up and around. Before he could make plans for the futur
e, a ho bo riding the rail- road was injured either by the wheels of the t
ra in or the sliding door of the box car and brought to Dr. Basham
's ro om in the boarding house to be cared for.  Dr. Basham did some "kitc
hen su rgery" on the hobo's badly injured foot and saved the man's leg.
From then on, he had more work than he could do. While in Neal, he m
et Ka therine Genevieve Dailey, a school teacher, who later was to beco
me Mrs. B asham. In 1891 Dr Basham, like most of the physicians in this pi
oneer coun try, felt he was not doing enough for his patients.  It worri
ed him to ma ke a long hard trip into the country and have little to off
er the sick per son except "bedside manners", calomel, or aspirin.  He wan
ted to know mo re physiology and pathology. After four years, he left h
is practice in Ne al and entered the Univ of New York in 1889, graduati
ng in 1891.  He follo wed this  with a year and a half of postgraduate edu
cation in Philadelphi a, returned to Neal, and practiced another two years
.
Still not satisfied, he saved enough to go to Paris for a year whe
re he s erved as a resident under Dr. Peyan, the inventor of the Peyan cla
mp, whi ch is still in use today.  He paid Dr. Peyan $5.00 a day for th
is instruct ion.  He again returned to Neal for a few months and saved eno
ugh for anot her year of study in Paris. He returned to Neal and establish
ed a hospita l, but soon realized that he would need a bigger setting in w
hich to p