John Ewing Clinton left the farm where he was born on December 1, 1864 in Northern Twp., Franklin Co., Illinois; taking his wife Lavina and children, he too went to St. Louis, MO to the American College of Medicine. He graduated first on June 4, 1895; he received his post graduate diploma on March 3, 1896.
By this time Dad and Mother had five children. Dad and Granddad raised pure-bred hogs to pay the expense of his medical schooling.
In the Archive Building in Springfield, Illinois, on August 11, 1982, I found the record of he State Board in Register of Physicians, Volume 5, Page 27.
No. 13076
Registered: April 24, 1896
Residence: Rosewood, Jefferson County, Illinois
Age: 31
Date of Certificate: April 17, 1896
Diploma from: American Medical College in St. Louis
Diploma Conferred: March 3, 1896
Certificate from State Board of Health Filed: April 24, 1896

The family lived in this Jefferson County area about another year. The house is still there, and the owner, Trandall McKay, tells me that he still digs up bits of medicine bottles from the garden. Then in 1897, Doc Clinton and Granddad bought a farm in Norhtern Twp., Franklin Co., where the rest of the family were born, and one baby, Grandmother, and Grandpap died. We moved from this farm to Whittington, Franklin Co., Illinois. This is where we lived until Dad and Mother both died.
Except for his time in St. Louis when he attended medical college and five months in the village of Whittington, Illinois, Dad and Mother lived on a farm. Dad didn't do the farming himself, bet he kept a farm hand or a young man who needed a home and a job with pay. We always had some crops and livestock on the place.
Throughout his entire life, Doc had horses for transportation to make his house calls. He rode horseback, drove a buggy, and in snowy times the horses pulled an especially built sleigh.
Then came the Model T Ford. He drove it when the roads were passable. In the winter months, it was stored and the tires removed.
Dad bought an early model Buick in the town of Dahlgren, eight miles away, through country roads. He couldn't shift the gears; the salesman started him in the driving gear, jumped out of the car, then called our house that Dad was on the way. Our brother Harvey watched for his coming, met him a short distance up the road, climbed under the wheel, and brought the Buick to a safe stop. Dad never did learn to shift that car.
I will mention the western ponies that Dad bought. One was named Billy. Our sister Mayme could handle Billy; he threw Aurora and broke her arm.
Dad and Mother periodically visited his cousins, Billy Neel and Martha Neel Nash, in Eldorado, Saline County, Illinois. They were down there one weekend and the telephone rang. It was the call from home to report that Billy, the western pony, had run so fast across the pasture that he couldn't stop at the fence. Billy fell over the fence and broke his neck. Mother almost cried out in joy to be rid of that pony before he broke the neck of one of her children.
Lady Bird and Mayfield were a pair of beautiful show mares that Dad bought at the Mt. Vernon, Jefferson County, Illinois fair. Another time it was a pair of show mules.
Sometime during the early years of his medical practice, Dad decided that he heeded a skeleton. "Doc" caught the train at Mt. Vernon and went back to the hospital that was connected with his medical college. At the hospital he was able to buy the body of a young man. The man had no family, and he had desired that his body be used for scientific purposes. After making the necessary arrangements, Dr. Clinton went back to his home in the Northern Township area of Franklin County.
When the body arrived in a box at the Mt. Vernon railroad terminal, the two Clinton sons, Harley and Harvey, and the hired man drove the wagon to bring the box to the farm home. The next day, the three men took the body to the woods nearby and prepared the bones to be put together as a skeleton. He was hanged in the doctor's office and affectionately named Jimmy Lonesome.
Friends came from miles around to see "Jimmy". The Clinton kids soon learned that the lower jaw was hinged and therefore movable. They could manipulate it with a stick and cause the teeth to crack together. This became a ritual when showing Jimmy Lonesome. It could chase chills up the backs of first-viewers or even put them to flight. This "ritual" also cost Jummy the loss of one of a set of perfect white teeth.
After Dr. Clinton died, the bones of the skeleton were buried by a son-in-law, George Martin, in the field just west of the home place. NOTE: just last week in this year of November 1982, I Thelma reported to the sheriff of Franklin County where the skeleton was buried. If, by chance, a human bone is ever found in that field, there will be a record of the bones buried there.
At his office that he built at our last home here at Whittington, Dad put in his own power plant, a Delco system, which had 16 one-galloon batteries to power it. A motor ran to flow and keep the power. The only appliance we used except lights was an electric iron.
On October 25, 1918, Dr. J.E. Clinton Family moved to Whittington, Illinois. In February of 1919 the Frisco farm was sold to son-in-law and daughter, Roy and Iva Heck. In December of 1918, Doc had bought a farm from John Winn at the now Ewing-Whittington intersection of Highway 37. The family moved to this farm in March of 1919. This was the time of the dreaded epidemic of Influenza. In fact, the daughter Evelyn was moved in her bed while she was recovering from the "Flu".
The Doctor had phenomenal success treating this dreadful epidemic. He compounded his own medicine by the gallon bottle; he drove day and night. The only patients that he lost had a complication, Spinal Meningitis.
My sister Flo and I went to High School in Benton, six miles away. In my senior year, Dad bought us a car to drive. It was a 1927 Model T Ford Coupe; it was a pretty dark green color. He had a Roadster, the same model and color. Needless to say, we took the car that had the gasoline tank filled. Dad commented that his tank was always empty. I had a great school year!
Dad became gravely ill. He managed to attend my graduation on the night of May 29, 1928, but the next day, on May 30, he had surgeons come to his own office to operate on him. It was cancer of the liver in advanced stage. He died at the jome of his daughter and her husband, Iva and Roy Heck in Benton on August 31, 1928. His funeral was held in the grove beside the Methodist Church in Whittington. The ministers were a Methodist, Rev. T.C. Holley of Medora, Illinois who was a friend of long standing: a Baptist, Rev. John B. Maulding, who used the scripture in Matthew 27:42- "He saved others, himself he cannot save": the third was a dear friend, Rev. W.R. Burton of Whittington. The singers were the Stockwell Male Quartet: Edgar Bain, Jum Terhune, William (Bill) Page, and Ed Page. These men were all friends and patients of the doctor. The pallbearers were six of the sons-in-law who walked as escorts behind the hurst from the family home to the church. This seemed to be an involuntary act of these boys as they silently formed in place in the procession.
At age 63, Dr. J.E. Clinton's life work, chosen to help humanity, had ended; he was buried in Kirk Cemetery near Ina, Illinois. He was then and still is referred to as "Old Doc Clinton". It was a name of endearment and respect that his friends and patients called him.
Lavina Jane McKenny Clinton spent the remaining years of her life in Whittington and Benton.. She died at the home of her son, Mr. and Mrs. Harley D. Clinton of Whittington of February 18, 1950. Her wake was at the home of her daughter, Evelyn and Alonzo Beasley at Whittington. Her funeral was in Rescue Freewill Baptist Chruch. Rev. Lepton Harpole, Rev. W.R. Burton, and Rev. Mac Vanway officiated. (This is the same W.R. Burton who helped with Dad's funeral.) The pianist was Norma Burton Johnston. The soloist was Leota Johnston Beard. The Rescue Choir sang the song Mother liked so well, An Empty Mansion. The pallbearers were 6 of her grandsons: Eldon Kern, Thomas Clinton, Darrell Kern, John Douglas Martin, Stanley Shaffer, and Joe Clinton. She is buried at Kirk Cemetery near Ina, Illinois. Mother was a loving and forbearing Christian lady. Is there a higher or greater tribute!

The January 3, 1983 Tally of the Descendants of Dr. John Ewing and Lavina Clinton: Living Dead
12 children 4 8
22 grandchildren 18 4
59 great-grandchildren 55 4
86 great-great-grandchildren 85 1
12 great-great-great-gc 12 0

191 174 17


Researched and written by Thelma Clinton Whittington