The Temple Daily Telegram (Temple, Tex.), vol. 4, no. 75, ed. 1, Wed., 14 Feb. 1912, pg 3

Death of Dr. H. C. Ghent

Belton, Tex., Feb. 12 – This morning, about 2 o’clock, there passed away the spirit of Dr. H. C. Ghent, one of Belton’s most highly esteemed and honored citizens.

To say that Dr. Ghent was a “true, noble Christian gentleman” is the most just tribute that words can pay to his life and character. A devoted husband, a kind and indulgent father, a true friend, always standing on the side of that which he felt to be for the greatest moral, civic and religious welfare of the city, state and nation, he leaves a rich heritage to those who have known him, in the memory of his earnest, noble life.

During the past week, in which he had been confined at home and it had been known that his condition was possibly critical, many and many have been the expressions of admiration of his quick, alert movements and his ever cheery disposition and kindly word, and of the deep sense of loss and loneliness which his friends have felt, even from his fellow days’ absence from his accustomed place in their midst.

Yesterday afternoon he seemed better than for the past week, and retired a little after 10 o’clock last night, having spent the evening in bright conversation with several members of his family.

About 2 o’clock he awoke with a severe pain over his heart. Mrs. Ghent and other members of the family were called. In just a few minutes all suffering was at an end; his spirit had gone home to the Father of life and light.

The body will be laid to rest tomorrow afternoon. The services will be held at the family home at 3 o’clock, Rev. J. C. Mimms of this city and Rev. C. R. Wright of Corsicana officiating, with interment in North Belton Cemetery.

The following are here, called by the death of Dr. Ghent: Dr. and Mrs. M. L. Graves and children of Galveston; Hon. And Mrs. Winbourn Pearce and children and Mr. and Mrs. Chamblin Carter and daughter of Temple. Other relatives are expected to arrive tonight or tomorrow morning.
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GHENT, HENRY
The subject of this sketch was born in Laurens District, South Carolina, December 6th, in the year A. D. 1831. His grandfather, who was of German descent, removed from Culpepper county, Virginia, to Bush River, South Carolina, where his father, Daniel Ghent, was born February 22, 1777.
In 1833 or 1834 Daniel Ghent removed with his family from Abbeville district, South Carolina, to Talladega County, Alabama. This was before the removal of the Creek Indians from that section, and the family was on the then frontier of civilization. Nothing of special interest transpired for the next fourteen years in the life of Henry Clay Ghent; he was far removed from the benefits of the Sabbath school, in fact, had never entered the door of one, and up to 1846 had been almost wholly deprived of the advantages of an education, having only attended an old field school for a few weeks. In 1847 he was enabled to attend a country school, taught near his home, by Rev. John Bowling, a Presbyterian minister. At this school he mastered "Noah Webster's" spelling book sufficiently to spell with correctness and ease, andto read tolerably well as far as the "Boy in the Apple Tree," the "Squirrel and the Farmer," and the Farmer, Lawyer and Ox. He also learned to cipher beyond long division and the double rule of three, without having learned any of the primary rules, or even the definition of arithmetic.
It was while studying Olney's geography at this school that he first entertained the desire to obtain a classical education. The idea, once encouraged, soon took entire possession of his mind, and his highest aspiration, the very acme of his ambition, was to be able to graduate at Yale College. This consummation was prevented only by the lack of means, for awhile he had the will power, he was minus the money power. His mother was at this time peculiarly able to, and would have gratified his aspirations in the direction above indicated, but from the fact that there were older sets of children who objected to money being spent on his education, they having failed or refused to receive any considerable education in their younger days. She was overruled by them and his ardent hopes were never realized. During the months of July and August, 1848, after working on the plantation with the negroes during the crop raising period, he was permitted to attend school in an adjoining county, where he acquired some knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic and natural philosophy. In 1848 he attended school for four months, and in the autumn of the same year he visited Greenville, South Carolina, with a view of attending school there, but his health failing, he returned home and worked on the farm during 1850. For five months, in 1851, he attended the Oxford Academy in Alabama, under the management of Fanning and Hames, and made such progress that he was enabled to take charge of an old field school during the latter part of the year. In 1852 he taught school for five months, founding and taking charge of Chulafinnee Academy, but his health again failing, in 1853, he returned to work on the farm. Long before this time he had given up all hope of ever being financially able to attend any college, much less Yale, and had for several years been halting between the legal or medical professions as the choice of his vocation in life. He finally selected the medical, and in thelatter part of 1853 commenced to read medicine under the direction of Dr. Atkinson Pelham, of Alexandria, Calhoun County, Ala., the father of the lamented Maj. Jno. Pelham. Here he read assiduously until the autumn of 1854, when he entered, as a first course student, the medical department of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and there sat under the lectures of Gross, Miller, Rogers, Flint and Smith. Having exhausted his means, in paying tuition and board to his preceptor, he was forced to borrow the money that enabled him to take his first course; this he did, intending to practice under a license until he could accumulate sufficient means to take a second course and graduate. In April, 1855, having completed his first course of lectures, he returned to the scenes of his early struggles and forming a co-partnership withDr. Jno. W. Hudson, at once entered into the active practice of his profession.
Achieving a success beyond his most sanguine hopes, he was enabled by the 1st of September of the same year to sell out his part of the practice for sufficient money to carry him through his second course, which he took at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, graduating there in March, 1856. During his course in college he was compelled to exercise the utmost economy; not a dollar was spent heedlessly or foolishly not that he was parsimonious in any sense, but simply because he did not have the money to waste. He had made up his mind to succeed, and having only just so much to go on, he resolutely trimmed his expenses within the bounds of his resources. After graduation, through a misdirected letter, he failed to receive a sum of money sent by his mother to defray his expenses home. He had only enough to bear his expenses a small part of the way: the other boys were leaving in every direction for their homes, conveying the glad tidings that they had secured their coveted sheep-skins; and he alone was left, a thousand miles from home, destitute of means, and without a friend. Making up his mind in a moment, he determined to start for home, and stop off at Washington City and call upon his member of Congress, Hon. J. F. Dowdell, whom he knew to be a good man, a good Democrat, and a good friend, and ask of him aid in this time of need.
Upon reaching Washington his hopes were blasted when he learned that Mr. Dowdell was absent. He was now in a more embarrassing position, if possible, than before. He knew no one in Washington, and his small stock of funds was about exhausted. Something had to be done suddenly remembering the name of a Washington law firm he had casually noticed in a newspaper, he determined to call on them, and though they were entire strangers, make a candid statement of his case and ask for the needed help. Accordingly he called on the legal gentlemen at their office; introduced himself, informed them where he had been, and what he had accomplished, and what he desired, proposing, if necessary, to substantiate the same with documentary evidence if desired. Without one moment's hesitation one of the gentlemen asked how much money he needed, and on being told that twenty-five or thirty dollars would probably be sufficient, suggested that it would be better to provide against contingencies, and handed him a check for fifty dollars, which enabled him to go on his way with a light heart.
Returning to the village where he had first practiced, he again resumed the practice until the great civil conflict between the States. In December, 1860, he was nominated as one of the candidates selected by the secession party to represent the County of Randolph, Alabama, in the Secession Convention, and while this ticket was defeated, yet he ran ahead of his ticket and was ill-fated by a very small majority. In 1861 he volunteered in the Confederate army, and was elected First Lieutenant of Co. D, 13th Alabama regiment, Colonel B. D. Fry, commanding. Upon reaching Richmond, shortly after the battle of Manassas, he was appointed by the Secretary of War Assistant Surgeon, and assigned to duty in his old regiment. In January, 1862, while stationed at Yorktown, Virginia, he was attacked with acute pneumonia, from which he came very near dying.
After recovering sufficiently to bear safe transportation, he tendered his resignation to General Magruder, under the urgent advice of his friends, and returned to his home in Alabama. By the May following his health being in a great measure restored, he again entered the service and practiced among the sick and wounded about Richmond for a while at his own expense. Finally feeling that his physical condition warranted his encountering the fatigues of either hospital or field work, he went before the Examining Board at Richmond, and was passed as Assistant Surgeon and assigned to duty in Camp Winder Hospital.
While attending to his duties in the hospital, and visiting the wards from two to three times a day, he attended a full course of medical lectures at the Medical College of Virginia, applied for a degree and graduated in February, 1863. In the early part of 1864 he went before the Richmond Board of Examiners and was passed as Surgeon and assigned to duty in the Richmond City Battalion, whence he was transferred in a short time to the 15th Virginia regiment, Corse brigade, Picket's division, then stationed at Kinston, N. C. In 1865 he acted as Brigade Surgeon of the brigade, then on detached duty, and on the 1st of April 1865, when our lines we broken at Five Forks, he was engaged in amputating a leg. From that hour until our glorious flag went down in darkness and gloom on the red hills of Appomattox, he subsisted chiefly on parched corn, and was glad to get even that On the 9 day of April, 1865, he was captured with the remnant of General Lee's army and released on parole.
Before this time, on October 6, 1864, after an engagement of nearly four years, he married Miss Sarah Jane, the only daughter and youngest child of D. C. and Margaret King Pearce, of Talladega county, Alabama. She was born November 24, 1844, in Paulding County, Georgia, whence her parents removed to Calhoun county, Alabama, when she was an infant. The last school she attended was the Methodist College at La Grange, Georgia, while her uncle, Jeff G. Pearce, was President.
In January, 1866, broken in health and purse, and almost in spirit, Dr. Ghent removed to Port Sullivan, Milam County, Texas, where he remained, actively engaged in the practice of his profession, for about eight years. In 1872, while the State was laboring under the blighting and withering influence of radical rascality and misrule, he was induced to offer for a seat in the Thirteenth Legislature, and was elected by a very large majority. Prompted only by patriotic motives in this step, and desiring only to be of substantial service to his constituents, he labored most 'assiduously in the legislative halls from January 13 or 14, 1873, to the close of the session in May following. While he feels that during this period he did more and harder work for less thanks or credit than during the same length of time in his life, yet he is consoled with the thought that without fear or favor, bias or prejudice, he did his duty, and that while so engaged he was associated with perhaps the best; purest and most intelligent body of legislators that ever assembled in the legislative halls of this or any other State.
On the 5th of December, 1868, while at Port Sullivan, he was made a Master Mason, St. Paul's Lodge No. 177; in 1869 he was elected Senior Warden, and re-elected to same station in 1870; in 1871 he was elected W. M. of same Lodge, and in 1872 re-elected. Finally, on November 14, 1874, he dimitted, and affiliated with Belton Lodge No. 166. In 1872, he was exalted in Golden Rule Chapter No. 71, and affiliated with Belton Chapter No 76 on the 24th day of September, 1881. Dr. Ghent was one of the charter members of Belton Commandery No. 23, and received his degrees of Knighthood in the Red Cross on February 22, 1887, and Knight Templar on February 24, 1887.
In 1877, he assisted in the organization of the Grand Lodge K. of H., at Austin, Texas, being elected Grand Assistant Dictator. He was the first Dictator of Belton Lodge No. 600, K. of H. In 1847, Dr. Ghent, then a mere boy, made a profession of religion and his faith in Jesus Christ, and joined the M. E. church, South, of which he has been an active member ever since. He has acted as Steward for a number of years, and was President of the Board of Stewards during the Conference year of 1889, in Belton.
In 1873, he removed from Port Sullivan to Belton, Texas, where he has since resided, and where he has built up a large and lucrative practice, and achieved a wide spread and well deserved reputation by his success in the treatment of those disorders peculiar to the gentler sex. [Source: Types of Successful Men of Texas, by Lewis E. Daniell, Publ. 1890.